About a year ago, the worship leader at our church shared with me a number of songs that she made and even performed in church. She was so excited about what she had produced that she could not wait for me to hear them! Upon first listening to what she had created, the songs sounded lovely––rhyming lyrics with syncopated rhythms and melodic tunes. But upon probing how she composed and musically recorded the songs, she revealed that she only wrote the lyrics and chose the musical style while AI did the rest! Though she was beaming with pride at her creation, I was highly unimpressed. These songs suddenly lost their luster, significance, and meaning because they required no authentic musical talent to produce. For no musicians had spent a lifetime perfecting their instrument, no singers had trained their voices to be perfectly pitched, and no songwriters had struggled to compose a beautiful chorus with a catchy beat, played with the perfect blend of musical instruments. Her AI-produced songs generated the opposite intended effect in me––they made me crave real music even more.
This desire for reality has been growing over recent decades even before AI entered our world. For the era of reality TV had its rise in the early 2000s as society craved watching real lives lived out in real scenarios. But reality TV met its end as viewers realized these realities were manufactured, scripted, and predictable––couples falling in love on the show break up weeks after production ends as the romance dies; the biggest loser gains all his weight back after the cameras switch off and the instructors go home. For romance and weight loss were not truly real or lasting but were discovered to be fake, short-lived realities.
Then in the mid-2000s came the craze of social media––a chance to connect with old friends of whom we lost contact. At first, it was great to see what old friends look like and to hear what they are doing now, but very quickly social media turned into something else. It became a platform where people can easily portray themselves in a way that does not reflect reality. Rather, by simply projecting glamourous pictures of beautiful poses, fashionable clothing, stunning holidays, perfect children, and announced successes, people can display a rosy-colored self-image of their choosing. Social media also leaves one disillusioned as what appears real is actually subtle deceptive self-marketing.
Today, in a world where AI is quickly taking over everything and getting better daily at producing what appears to be the real deal––whether with computer-generated songs, realistic looking videos, or human sounding phone operators––something interesting is taking place. We humans have an ever-increased yearning for the authentic, a craving for the real.
Though heightened in today’s world, this longing for the authentic is not a new concern. When Paul traveled around the Roman empire spreading the gospel and building the church, he was extremely concerned that he and other Christian leaders embodied the authentic life and message of the gospel, modeling it to those they witnessed amongst. For Paul longed for God’s truth to be realized, Christ’s grace to be experienced, and the Spirit’s power to be demonstrated through the genuine witness of their very lives. Paul, whose life wonderfully embodied the gospel, said to the Thessalonians,
…our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. (1 Thes 1:5–8a; NIV, italics mine).
And again, Paul noted, “You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed” (1 Thes 2:10; NIV).
Paul and those with him demonstrated godly lives before a watching world and a watching God, exampling Christlike living to the Thessalonians. The lives they demonstrated were not fake, but their outward living matched a truly inward heart change, motivated not by selfish desires of wanting to appear righteous, but by selfless desires of wanting others to also be saved. And the result? The authentic was persuasive and attractive. The real transforming power of Christ displayed brightly in Paul and friends was carbon copied by the Thessalonians. They, in turn, imitated Paul’s life of Christlikeness and embodied true godly living within themselves, making their message spread powerfully throughout the region.
As Christians we are called to be “the real deal,” where our lives demonstrate the preached words which we proclaim––doers, not just listeners of the word––embodying the life-changing gospel message. For those of us particularly in Christian ministry and leadership, this call to be authentic cannot be bypassed, faked, or AI generated. As preachers and Christian leaders, we must work just as hard at godly living as we do at preparing sermons and messages to be preached and taught. We must first live out the Scriptures before we preach them to others, letting the message change us before we call for the message to change others. We are to be authentic models for others and true witnesses of blameless living. Not fake deceptions.
Recently the gospel song, “Find Your Rest” by Solomon Ray, hit number one album for Christian music on iTunes and number two top single after only 21 days! Ray’s profile on Spotify describes him as a “Mississippi-made soul singer carrying a southern soul revival into the present.”[1] People online were posting Tik Tok videos of them singing along with their hearts stirred and spirits moved by the deep soulful song. However, there was one problem. The song was completely AI produced, fooling the entire Christian music industry and sending shockwaves amongst artists and listeners. Suddenly such a powerfully moving and soulful song becomes empty, quickly losing its impact and impressive quality, knowing that what is seen and heard is all produced by a lifeless entity.
A Christian leader’s life can easily be much like this AI song––impressive presentation for a season until the reality underneath is revealed. For it does not take very long for people in our congregations and communities to see the real person laying beneath the surface: the one who loves the praise, the one who takes pride in spiritual appearance, the one battling personal addiction, the one gossiping about congregants, the one loving to be served but never serving, the one concerned more about church attendance and amount tithed rather than heart change. Once others see the actual leader that lays underneath the polished surface, they become disillusioned, lose respect, and become quickly unimpressed when discovering an empty fake.
Our world will always be filled with fakes––reality TV, social media and AI; plastic surgery, perfect appearance, and flashy clothes. In our new meta-modern world,[2] where people are now yearning more than ever for the authentic and the real, what will they discover in you? What will they uncover in me? Amongst the AI fakery and algorithmic deception, may we strive all the more to be models of authentic Christian living, so that those longing for the real deal will find it attractively living powerfully within us.
Sources:
[1] Breakfast Television, “AI-generated singer Solomon Ray hits No. 1 on Christian music charts,” November 27, 2005, YouTube Video, 5:08, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq3u6DYwT3k.
[2] Paul Anlietner, “From Postmodernism to Metamodernism,” Theology in the Raw with Preston Sprinkle, 2025, YouTube video, 1:02:55. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDmvO51IqrE.