Dr. Drew Dickens on AI, Preaching, and Why Churches Need an AEO Strategy

In this episode of AI & the Church, host Michael Whittle talks with Dr. Drew Dickens — who holds a doctorate in theological anthropology from SMU focused on generative AI and spiritual direction, founded the Encountering Peace app (300,000+ daily listeners), and built Kingdom Work AI as a resource hub for ministry leaders — about where pastors really stand on AI, and why so many are using it privately while staying quiet about it publicly.

Drew and Michael dig into recent industry headlines, including the temporary pause on Anthropic's Fable model, and unpack why frontier AI labs often amplify fear around new releases. They explain the shift from generative AI (ask it something, it generates an answer) to agentic AI (autonomous tools that act more like a new employee), and how churches can use that shift practically — from building real-time dashboards to setting up automated email briefings without any coding background.

A major focus of the episode is the move from traditional SEO to AI-optimized search (AEO): why Google's AI Overviews and tools like ChatGPT and Claude are replacing "blue link" search results with direct answers, why Reddit has become one of the most-cited sources for AI-generated answers, and what churches can do — FAQ pages, Google reviews, backlinks, Reddit AMAs — to get cited when someone asks an AI assistant to recommend a church nearby.

The conversation also turns to preaching and pastoral ethics: using AI as a research and communication sparring partner rather than a ghostwriter, real examples of pastors digitizing decades of handwritten sermons, and the importance of church-wide AI policies after a cautionary story involving giving data uploaded to an AI platform without proper safeguards. Drew closes with a candid theological reflection — drawing on 1 Samuel 28 and the Urim and Thummim — on AI's pull toward "frictionless faith," and offers two simple starting points for any pastor who hasn't tried AI yet.