What are our callings?

Last week, OpenAI announced that a system of 10,000 autonomous AI agents collaborated to solve a major part of the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem in just 88 hours. This was one of the seven most challenging mathematical problems in the 21 centuries. I believe all of us have realized how AI is changing things in universities and research. Today, I would like to share two articles about an important question: “What are we called to do as Christian educators when machines can do more and more of the things that we used to associate with human intelligence?”

Romans 12:2 gives us an interesting perspective: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Notice that Paul does not simply say, “Get more information.” He speaks about the renewing of the mind. That distinction is important in an age of AI.

AI can produce an answer. It can summarize an article, write an essay, and generate computer code. It can even perform increasingly complex reasoning tasks. But Christian education has never been only about producing answers. It is about forming people. In the first article “AI and Christianity: A Biblical Perspective”, the author Joseph Miller points out: “our calling as Christian educators is not simply to produce employable graduates, but to form faithful disciples—people who can think critically, lead ethically, and serve compassionately.” Joseph said, “Christian universities must remain places where students wrestle with truth, reason through complexity and learn to think deeply — precisely because the world around them is increasingly content to let machines do the thinking for them.”

And Derek Schuurman, the author of another article, describes this as a possible opportunity for a renaissance in Christian higher education—a renewed understanding of education as the formation of a person. He said in his article, “We could be standing on the threshold of a renaissance that recovers what education ought to be: the formation of a person. This formation is something that will not become obsolete or fall out of fashion. A formative education can equip someone with the character they will need to flourish amid future change: contentment amid upheaval, courage in the face of change, hope amid uncertainty, prudence and wisdom to navigate new paths, justice to do what is right in ever new situations, temperance to maintain self-control, and a faith in an unchanging God, and a hope that God guides and holds the future in his hands.”

What is the purpose of education?

In this context, AI gives us an opportunity to ask an even deeper question: What is the purpose of education in the first place? As we think about our syllabi, our policies, and designing our assignments this year, perhaps we should ask what the real value of an assignment is. Maybe the value is in the struggle. The reading. The failed attempt. The difficult conversation. The moment when a student says, “I don’t understand this,” and then works through it. The process of learning how to reason, how to persist, how to listen, how to distinguish truth from error, and how to make wise decisions.

Our students are not simply producers of assignments. They are image-bearers. And our calling is not simply to prepare them for a future in which machines are more capable. Our calling is to help them become people of wisdom, courage, justice, self-control, hope, and faithfulness in that future.

AI may be able to transform what a student can produce. But it cannot produce the renewed mind that Paul describes. And that is why, in this rapidly changing technological world, Christian education may be more important—not less important—than ever, because AI provides transaction; but Christ offers transformation.

We need to renew our mindset to rethink about how we can prepare our students to become people of wisdom, character, compassion, and truth!