Does all current human-written worship music have the Holy Spirit in it?

Let’s just go with the assumption made by Forrest Frank that the Holy Spirit is not at use in the music of Solomon Ray. If that is true, then we should not use that music to draw us into worship of God, and certainly not use it to shape our theology. We should treat it as secular music, however we may be personally convicted about how we listen to and treat music outside of worship. But when we look at music that we have kept as part of our regular worship, can we honestly say that the human writers were led by the Holy Spirit in all of their songwriting? I cannot be sure. It seems to me that there are songs written by humans that we allow into our worship settings which were not actually blessed by the Holy Spirit.

The AI chatbot may not have the Holy Spirit but the prompter might; does that count?

I know many pastors and writers, myself included, who use AI to speed up thought creation and ideation so that the writing process itself might be sped up and improved. I use it to cover large sections of writings, allowing the chatbot to help create helpful questions to lead groups through the ideas of a text. I personally do not find that offensive and certainly not sinful. It is a tool. Likewise, someone is prompting the AI to sing these songs. I don’t know how involved the individual behind the character Solomon Ray is, but it may be that they are a genuine Christ follower trying to use every tool possible to reach people for Christ. If the prompting of AI is genuine, is the Spirit still at work? If someone is not trained in musical production but has a burning desire to sing praise to God, is it bad to type a few verses into AI and allow it to be your production team?

Is there any place for AI in the church?

When the printing press came around, the powerful church leaders in charge of the old way were offended at the possibility of the new technology. I don’t want to completely shun technology (although sometimes I feel like maybe we should). I also am not saying that we should replace worship leaders with AI artists or replace pastors with chatbots. We need discernment. Technological development is not necessarily “progress” in the sense that we often take it. “Progress” has come to mean superior and good. While this technology of AI is undoubtably superior, it remains to be seen whether or not it is good. We are in a gray zone right now of proper AI usage in church life.

Christian music is messy.

I love Christian music. I grew up on it. I want my kids surrounded by it. But Christian music has been and continues to be messy. I don’t know if Forrest Frank knows this but even his music is controversial in some Christian circles and they would conclude that his music is not fit for a Christian audience. Sadly, Christian music seems to become a distraction from the main thing some of the time.

People need to pray, get biblically literate, and find a good church.

We are entering an age where information and entertainment is going to be more abundant than ever before, and all of it is going to look and feel legitimate. The only way you will be able to tell a truth from a lie is if you have become grounded in your prayer life, in your Bible, and in a community of believers who have their eyes on Jesus. AI is going to write like a scholar, sing better than anyone ever before, and produce content much greater than Mr. Beast. It will be easier than ever to believe lies and become confused. Get rooted, my friends!