The “Faithful Futures: Guiding AI with Wisdom and Witness” gathering recently took place at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Before the gathering, Dr. Bob Johansen, an author and futurist who spoke at the inaugural conference in 2024, offered a talk designed to help people of faith to use artificial intelligence to humanize and re-enchant leadership.
Along with Jeremy Kirshbaum and Gabe Cervantes, Johansen wrote “Leaders Make the Future: 10 New Skills to Humanize Leadership with Generative AI,” an updated book being distributed to those attending the conference in person. Together with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Innovation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Methodist Church and The Episcopal Church sponsored last year’s gathering.
“I’m a humble futurist, but I’m also aware this is a troubling time, but it’s also hopeful,” Johansen said. “People of faith have a role to play in [the use of generative AI] but it will require us to reimagine what we’re all about.”
Johansen used to talk about a VUCA world, for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Now he and others foresee a BANI future, for brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible.
Johansen interspersed his talk with three rounds of questions from online viewers. The first round dealt with how do we frame the BANI future with faith? The second was on how you and the people can you serve cope with and be resilient in an increasingly BANI future. The third was how do you want to be augmented for the future?
The term “VUCA” was framed at the Army War College where Johansen continues to teach. Author Jamais Cascio coined the BANI acronym to describe a world “that will be fraught with tenson,” Johansen said. “How can you have faith in a BANI future?”
He offered examples of brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible reactions. That last one includes voters across the political spectrum who “cannot comprehend why the other side behaves, believes and votes as they do.”
Flipping it over, Johansen explored the manifestations of faith that will be effective in the future of BANI. People of faith can combat brittleness with “a bendable faith, with resilient clarity stories, but nobody can have certainty,” Johansen said. An attentive faith, “with active empathy and kindness for people and communities,” is the antidote for anxiety. Johansen said a neuroflexible faith can overcome nonlinear thinking. He calls that “teaching our brains new tricks,” and said that most leadership teams he works with take improv courses “in a world where you can’t know a definitive way.” Finally, an interconnected faith is an answer in an incomprehensible world. He said his “signature line” is this: “The future will reward clarity, but punish certainty.”
“There’s no certainty in the BANI future. Faith is a lot like clarity, and certainty is a lot like extreme belief,” Johansen said, reminding viewers of Paul Tillich’s quote: “The opposite of faith is not doubt; the opposite of faith is certainty.”
“Faith will be a competitive advantage in this BANI future,” he said, and it ought to be “kind and calm, inspiring trust and courage.”
During the first question-and-answer session, Johansen said the most important strategy for change in the BANI world is cross-generational work. “If you can’t work with kids, you’re going to be out of the game,” he said. “I’m not saying, ‘Just run a better Sunday school.’ I’m saying, ‘Share leadership.’ Create situations where young people, including teenagers, are involved in the leadership of the church and get involved in things more directly.” One advantage to that approach is that many young people grew up with gaming, “which is the learning medium of the future,” he said.
“I am really optimistic about young people if they have hope,” he said.
For the past two years, Johansen said he’s used generative AI on a daily basis. He calls his customized version of ChatGPT “Stretch” “because I want it to stretch my thinking.”
“I don’t use it for answers, for finals or for efficiency, and I don’t trust it,” he said.
But “we can’t just walk away from it,” Johansen said. “We have to learn from it and use it for better purposes.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Yun Kyoung Yang, Editorial Assistant, Korean, Growing Faith Resources, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Andrew Yeager-Buckley, Project Manager II, President’s Office, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Lord, give us the willingness to love others to the point of sharing our faith intimately with them in deed and in words. Help us to appreciate the least of these in our midst. Amen.
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