Natalie Grant warned that the church must use artificial intelligence carefully without allowing it to replace human worship, accountability or spiritual discernment.
“We’re going to have to be really careful that we are helping steward a movement that is not allowing AI to direct where the church is going,” Grant said in the Sept. 15 episode of “The Kent Ingle Podcast.”
Grant joined Kent Ingle, president of Southeastern University and host of the podcast, for a conversation about worship, calling, family, community and obedience, particularly reflecting on how technology can shape a person’s spirituality.
Grant did not describe AI as automatically evil. She said it can be a beautiful tool when used responsibly but warned that a few prompts can produce material that begins shaping someone’s experience with Jesus without the prayer, struggle and real-life testimony that give human worship its meaning.
The larger concern, Grant said, is not only the software. It is what happens when a platform becomes more important than the people and church community meant to hold a leader accountable. “Where I think it can get in trouble is when the platform becomes the thing,” she said.
Grant’s comments came while she and Ingle traced changes in Christian music and church leadership. She acknowledged that broader platforms have helped Christian artists reach more people, while cautioning that visibility can become a spiritual and organizational liability when service to a local church disappears.
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That is why she urged worship leaders and artists to develop what God has already given them instead of chasing instant reach. Grant said “And actually stewarding their gift and working hard,” because audiences may begin craving something real in an age of machine-generated content.
Grant also discussed her daughter Bella’s decision to study music and worship at Southeastern University. She said she and her husband, musician Bernie Herms, did not want to force a career or ministry path on their children but wanted to guide them as they recognized where God was leading them.
That family conversation fits Grant’s wider view of calling. Gifts are not trophies to display; they are responsibilities to cultivate, share and place under the authority of Christ and a healthy Christian community.
Grant’s public work also extends beyond music. She co-founded and serves as a global ambassador for Hope for Justice. Its mission to live in a world free from slavery. The organization says Abolition International, founded by Grant, merged with other groups to become Hope for Justice in 2014.
Near the end of the episode, Grant connected her warning about platform to a personal lesson in obedience. “Thank the Lord, he’s brought me back to a place where I chase obedience,” she said, adding that obedience has opened doors she could not have planned for herself.
The point is not that Christian artists should reject every new tool or avoid every large platform. It is that technology must remain a servant, not a shepherd, and that real spiritual leadership still requires people who pray, practice, submit to accountability and love the congregation in front of them.
For families and church leaders watching the rise of AI, Grant’s advice is plain enough to remember: keep Jesus at the center, protect the human work of worship and refuse to confuse reach with fruit. A machine can generate sound, but it cannot take responsibility for the soul of a church.
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