Pedagogical Hospitality: A Vision for AI in Christian Organisations

I’m going to tell you about the only time I nearly quit teaching. Believe it or not, this experience has come to deeply shape the way I think about artificial intelligence[1] in Christian organisations. I’m hoping it will give you a redeemed imagination for artificial intelligence. It all started with a ninth-grader named Bill.

It was 2014 and I was on my first placement as a trainee teacher. As I pulled into the carpark, I realised I was the only one there. Through the ice and the fog of a Tasmanian winter’s morning I saw a lone figure wandering around the grounds. With little else to calm my first-day nerves, I decided to introduce myself. That’s when I met Bill. Bill was friendly, energetic, cheerful, and eye-wateringly underdressed for the weather. We discovered I’d be teaching him for History.

My Battle with Bill

As it happens, my friendly playground interaction with Bill was somewhat misleading. Six minutes into my first lesson I felt a paper aeroplane graze my head. I looked over to see Bill high-fiving his friends. And this was only the beginning: I was met with constant frustration and opposition from Bill.

“I’m going to be a mechanic, why do I need to know about World War I?”

“My dad said he never learned a single useful thing from school.”

Worse still, Bill’s bad attitude was spreading. We were in a tug-of-war for the class culture, and I was losing.

As a young, insecure teacher, I felt the need to establish myself in the classroom. I gave Bill a lunchtime detention where he would have to unfold his plane and complete his work.

It was during this one-on-one time with Bill that the penny dropped.

My Battle for Bill

During our time together, I asked Bill to write a simple paragraph articulating how he would behave going forward. This way, if there were any further issues, we could return to our agreed-upon class behaviour. This short activity gave way to a big revelation: Bill basically couldn’t read. Or write. I realised Bill was disengaged because he couldn’t engage; I wasn’t in a battle with Bill—I was in a battle for Bill. And it was a battle I was determined to win.

That night I went home and looked at our work for the next day. I reduced the length and complexity of the reading for Bill. I identified six key vocab words and gave them simple definitions. I prepared retrieval practices to help Bill consolidate his learning and reflection questions to help Bill apply these concepts to his life. I made a series of adjustments for a low-literacy learner.

As I taught him the next day, the difference in Bill’s engagement in class was day and night. No more questions about when this information would be used. No more paper aeroplanes. Bill was engaged in the readings, contributing to the discussions, and reflecting on his lessons.

Pedagogical Hospitality

While it may seem like I just did some extra administrative work, what I did was more profound: I offered Bill hospitality.

While hospitality may bring to mind images of busy kitchens and expensive meals, I’m using it here in the biblical sense: an act of welcome focused on the alien and stranger in need. A hospitable disposition is often expressed in a welcome to a meal, however it can also be expressed through a welcome to a conversation, friendship, or, in this case, a learning experience. In education, ‘pedagogy’ refers to how we teach, therefore pedagogical hospitality involves structuring our teaching and learning in a way that welcomes the outsider, the disadvantaged, and those on the margins. While space does not permit a biblical theology of hospitality, in offering pedagogical hospitality we are mirroring God’s creation, redemption, and new creation hospitality. In tailoring my lessons to Bill, then, I was acting as a responsive disciple. And the results shocked me. Bill began to deeply engage in his learning.

You might think Bill’s diligent engagement was a great joy to me. You’d be wrong. It was one of the most deeply discouraging moments of my young teaching career.

Why I Nearly Quit Teaching

The resources that had allowed Bill to access the lesson took me an extra ninety minutes to create. And here’s the thing, I wasn’t just teaching one class; I was teaching four, each with low-literacy learners like Bill. I didn’t need an extra ninety minutes, I needed an extra six hours. And that was six hours I didn’t have.

I spent the next eight weeks of my placement seeing students left out of the learning. I knew exactly what I could do to welcome them but I just didn’t have the capacity. I hated that tension.

Using AI to Welcome People into Learning

That is the tension I want to invite you into as we think about how we use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education and discipleship. We all have limited time and we teach and minister to those with nearly unlimited needs; our churches and our schools are more diverse than ever. We have a greater diversity of language, ethnicities, abilities, and background knowledge. In some ways, we are pulled in more directions than ever before.

Artificial Intelligence is a tool that allows us to extend “pedagogical hospitality” to those who are struggling, marginalised, disadvantaged. The same adjustments that I made for Bill in 2014, in 2025 take minutes, not hours. What if we could use AI to welcome more people into more formational learning more often?

What might this look like in our churches? Cast your eye over your congregation. Do you see any Bills? I am a professional Christian educator; I am not doing any form of paid church work. And while there may be significant overlap between these two professions, there are significant differences that should not be overlooked. That is why I seek to lay down the principle of hospitality as a base coat, and hope to foster a redeemed imagination to see if it is applicable within your setting.

What Are Churches Already Doing?

In preparing to lead a seminar (alongside Emma Wilkins) on AI in ministry at a conference earlier this year, I spoke with several Australian church leaders about their use of AI. Some churches use AI to translate services live so that those from different backgrounds can follow the service in their heart language. Another pastor I spoke to used AI to produce a printout of key terms and simple definitions from their sermon manuscript for youth and ESL congregants. Another pastor, after years of dreaming about writing Bible studies from their notes but not finding the time, now creates them with AI so the whole church can study God’s word together. Now the Sunday sermon, creche activity, kids church, youth group, and Bible studies can all be exploring the same passage, encouraging community-wide, intergenerational learning.

This species of hospitality is a way to welcome the chronological and spiritual youth in our context and help them along the path to maturity. These are not shortcuts for lazy ministry, but an extension of hospitality; a disposition that welcomes those who might otherwise remain on the margins of our church life.

Of course, AI there are downsides to AI use. Every technology comes with trade-offs. In her TGCA article, Emma Wilkins does a good job of articulating the potential drawbacks of AI use. I agree with the thrust of her article—there is much to be wary of. But don’t let the drawbacks prevent your redeemed imagination from pondering ways this technology could be used wisely.

My encouragement is not to merely use AI tools for their own sake, but rather to think about how we can offer deep, rich, other-person-focused hospitality, and to use AI if it helps us to that end. Where does your church or a ministry (or classroom) have responsibility and opportunity to welcome the outsider, the marginalised, and the stranger can be welcomed—not only with a warm smile and a cup of tea, but also with pedagogical hospitality? Have you considered whether AI might help you in that hospitality?