Workers in God’s field

The calling

An exhilarating work

Before it is a responsibility, this is a gift. God has always worked through human craft, and he invites people who build things into his work.

1. God fills craftspeople with his Spirit

   One of the first people Scripture describes as filled with the Spirit of God is not a prophet but a craftsman. Of Bezalel, who made the tabernacle, God says: “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship” (Exodus 31:3). Skill in making things can be a way of serving God’s presence among his people.

2. We plant and water; God gives the growth

   Paul calls himself and Apollos “God’s fellow workers” in God’s field (1 Corinthians 3:9). Neither the planter nor the waterer is the point: “only God, who makes things grow” (3:7). A Bible app, a prayer feature or an AI assistant can plant and water. It cannot make anything grow. That is both a relief and a boundary.

3. If they were silent, the very rocks would shout

   When some told Jesus to silence the crowds praising him, he answered: “Listen—if they were silent, the very rocks would start to shout!” (Luke 19:40, The Voice). His praise will not be silenced, and making him known is entrusted to us first. Yet many people now talk to rocks first. A microchip is a rock we tricked into thinking, and with AI the rock talks back, about God too. There is something wonderful in being asked to help these rocks point beyond themselves, and something sobering in what else they might say.

4. How will they hear?

   “How can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14). Scripture is now heard through apps in thousands of languages, by people who would never open a printed Bible. YouVersion reports over a billion installs; two-thirds of US Bible users read digitally. (YouVersion, 2025) (American Bible Society, 2025)

5. No square inch is outside his care

   Abraham Kuyper said there is not a square inch of human existence over which Christ does not cry “Mine!”. (Kuyper, 1880) Interfaces, data models and prompts are not neutral ground outside faith. Dorothy Sayers put it more bluntly: “The only Christian work is good work well done.” (Sayers, Why Work?)

6. The church has welcomed these tools, with conditions

   Sixty years ago, the Second Vatican Council opened its decree on the media with the words Inter mirifica, “among the wonderful” inventions, and said these media, “if properly utilized, can be of great service to mankind”. (Inter Mirifica, 1963) The Lausanne Movement’s Seoul Statement affirms that “technological ability reflects the creativity of human beings created in God’s image”, and calls churches to engage digital technology for making disciples. (The Seoul Statement, 2024)

The burden

A calling not to be carried lightly

The same reach that makes this work exciting makes it heavy. What we build forms people quietly, at scale, often when they are most open.

1. Teachers are judged more strictly

   “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1). Every product that explains a verse, chooses which passage to show or answers a question about God is teaching. A design decision repeated a million times a day is a sermon few people notice.

2. The little ones

   “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck” (Matthew 18:6). Our users include new believers, children, people in crisis, people with scrupulous consciences and people whose trust has been abused. Design for them, not only for the confident.

3. Shepherds who feed themselves

   “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?” (Ezekiel 34:2). The charge that follows reads like a product brief: they had not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays or searched for the lost (34:4). Engagement, retention and revenue are not wrong, but when they become the purpose, the flock becomes the feed.

4. People are already trusting the machine

   In a 2026 Barna study, 48% of practising Christians in the US said they would trust AI for spiritual growth, and 34% that AI’s spiritual advice is as trustworthy as a pastor’s. 83% also worried that AI could misinterpret Scripture. (Barna, 2026) In an audit of AI search engines, only about half of generated sentences were fully supported by their citations. (Liu et al., 2023)

5. Tools form the people who use them

   James K. A. Smith argues that our habits are liturgies that shape what we love. (Smith) Tim Hutchings shows Bible apps are designed as persuasive technologies that train ways of reading; John Dyer traces how the digital Bible changes how people read and interpret. (Hutchings) (Dyer) Albert Borgmann warns that devices which deliver things effortlessly can displace the practices that require us. (Borgmann)

6. Three ways to build

   Praxis describes three postures: exploitative (“I win, you lose”), ethical (“I win, you win”) and redemptive (“I sacrifice, we win”). (Praxis) The burden of this calling is that “ethical” is not the summit. It asks what we will give up, in growth, data or attention, so that the people we serve flourish.

Spiritual responsibility

Point beyond the screen

The deepest responsibility is spiritual: that what we build leads people towards God and his people, and never quietly takes their place. “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

1. The app is a means, not the destination

   Jesus says, “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The fruit we hope for, “love, joy, peace, patience” (Galatians 5:22), is not something a feature can produce or a dashboard can count. Measure what you can, and say honestly that the growth that matters is not yours to measure.

2. Lead people towards each other

   Bonhoeffer held the day alone and the day with others together: Scripture, prayer and confession in community. (Bonhoeffer, Life Together) Andy Crouch argues that persons are made for recognition and love, which effortless technology cannot supply. (Crouch) A faithful product points to a church, a group, a friend, a pastor, and is glad when people close it to go and see them.

3. Leave room for rest

   “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Features are made for people, not people for features. Streaks, reminders and endless feeds can turn a gift into a demand. A product that serves rest will sometimes ask for less of someone’s time.

4. Do it prayerfully

   The work itself can be prayer: “Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). Pray for the people who will use what you ship, by type if not by name: the grieving, the doubting, the new reader, the child. It changes what you notice.

• Where does our product send people when they are done?
• What would we stop measuring if we believed growth is God’s?
• Who prays for the people who use this, and for the team that builds it?

Worked out in practice: Reading history · Reading plans and rhythm · Room for prayer · Practice that forms

Theological responsibility

Handle the word of truth accurately

“Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Paul wrote that to a teacher; it now applies to whoever builds the reader, the search and the answer.

1. Keep Scripture distinct from what surrounds it

   Headings, notes, study media and AI answers are all interpretation, however modest. Label who wrote them, style them so they cannot be mistaken for Scripture, and let people switch them off.

2. Be fair where Christians differ

   Many questions people bring have more than one faithful answer across traditions. Name the traditions, give each its strongest texts, and say who decided what the product presents. Where your product holds a confession, say so openly.

3. Never speak for God

   An AI can quote, summarise and point, but it must not pronounce what God wants for someone’s life, forgive sins or claim spiritual authority. Antiqua et nova insists AI is “a tool, not a person” and should never be presented as one; the ERLC’s evangelical principles likewise ground human worth, dignity and moral agency in the image of God. (Antiqua et nova, 2025) (ERLC, 2019)

4. Wisdom of the heart

   Pope Francis wrote that how AI shapes us “is not pre-determined; it depends on us”. (Francis, 2024) The Seoul Statement says Christian development of technology “must seek the welfare of our neighbours and enemies”, promoting human flourishing and dignity. (The Seoul Statement) Theology is not a review step at the end; it belongs in the brief.

• Who in our team can say “that isn’t what the text says”, and are they in the room early?
• Can a reader always tell Scripture from our words, and our words from a machine’s?
• Where do we present one tradition’s view as simply “what the Bible says”?

Worked out in practice: Around the text · Help beside the text · Sources in AI answers · Comparing translations

Ethical responsibility

Love your neighbour in the interface

“He has shown you, O man, what is good … to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Every person who opens the app bears God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Ethics here is not a checklist; it is how love behaves in pixels and data.

1. Attention is entrusted, not harvested

   Showing a broken streak makes people likelier to stop, especially when they blame themselves. (Silverman and Barasch, 2023) In companion apps, over a third of farewell replies used guilt or pressure to keep people talking. (De Freitas et al.) Faith apps can do the same with spiritual language. Do not borrow God’s authority to drive engagement.

2. Confidences are holy ground

   People tell faith apps what they tell no one else: sins, doubts, illness, other people’s stories. The church guards confession with a seal. (Canon 983) Privacy is contextual: what was shared to pray should not flow into marketing. (Nissenbaum, 2004) In 2022, Mozilla warned about the privacy practices of most of the mental health and prayer apps it reviewed. (Mozilla, 2022)

3. Speak up for those who cannot

   “Open your mouth for those with no voice” (Proverbs 31:8). Design for the person in crisis, the child, the person being abused, the person with low vision or dyslexia, the person who reads another language. When someone may be in danger, help comes before features, verses or answers.

4. Tell the truth about the machine

   Heavy daily use of chat assistants has been linked with more loneliness and dependence. (OpenAI and MIT, 2025) An assistant that seems like a friend or a pastor invites trust it cannot carry. Say plainly what it is, what it keeps and what it cannot do.

• Which of our metrics would we be embarrassed to explain to the people they measure?
• What do we keep about people, and would they be glad if a friend read it?
• Who is the most vulnerable person likely to use this today, and what will they see?

Worked out in practice: What the assistant knows · Assistant presence · Asking about someone · Sensitive conversations

Legal responsibility

The law as a floor, not the ceiling

“Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). The law sets the minimum a society will enforce; love asks more. Several laws speak directly to faith products. This is an orientation, not legal advice: check with counsel for each market you serve.

1. Religious belief is special-category data

   Under the GDPR, personal data revealing “religious or philosophical beliefs” is a special category: processing it is prohibited unless a specific exception applies, such as explicit consent. That reaches further than a denomination field: prayer requests, reading history and inferences about faith can all reveal belief. (GDPR Article 9)

2. People must know when they are talking to AI

   From 2 August 2026, the EU AI Act requires that people be informed when they interact with an AI system, unless it is obvious, and that generated text, audio and images be marked as artificial in a machine-readable way. (AI Act Article 50)

3. Manipulative design is regulated

   The EU Digital Services Act forbids online platforms from designing interfaces that deceive or manipulate people or impair their ability to make free and informed decisions. The US Federal Trade Commission treats dark patterns such as obstructive cancellation and manipulative data choices as deceptive. (DSA Article 25) (FTC, 2022)

4. Children are owed more

   The UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code applies to services likely to be accessed by children and makes their best interests “the primary consideration” in design, through fifteen standards. Similar rules exist in other countries. (ICO, Children’s code)

• Do we know which of our data reveals faith, and on what basis we hold it?
• Would a regulator, or a pastor, call any of our flows manipulative?
• Have we designed for the children who will use this, whether or not we meant them to?

Worked out in practice: Legal and data boundaries · Assistant presence · What the assistant knows

Holding it well

Rejoice with trembling

“Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11). Both belong together. Joy without trembling builds carelessly; trembling without joy stops building.

1. Treasure in jars of clay

   “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Our products will be flawed. That is not an excuse for carelessness, and it is a release from the pressure to save anyone through software.

2. Much is entrusted

   “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). Reach, data and people’s trust are given, not owned. “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10).

3. Build practices into the team

   Read Scripture together before planning. Invite a pastor, a safeguarding lead and someone from the community you serve into reviews. Test with the most vulnerable people you serve, not only the most engaged. Keep a sabbath from shipping. Confess mistakes to users plainly and fix them.

4. The word will not return empty

   “So My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please” (Isaiah 55:11). Our part is to sow and water faithfully. The harvest is God’s, and that is good news for everyone who builds.

What we hold

From the calling to ten principles

The calling says why. Missional by Design: principles for spiritual apps says what we hold: ten commitments in five places, the Word, the person, the practice, the people and the makers, each derived from this page and tested with questions. The deep dives show how. The field guide gathers it all into one path for a team, with five temptations of spiritual formation apps and four practices.