The Future of Church Leadership: AI, Social Media, and Building for the Long Haul

We recently sat down with Pastor Josh Howerton and Worship Pastor Chris Kuti from LakePoint Church for what turned into one of our most insightful conversations yet. Recording in their incredibly well-designed podcast studio (seriously, the Canon C80s and diffused lighting had us feeling a bit envious of our usual setup), we dove deep into topics that every church leader is wrestling with right now.

Embracing AI as a Ministry Tool

One of the most fascinating parts of our conversation was hearing how both Josh and Chris are already integrating AI into their regular ministry workflows. Josh shared his weekly routine of using ChatGPT as what he calls a “high-powered research assistant” for sermon prep, asking for 20 interesting historical, cultural, or theological facts about a passage that most Christians wouldn’t know.

“It’s no different than having a great research assistant,” Josh explained. “The key is you have to double-check it because it’ll lie to you sometimes, but when it works, it’s remarkable how frequently I get usable, amazing stuff.”

Chris has found AI incredibly helpful for organizing thoughts from meetings, turning long-form content into social media posts, and even having voice conversations with AI during his drives. His son Liam thought he was talking to someone with a British accent on the phone – turns out it was just ChatGPT’s voice feature.

What struck me most about their approach is how they view AI as a tool that serves them, not something they serve. As Chris put it: “To any degree that the tool becomes the thing we serve, I’m not going to use it. But if it serves me, I’m going to use the tool.”

The Pushback Against Church Technology

Of course, not everyone is thrilled when churches embrace new technology. We’ve all seen the comments: “Tax the churches!” or “That money should have been given to the poor!” Josh had some strong words about this attitude, pointing out that there’s only one person in the Bible who looked at expensive things being used to honor Jesus and complained about the cost – Judas.

“If you find yourself on team Judas, get a different team,” he said with a laugh.

But beyond the biblical perspective, there’s also just basic math involved. Josh explained how LakePoint actually spends a lower percentage of their budget on production and technology now than when they were a 75-person church plant. It’s all about economy of scale and cost per use – concepts that business people in the congregation understand immediately.

Chris added that people often don’t realize how much technology costs have come down. A 4K camera that would have cost a fortune in the early 2000s is now accessible to most churches. The scrutiny around church spending often comes from people who don’t understand the context or the careful consideration that goes into these decisions.

Social Media as Digital Missions

One of the most compelling parts of our conversation was Josh’s explanation of their social media strategy. Coming from a Reformed background where there’s what he calls “theologized cynicism” around technology and self-promotion, Josh had to overcome some internal resistance to being active on social platforms.

The turning point came when Carlos, their social media guy, presented it this way: “Your people are on social media 16-18 hours per week listening to everyone else talk about the world, beliefs, and cultural axioms. If you don’t engage there, you’re basically feeding your sheep to the wolves.”

Josh frames their social media presence as “air war” versus “ground war” in discipleship. Ground war is the traditional discipleship – preaching, pastoral counseling, prayer, building relationships. But if you win all the ground war battles but have no air cover, the enemy’s air force (secular culture on social media) just bombs away all your progress during the week.

“We view social media as the digital Areopagus,” Josh explained. “It’s where Paul went in Athens because that’s where people spent their time debating new ideas. That’s social media in our culture.”

The Worship Pastor Turnover Crisis

We tackled one of the most painful realities in church leadership – the incredibly high turnover rate among worship pastors. Chris had some fascinating insights about why this happens and what can be done about it.

He believes many worship leaders got into ministry for the wrong reasons – hoping to get on bigger stages, land record deals, or become the next Chris Tomlin. When that doesn’t happen, they bail out for careers in real estate or other fields. There’s also the problem of senior pastors who hired for talent instead of pastoral gifting, then wondered why leadership wasn’t happening.

“We’re losing a generation,” Chris said, “but I do see a rich generation of 20-somethings getting back in for the right reasons.”

His advice for worship pastors? Remember you’re a pastor first who happens to pastor through music. Read the senior pastor’s notes every week and lean the worship set toward the message theme. Understand that two visions create division, so come under the senior pastor’s vision rather than creating your own.

For senior pastors hiring worship leaders, both Josh and Chris emphasized: always bet on leadership over pure talent. Character will keep someone on your team; competency will only get them in the door.

Succession Planning Done Right

LakePoint’s successful transition from longtime Pastor Steve Stroop to Josh offers valuable lessons for churches facing leadership succession. Josh credited 70% of the transition’s success to Pastor Steve’s intentional preparation.

“Steve had a mantra,” Josh shared. “He said, ‘I’m going to leave my campground as clean as it was when I got here.’ He leveraged 40 years of integrity and leadership credibility to solve problems that would have done me in if I’d had to tackle them in my first two years.”

For incoming pastors, Josh emphasized the importance of honoring what came before rather than having a “get out of my way, old man” attitude. “Every day, Chris and I walk into the success and sacrifice of leaders who went before us for 40-41 years. If you don’t have the self-awareness and humility to honor that, I have trouble seeing how the Lord will bless you.”

Chris added crucial advice about pacing: “If you don’t have a governor in your first year, you will blow through decisions that you probably could have waited six more months to make.” His analogy was perfect – Apple Maps has to recognize where you are before it can chart a course to your destination.

Staying Humble in a Numbers-Driven World

With Josh’s growing social media following and the church’s continued growth, we had to ask about staying humble amidst success. Both leaders had thoughtful perspectives on this challenge.

Chris emphasized the importance of having a wife who “puts wind in your sails and believes in you, but isn’t impressed by you.” He also stressed the value of hiring people more talented than yourself and finding joy in others getting the wins rather than always taking the shots yourself.

Josh shared some wisdom he received: “Don’t let praise go to your head and don’t let criticism go to your heart.” Interestingly, he said his bigger struggle is actually staying confident rather than humble – people are always warning about pride, but rarely encouraging the confidence that God wants in leaders.

The Future of Ministry

Both pastors are excited about different aspects of their future ministry. Chris is focused on leadership pipeline development – creating a system where they never have to post job openings because they’re constantly developing people from within.

Josh is working on what he calls “catalyzing discipleship at scale” through better vertical alignment of their sermon content, podcast, Bible reading plans, and small groups, all delivered through a thoughtfully designed app interface. “We’re not in the events business,” he emphasized. “We’re in the disciple business.”

Lessons for Every Church

Whether you’re leading a church plant or an established congregation, several key principles emerged from our conversation:

Embrace helpful tools without serving them. Whether it’s AI, social media, or production technology, the question should always be: “Does this serve our mission or are we serving it?”

Think long-term about leadership development. The churches that thrive are the ones constantly developing their next generation of leaders rather than just trying to fill immediate needs.

Honor what came before while building for what’s ahead. Successful transitions require humility toward the past and wisdom about the future.

Focus on discipleship, not metrics. Growth in numbers means nothing if you’re not actually making disciples who make disciples.

Invest in relationships. The best technology in the world can’t replace authentic pastoral care and genuine community.

The conversation reminded me why I love working with churches like LakePoint. They’re not afraid to use excellent tools and technology, but they never lose sight of the ultimate goal – making disciples who make disciples. That’s the kind of long-term thinking that builds ministries that last.

As we wrapped up our time together (with AI explaining color science to us “like we’re five-year-olds”), I was struck by how these leaders are preparing their church not just for today’s challenges, but for the next generation of ministry. That’s the kind of stewardship that honors both the past and the future.