The world has gone through significant epochs, such as the agricultural age, industrial age and the ICT age. All these era have come with life altering developments. During the ongoing ICT era, communication and technological advancements turned the world into a global village.

While physical boundaries have been removed, new boundaries have been created adversely impacting modern life. We are connected with distant people but cut off from folks nearby. 

In the realm of faith, the spiritual is daily questioned and treated as relics of long forgotten cultures. Gospel values have been upturned and hitherto unknown values that were once considered taboos are gradually becoming mainstream and opponents are demonized.

What is the role of faith in this environment and what is there for priests to do? As we know Christianity and Islam pushed traditional priests out of reckoning in the growing world, now that much of the world has developed remarkably, these same development strengths are corroding the necessity of faith and fighting to render it superfluous.

While modern education owes a lot to the Christian faith and in some respects Islam, modern civilization has not only attempted a disruption with faith, in some quarters there is a clear rejection and repudiation of what faith stands for. Islam is still an exception. What is happening honour Christian faith?

Believers have a great task to keep faith in the front burner and priests are the agents most needed in this climate of unbelief. To be effective, priests must radiate faith and live by faith, unfortunately many are already living in the world and of the world.

Religious activities are clothed with material attire and carried out not different from the mundane. The world is much different today from the world of Thomas Aquinas or Francis Xavier, but it is still a world in need of redemption, in need of a saviour. 

Artificial Intelligence is also contributing significantly to the rate of disconnect between faith and public life. While many interprete AI only in terms of quantum knowledge and problem solving skills, we know it is capable of supplanting humans in many fields and also likely to be amoral.

Would things done through Machine learning and AI enabled technology be ethically responsible and good for humanity? Would humans still be accountable as stewards of creation or would we have surrendered our superiority and responsibility to machines? 

What are we to do? Priests must inculcate in people the sense of the sacred as this will help build a meaningful relationship with the divine and preserve the sacredness of life and the planet earth.

Humans must never relinquish their responsibility as stewards of creation. Government policies will help in this regard, but the people of faith must rise up too and help sustain a world that is liveable, clement and peaceful. 

Priests must be responsible stewards of creation and train their members to be preservers and not despoilers. We can accomplish many things with the assistance of AI, but we must not allow AI enabled machines to do all our thinking for us. If we accept our roles as rational beings, we will guide our use of artificial tools and machines.

Only spiritual values will aid us in this quest. Hence, priests must be in the forefront of teaching people values that are integral to the flourishing of human life. 

ChapGpt may be able to compose a term paper, but it is morally blind, we must teach individuals the moral decision to submit it as theirs or not to submit it. And since morality is hardly taught in schools today, pastors of souls must step in to save the world. Yes, technology and AI are not intrinsically bad, it is how we use them. For instance, pastors of souls can utilise it to his.

Further knowledge of God and the Bible, have information readily available to use contract and counsel people. The drudgery of learning the hard way has been removed. 

Much formal jobs will disappear and only very delicate and essentials skills will be sought after. This is the time to challenge our youth to plan for the future. Some may say that they are not even prepared for the present moment.

Yes, that’s the problem, we have to train them for the future, by the time they get there, they will be ready for the world and the Word of God in them will become the light for their steps. 

As we run after money, they Too are running after money and no one is actually living and enjoying life. It is time we helped our people to discover the joy of life and it starts by equipping them with values that endure, not the fleeting values of today’s world.

There are already more than enough business gurus, motivational speakers and the likes. What we need now are true workers for the kingdom. We need men aflame with the Word of God and ready to set it loose so it may arrest the wayward conscience of the world and bring it under subjection. It is a different world and we need pastors in love with God to lead people out of the present darkness.