OPENING PRAYER
Father, before we talk about machines, we want to remember who You are and who we are. You made us in Your image, with purpose, and You invited us to work alongside You. As we talk tonight, keep us from fear and keep us from carelessness. Show us where we have quietly handed over things that were never meant to be handed over, and teach us what it means to be human in a world like this one. Amen.

ICE BREAKER

Pick one or two — keep this light and quick.

• What's the most useful thing you've used AI for recently? And the most ridiculous?

• Be honest: how often do you use AI in a normal week? Daily, weekly, almost never?

SCRIPTURE READING

Read both passages aloud, with different people reading.

Mark 12:28–31 — the greatest commandment

Matthew 22:15–21 — whose image is on the coin

Pause after the second one. Ask the group to notice what Jesus asks: Whose image is this? Hold that question — it comes back at the end of the night.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. “to be human is to be created with inherent personhood and purpose, in order to partner with God in the co-governing of the world in love, so that everything in creation would flourish as God intended.” Which of those — personhood, purpose, partnership — do you struggle with the most on an ordinary day?

2. C.S. Lewis said that education without values, useful as it is, rather tends to make humanity a more clever devil. Where do you see that playing out — in society, or in yourself?

3. AI is excellent at informing your knowledge about Jesus, but terrible at forming you into the person of Jesus. What's the difference between being informed and being formed? Can you think of a time you had more information about God than you had obedience to Him?

4. The message suggested that our most important moments of spiritual growth often come from the least predictable moments. Does that match your experience? What has actually shaped you most?

5. Bonhoeffer called a grace without the cross cheap grace. If AI sells us effortless power for maximum outcome, what does that do to our expectations of the Christian life? Where are you hoping for a shortcut God hasn't offered?

6. Could the rise of AI actually make the church's message more valuable — not less — as people start asking what a human being is for?

PERSONAL REFLECTION

• Where have I let a tool do something that was meant to form me?

• Is there a relationship, a conversation, or a piece of work where I've chosen efficiency over presence?

• What have I been treating as a shortcut that God is asking me to walk?

• Jesus asked, whose image is this? The coin bore Caesar's. I bear God's. Have I been living as though my worth were in my output rather than in that image?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION FOR THE WEEK

• Keep a note on your phone this week of every time you reach for AI. At the end of the week, look at the list and ask what it tells you.

• Pick one task you'd normally hand to AI — a message to a friend, a prayer, a reflection, a hard conversation you'd rather script — and do it yourself, slowly.

• Make space for something you cannot optimise: an unhurried conversation, a walk without your phone, half an hour of silence before God with nothing to show for it.

CLOSING PRAYER

Pray together, or in pairs:

Lord Jesus, You were never in a hurry, and You were never efficient with people. Thank You that we are not prompts or profiles or products, but persons made in Your image, addressed by Your grace, called into communion with You. Where we have grown impatient with slow formation, forgive us. Where we have outsourced what was meant to shape us, teach us to take it back. Help us this week to love You with heart, soul, mind and strength — and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Form us into Your likeness, however long it takes. Amen.