Final Synod School convocation offers a look ahead

Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall touches on new technologies and new habits

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Photo by Igor Omilaev via Unsplash

STORM LAKE, Iowa — Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall used his final convocation talk at Synod School on Friday in part to look at how emerging technologies are changing the ways ministry is getting done.

Schlosser-Hall, the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Deputy Executive Director of Vision, Innovation and Rebuilding, took the 540 or so people attending the 70^th edition of Synod School back to the latest thing in 1992, the information superhighway. Guess who was among the slowest to adapt to this then-new technology, he asked. It was of course the church.

Now, with Artificial Intelligence options including ChatGPT and Perplexity readily available, “what does that mean about humanity and intelligence? We need to contribute responsibly and ethically as they develop,” he said.

The Roman Catholic Church has become a leader following the 2020 publication of “The Rome Call for AI Ethics,” a short document that is well worth reading, he said.

“The connections between different communities can happen quickly without our full understanding. That might be the work of the Holy Spirit,” Schlosser-Hall said.

An ecumenical conference on AI ethics is planned for the Seattle area in mid-August, and Schlosser-Hall plans to attend. For the time being, we can read the Book of Acts, he suggested. “Watch how Luke documents the orchestration of the Holy Spirit in unexpected and remarkable ways,” he said. “That kind of orchestration is happening today.”

Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall

Schlosser-Hall also recommended Kevin Roose’s New York Times article and podcast on the six avatars Roose developed. “You can build their backstory and who they’ve become, and they will interact with you,” Schlosser-Hall said before offering this caveat: “A big danger is it can help us curve in on ourselves more and more.”

Schlosser-Hall then turned briefly to James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits,” with a YouTube talk by the author here. “Our habits may require an intervention,” Schlosser-Hall said, offering up brief descriptions of three friends and colleagues who have done just that:

• The Rev. Jihyun Oh, the new Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), helped to promote the use of equity primes in General Assembly committee and plenary work. Equity primes help decision-makers with important considerations, including, “Why are we trying to make the decision now? Have we heard directly from those who will be most impacted? Have we thought through the impact to the whole church? What additional voices/information do we need to make an equitable/inclusive decision?”
• The Becki Barrett is a coach and consultant in the Seattle area. When she was called to serve a church in Bellevue, Washington, Barrett asked the church if she could spend 75% of her time serving the congregation that is and 25% of her time serving the church that is not yet. How might we pay attention to the church that is not yet, Schlosser-Hall asked. One Seattle-area church is doing that by banning committees from meeting at church. Instead, committees meet in coffee shops and other places where they might run into their neighbors. “There’s the potential for intersections,” Schlosser-Hall said.
• The Rev. James Kwon serves Community Church of Seattle in Bothell, Washington, which Schlosser-Hall called “a primarily Korean American congregation with a remarkable impact.” One day Kwon was late for a breakfast meeting with Schlosser-Hall. “Sorry,” Kwon said. “I was out at the blessing of the chickens.” The church had purchased 300 chickens to help support a partner in China. Community Church of Seattle’s session meets infrequently — every other month. But every Saturday, elders gather to pray and have breakfast, engaging “on a weekly basis to coordinate mission and programs of the church,” Schlosser-Hall said.

“When we want to shift our life toward imagination and innovation, it’s important to think of habits, forms of engagement and ways we might shift to pay attention to experimentation and imagination, to find where the Holy Spirit is at work,” Schlosser-Hall said.

“Thanks be to God for this space,” he said of the week-long Synod School, the only one remaining in the PC(USA). “Thanks for the opportunity to hang out with you for a week. Amen and hallelujah!”