Pastor’s Perspective
Straight talk from Pastor Juan — thoughts on faith, family, counseling, and walking with God in ordinary life.
Getting Ready for Sunday Morning
Here I am again on a Sunday morning, waiting to take off for church. Unlike most pastors, I have a list of churches that we visit on a rotating basis. Each one has its own time, schedule, and location, of course, which dictates when we leave, how long it takes to get there, and so forth.
Normally, this gives me the opportunity to contemplate, to think about things. When I get there, what will the circumstances be like? Will they invite me to preach? That’s always one of my hopes. Will I be able to minister in some way? What does God want me to do this time?
My hope and desire are always to do what God wants me to do. I wish that were true of every single moment of my life, but, being human, I know that I fail at times. Yet every time I head off to a church, my mind is on the possibilities God may have in mind for that particular day. One of the things that really excites me is that I’m always prepared for whatever I think may happen. At the same time, I’m open to what God may have in store for me that I don’t anticipate. Sometimes that is even more exciting.
Every Sunday morning, it’s the same process for me: a new church, or rather, a different church, a different congregation, new ministry possibilities, and a different location. Because I’m 74 years old, because I’m not in the best shape I could be, and because I have a few extra things that give me aches and pains along the way, one of my concerns is where I’m going, how long I’ll be sitting, how it will affect me, and things like that.
I go to church wanting to minister to others while, at the same time, I guess, needing ministry myself, needing someone to pray for me. I believe that happens often anyway; there are people out there who pray for me regularly. Still, the physical aches and pains I deal with are one thing that constantly draws my attention.
Before I go to church, I get my Bible, get ready, get my spirit, mind, and heart in line, and work at not paying attention to the aches and pains and things of that nature, so that I can just focus on whatever God has for me. That becomes my preparation for Sunday mornings.
How I Use AI (Grok) for Bible Study
I treat Grok the same way I treat any other tool on my desk. It does not replace the text, prayer, or the hard work of thinking. It simply removes some of the slower steps so I can spend more time on the parts that actually matter: understanding what the passage says, deciding what the people in front of me need to hear, and saying it in language they can use the same day.
I start almost every study the same way. I open the passage in the NASB for the close work and the ESV when I need the wording that will be clearest from the pulpit. Then I ask Grok to place those two renderings side by side and note only the places where the English choices actually affect meaning. I do not want a long discussion of every possible nuance. I want the differences that change how a sentence lands. Once I have that, I ask for the key Greek or Hebrew terms behind those differences, again in plain language. If the word carries a technical sense that matters for the argument of the book, I want that noted. If it does not, I want it left alone.
From there the questions become more specific to the work I am doing. When I am preparing to preach, I tell Grok the audience first: English-speaking Latino adults, many of whom did not finish high school and have little background in Scripture. Then I ask for a three- or four-point outline that stays inside the text, avoids religious jargon, and ends with something people can do or think about before the week is over. I reject anything that sounds like a textbook or that assumes the hearers already know the big theological categories. If the outline drifts into abstractions, I send it back and ask for the same structure written the way a man would talk to his neighbor about a real problem.
When the need is counseling rather than preaching, the request changes. I give Grok a short description of the situation (without names) and the passage I believe speaks to it. Then I ask for the exact claims the text makes, the assumptions it challenges, and two or three direct questions I can put to the person sitting across from me. I am not looking for soft suggestions. I want questions that force the issue onto the table without me having to raise my voice.
For book work or training material the process is similar but longer. I ask Grok to draft a section in the same direct style I use when I teach, then I rewrite it myself. The first draft is only scaffolding. The finished pages have to sound like me, because the people who read the books or sit in the seminars already know how I talk. Grok can also produce clean Spanish versions of short sections when I need them for bilingual settings. I still correct the phrasing so it sounds natural to Mexican Spanish speakers, but the heavy lifting of the first translation is done.
Those are the main ways I use it. The same habits work for other people, with only small changes in the starting instructions.
A pastor who preaches weekly can use it the way I do: audience first, then the text, then an outline that stays inside the passage and ends with usable application. The time saved on comparison and first-draft structure can go into the illustrations and the specific needs of that congregation. A Sunday-school teacher or small-group leader can ask for discussion questions that stay at the level of the people in the room instead of the level of a seminary class. A Bible student who is working through a book can request a running summary of the argument so far, a list of repeated words that carry the weight of the section, or a plain-language explanation of a difficult paragraph. A believer who simply wants to understand a chapter before the week starts can ask for the main point in one or two sentences, the key words, and two or three questions that force personal honesty. In every case the instruction is the same: stay inside the text, use ordinary language, and show your work so the user can check it.
None of this removes the need to read the passage yourself, pray, and test what comes back against the actual words on the page. Grok will occasionally flatten a distinction or miss a connection that only becomes clear after you have lived with the text for a while. When that happens, you correct it and keep going. The value is not that the tool is perfect. The value is that it lets you move faster through the mechanical parts so you can spend the remaining time on the parts only you can do: deciding what must be said, saying it clearly, and dealing with the real people in front of you.
The Power That Works in Us
As a pastor, my main concern is leading others into a fuller relationship with Christ. This involves more than sharing knowledge about the Bible or God. These days, sharing the Gospel often feels like preaching a great sermon most people forget by Monday, or teaching a lesson too many never understand. My desire is to help people grasp the power of the principles taught in the Scriptures. Often, people see these principles as magic and tend to disregard them. But, as the Bible teaches, we have a God who can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can think or imagine, “according to the power that works in us. Get the last part? “In us!” Gods power to create a whole universe works in us!
No, I am not saying we can do the same things God can. I am saying that the same God, through His Holy Spirit, lives in those of us who have given Him our lives. We “can do all things through Christ,” that is, in the same way He did (by obeying the Father). God can use us in the same way He used Jesus, and, as Jesus Himself said, Greater things will you do. That is God saying we will do the same as Jesus and even greater than He. This is not just some mumble-jumble talk to get us to give God or the church more money. This is God saying to us, “I want to use you to do my work on earth, and I will back you up all the way.
So, let the Holy Spirit transform you by changing your mind. Let Him change your mind by what you choose to put into it.