The church is really bad at data collection. Everyone else seems to have it at least somewhat figured out. Especially the big companies.

Big data companies know what memes you look at and for how long. They know what videos your subconscious is going to like the next time you open the app. And they know when you are going to open the app and what to put on the feed to keep you on the feed longer than you wanted. They know what content grabs your attention and makes you want more. It is a drug, and it is all fueled by billions of data points that they have collected on you, constructing the version of you that you don’t even know.

Data records the present and memorizes the past, making predictions for the future. But this hardly allows the person who is participating in the digital space to create a new memory outside of watching someone else do something. In the human space, memories are shared moments of unpredictability shared with other humans. Much of our shared existence today happens by the suggestion of our digital overlords. Our memories with other people are talking about the experiences of others, not something we did with others.

When I see a funny video of a couple of guys skiing, I send it to a friend or show it to them the next time we are together. The basis of our memory formation is no longer in doing something like skiing, but in the enjoyment of others doing something. The basis of relationship is no longer rehashing a shared experience by saying “Remember when we…” but is now “did you watch…” The pressure is no longer to get together, but to get alone long enough to watch the videos we will inevitably reference the next day at work. There is a pressure to stay in the know with the constant stream of content from our algorithm, as the algorithm is now the very foundation of our friendships.

Our data knows us better than we know ourselves, knows our friends better than we know them, and is shaping both individual and community in its image. Our data is us, and it lays out our future before us.

Even with the plethora of data, the church is noticeably absent from the data arena. The church seems to be missing a golden opportunity. With AI, the church could observe the trends of a local community and produce precise content that optimizes engagement and connects to the digital observer for a perfect “God moment”. We could track attendance patterns, find marketing trends that bump Sunday numbers, and create compelling sermon and adjacent content series that keep people glued to the teachings of the church. We could collect prayer requests and analyze them in such a way that we could develop programming to connect to their specific need.

And I could go on, but I am feeling sick just imagining this kind of church. A church where you walk in the door and you pray with an AI pastor who knows the exact words to pray, with perfect advice. Where the songs and sermon are perfectly articulated and performed to my liking. A church that is not dependent on the Spirit to move, but on data to prime the audience to receive “Jesus”.

No, the future church needs to be unpredictable. Data is dependent on the past. But human relationships are messy. Spontaneous. Bumping and crashing and laughing and crying. There is nothing polished or performative or sanitized about the church. It is human. And we need a lot more of that.

We need inefficiency, not more efficiency. We need stuttering and awkward pauses and out-of-tune singers and technology crashes. We need space for the lost and vulnerable to not be perfect. We need space for humans to practice being human led by humans. We need to lose metrics for the sake of winning people.

We need more churches that look and feel like imperfect humans worshipping a perfect God, rather than a perfect church that has not left room for real human experiences.

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