Carey Nieuwhof wrote the AI book pastors and business leaders should read together

Two things landed on Jeff's desk this week. One is a new book from a pastor about what AI means for the church, and Jeff thinks business leaders need it as much as pastors do. The other is a list he made at our Thursday session: what he would never hand to a machine, and what he would gladly let go. Underneath both is one question. What in your work is worth keeping human, and have you actually written it down?

The story

A book on AI that pastors and business leaders should read together

A note from Jeff.

I opened Carey Nieuwhof's new book skeptical, and I finished it with a page of notes and a changed mind. AI and the Future Church is from a pastor, not a technologist. I figured it would be another AI book to skim. It is not.

Every pastor needs to read this book. I would go further. Any leader trying to bring AI into their faith and their workplace should read it too.

Start with the first four chapters. Carey walks through what AI actually does, how the disruption already moves through our lives, what the best case could look like, and what the worst case might look like. I have not found a clearer overview for leaders.

My cofounder Jason Malec keeps telling leaders to stay sober-minded about both sides: all the good AI can do for your mission, and all the ways it could go wrong. Carey holds both. His own summary is that the AI era may be the greatest disruption the church has faced, and also its greatest opportunity to reach people.

Demis Hassabis, who leads Google DeepMind, has said this change could be ten times bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and perhaps ten times faster. Whether or not his numbers hold, this shift will mark our generation.

The part that stayed with me is the first shift. As AI makes everything more artificial, real human relationship grows scarce. Scarce things grow valuable. Carey's phrase for what the church can offer is to "make Sundays non-downloadable," a gathering no machine can copy.

In 1 Chronicles 12, the men of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel ought to do. Carey writes with that posture. He helps us read the moment, then gets practical, starting with the church.

The real gift of this book might be the conversations it starts between pastors and business leaders. Those conversations feel less like a nice extra and more like something our future depends on.

More this week

Your youngest staff know AI best, and they are the most worried

Among Americans aged 18 to 34, the share more concerned than excited about AI rose from 40 percent in 2024 to 55 percent in 2026. Pew Research Center published the figures on September 17, alongside a 36-country survey of 42,151 adults. In 34 of the 37 places surveyed, more people expect AI to mean fewer jobs than more.

Young adults are also the group most likely to have heard a lot about AI. In all 36 countries where Pew could compare ages, people aged 18 to 34 were more likely to say so than people 50 and older. So worry about AI is not a generational lag you can wait out. The people who understand these tools best are growing more worried, and they are the people you are trying to hire and keep.

Why it matters for you: when you announce an AI rollout as a productivity story, part of your team hears a story about their jobs. Say out loud where the saved hours go, and who keeps their job through the change. If you have not decided, say that, and promise they will hear it from you first.

Also on the radar

• People are paid to read ChatGPT conversations. OpenAI is hiring hundreds of contractors to read and rate whole conversations, 404 Media reported. Tell your team this week, in one sentence, what may go into these tools and what may not.
• Your Google Workspace can now send data to outside services. Workspace Studio added custom code, third-party connectors and outbound webhooks, all off until an administrator turns them on. Decide the policy before someone asks.

The practice

Don't just do something, sit there

Another note from Jeff.

At our Base Camp session on Thursday, we started with two questions. First, what would you never want to give up, no matter how advanced AI becomes? Second, what would you gladly let go of if you knew someone or something could handle it well?

This varies from person to person. I would not give up writing, coaching, connecting deeply with people, connecting people to each other, time with God, and working through ideas. I would gladly give up admin, logistics, scheduling, proofreading, and anything that creates hurry and overwhelm.

The room landed in much the same place.

One person in the room described the line well. At one end, AI reminds you to buy flowers for your wife. At the other end, it picks the flowers, writes the card and sends them, all without you knowing. At that point the gesture has lost its meaning.

Not many leaders take the time to think these lists through. I understand. I am a doer by nature, always eager to jump into action. But an old saying keeps coming back to me: don't just do something, sit there. Psalm 46 says it better: be still, and know that God is God. That quiet moment is where you find out what matters before you hand it to a machine.

Higher ground

Stillness is where the first list gets written. A leader who never stops will hand over the wrong things, because nobody decided which things were worth keeping. Twenty quiet minutes before you delegate anything to a machine is not wasted time. It is how you find out what matters before it is gone.

The next step

Base Camp is where we work through these questions together: one ninety-minute session a month with founders and executives, plus a written briefing every week.

See what Base Camp is →

Then hit reply and send us your "never give away" list, or tell Jeff which chapter of Carey's book got under your skin. We read every one.

Climbing with you,
Jeff and Jason