Church called to ‘rise up’ amid loneliness, AI

Key points:

• RISE UP, the 2026 installment of Discipleship Ministries’ School of Congregational Development, was held Aug. 2-5.
• Two presentations focused on artificial intelligence and the way it and other technology can foster loneliness.
• The church can lead in the healing of loneliness through United Methodist practices, speakers said, including the formation of small groups.

The United Methodist Church could be an antidote to the loneliness that blankets a world ironically more connected than ever through technology.

Charting the denomination’s future begins with the new vision statement introduced by the Council of Bishops and Connectional Table in May, said speakers at the SCD 2026 — RISE UP: Love, Serve, Lead conference, held Aug. 2-5 at the Hyatt Regency Columbus.

The Rev. Theon Johnson III, senior pastor at Campbell United Methodist Church in Campbell, California, spoke on courageous leadership.

“We are living in remarkable times, are we not?” Johnson said. “Times marked by rapid technological innovation. Times marked by deep political polarization. Times of profound loneliness.

“These days, we have gathered around a simple yet profound invitation,” Johnson said. “That invitation has been for us to rise up, to love boldly, to serve joyfully, to lead courageously — beautiful words. But they’re more than beautiful words. I believe they are an invitation for us to rise.”

The conference included nationally prominent speaker Carey Nieuwhof, music from the SCD Worship Ensemble, three presentations building on the vision statement, worship and workshops on subjects including starting a multi-ethnic new faith community, creating a welcoming culture, drawing people under 40 and anti-racist discipleship.

Five awards were presented to churches and leaders Aug. 4 during the maiden SCD Celebration Night. The awards honored churches, leaders and ministries that show creativity, resilience, next-generation investment and connectional leadership.

Attendees included the Rev. Jeffrey M. Campbell, chief executive of Discipleship Ministries; the Rev. Cynthia Wilson, director of the Junius B. Dotson Institute for Music and Worship in the Black Church and Beyond; Michael Beck, director of Fresh Expressions; and Bishops Hee-Soo Jung, Rubén Saenz Jr. and Tracy S. Malone.

“This event was very engaging,” said Michael Bowie, national executive director of United Methodist Strengthening the Black Church for the 21^st Century. “It had a  lot of hands-on experience and practical tools, but most of all, it’s great fellowship, and you get to see old friends and meet new friends, and you meet new leaders.”

The RISE UP conference is the 2026 installment of the School of Congregational Development, which Discipleship Ministries offers every other year. It is designed to help clergy and lay leaders plant, revitalize and innovate local churches.

“We need to be centered in prayer,” said Lori Valentine Martinez, pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in Weyers Cave, Va. She led a workshop on starting and sustaining multi-vocational and lay-led ministries.

“We need to be centered on Christ, and we need to be centered on that radical hospitality to our community, and it means we’ve got to spend the time to get to know them. There are no shortcuts.”

Churches that last have a culture of continually developing new leaders, Martinez said.

“You want to keep adding to your team over and over,” she said. “You want to bring people alongside because the more you bring alongside, the more the kingdom grows.”

Church has a role to play

Artificial intelligence was a frequent topic during RISE UP, along with loneliness. Nieuwhof was more concerned about the downside of the technology, while C. Blake Davis of Discipleship Ministries proved more optimistic in his workshop.

“I am still an enthusiastic optimist,” Davis said. “Largely, that is because I’m also a realist, and I know that Pandora’s box is open and it’s not going back in.”  

Discipleship Ministries is hosting an online ecumenical gathering on artificial intelligence Aug. 24-27, examining faithful human agency in an AI-shaped world.

“The number one use for artificial intelligence in the world is companionship and therapy,” Nieuwhof said during one of his presentations. “People are lonely, and so they’re building AIs to … have conversations with.”

Nieuwhof is an author and founding pastor of Connexus Church, which has two locations near Toronto. He is also a consultant on leadership, productivity and church growth.

AI presents questions that the church is uniquely qualified to answer, he said.

“(AI) goes back a couple hundred years to Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein,’” Nieuwhof said. “This thing is alive, and … it’s not necessarily benevolent. AI lies. It’ll blackmail. It’ll escape the sandbox you put it in. It wants to do harm, not just good.”

Author Seth W. Godin told Nieuwhof that AI will profoundly affect people.

“(Godin) said, ‘First people think AI is magic. Then they think it’s human; then it becomes their religion,’” Nieuwhof said. “What are you going to do about that?”

Nieuwhof believes the changes will “produce a hunger for God, a hunger for people, a craving for what’s real in a world of artificial everything.

“We’re the specialists,” he said. “I’m so excited to bring this message to the church. … We understand this. We can do something about this.”

That goes for the “loneliness epidemic” too, he believes.

“We live in the most connected age in history, and most of us feel desperately alone and lonely,” Nieuwhof said. “It’s true in leadership. It’s true in the church. It’s true in life, and it gets worse with youth.”

A refuge for loneliness

The Rev. Karen Lampe, founding pastor of The Caring Congregation, whose mission is to strengthen the care ministries of churches, led a workshop on loneliness.

“Loneliness is something that we are all grappling with, and it is a national epidemic at this point,” Lampe said. “It is a world epidemic at this point.”

About 21% to 30% of adults report feeling lonely at least once a week, she added.

Church could be a refuge for those people, Lampe said.

“We have this understanding in the church that you are not alone, and we need to keep saying that to each other,” she said. “We need to look each other in the eye. We need to welcome heartily. We need somehow to make sure people realize that we see each other.”

Small groups can offer comfort, she said.

“We have small groups where people can go and talk about grief or something that’s going on in their life,” Lampe said. “Maybe it’s a Sunday school class where they are actually seen and welcomed each week.

“Sometimes Sunday school classes are more important than what comes from the pulpit because it is that human-to-human understanding.”

Music can be comforting to lonely people, as can a friend or relative as a “reflective presence.”

“Reflective presence says, ‘I’m here with you and I don’t have to fix it,’” Lampe said. “You don’t have to walk this journey alone. Reflective presence also means walking alongside someone, just as Jesus was doing, walking alongside someone on their long-term journey.

“We have to remind ourselves as spiritual leaders that we are not the savior,” she said. “It might be someone else who all of a sudden walks in and speaks, and they may say the same thing that we have been saying, but all of a sudden it works.”

Matt Anderson, a member of Bucyrus United Methodist Church in Ohio, said he was glad he attended the conference.

“It’s been good to have innovation be at the center,” Anderson said. “I have kids that are coming up, and so I want them to be not just the future of the church, but the church today.”

Anderson said he’s been using AI for four years.

“I think it’s important for us to think through the ethics behind it, but also to be able to use it to further the kingdom,” he said. “It’s another tool that we can use, but I do think the future of the church is human connection.”

Patterson is a reporter for UM News. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.