For Spirit empowered pastors and ministers
Anointed Algorithm
How to Be Spirit-Led in a Tech-Driven World
Can a Spirit-filled pastor use AI in good conscience?
By Rev. Joe Cook
Kindle edition available now. Paperback coming soon. Read Chapter 1 free
Who this book is for
For the pastor carrying more than the week can hold
Most pastors I know carry more than their time can hold. You preach on Sunday, work somewhere else Monday through Friday, and still answer the phone at ten o’clock at night. Now there’s a new tool on every phone in the sanctuary, and you’re not sure what to make of it.
Anointed Algorithm is a practical guide for Spirit empowered ministers, written by a bivocational pastor who uses these tools nearly every day. It looks at what Scripture and church history say about the tools God’s people have always used, and then it gets specific about the work of a pastor’s week: preaching, pastoral care, discipleship, administration, and the care of your own soul.
Along the way you’ll find clear lines on what never goes into a chatbot, prompts you can use this week, and honest stories from thirty years of ministry.
Use the tools. Keep them in their place.
Then close the laptop and go be with Jesus.
Two habits the book teaches
CARE
Context · Assignment · Requirements · Evaluation
Before you ask a tool for help, tell it what it needs to know, what you want done, what to include or avoid, and how to check its own answer.
Context: I’m a pastor preparing a sermon on the biblical idea of peace. I’ve already read Isaiah 26:3, John 14:27, and Philippians 4:7 several times.
Assignment: List the key Old and New Testament passages on peace, with the Hebrew or Greek word used in each and a sentence of context for each passage.
Requirements: Use the New King James Version for quotations. Keep each entry short. Don’t write sermon points or application.
Evaluation: Mark anything I should double-check in a lexicon, and tell me if you’re unsure about any word meaning.
READ
Review · Examine · Authenticate · Decide
AI can sound sure of itself and still be wrong. Before you share what it gave you, review it, examine the claims that carry weight, check them against sources you trust, and then decide what to keep.
What’s inside
Thirteen chapters in three parts
Each chapter opens with Scripture and closes with questions for reflection. It works on your own, and better with your staff or two or three pastors you trust.
Part One
Foundations
Why a Spirit-filled pastor can use these tools at all, and how to sort the work that is yours from the work that simply needs to get done.
- 1Faith Over Fear2 Timothy 1:7Why caution and avoidance aren’t the same thing, and where help turns into harm.
- 2The Spirit and the ToolZechariah 4:6What only the Spirit can do, and what a tool can carry for you.
- 3We Have Always Used Tools1 Corinthians 9:22From Cruden’s concordance to Aimee Semple McPherson’s radio station, the church’s long record with new tools.
- 4The Work Is Too HeavyExodus 18:18Jethro’s counsel to Moses, and the bulletin, budget, and roof leak that wear a pastor down.
Part Two
Discernment
Hearing God when there’s more noise than ever, asking well, checking the work, and drawing ethical lines.
- 5Hearing His Voice in the NoiseJohn 10:27When a fluent answer on Thursday night tempts you to skip the slow work of listening.
- 6Asking Well: The CARE FrameworkHabakkuk 2:2How to ask a tool for help in a way that gets you something useful.
- 7Checking the Work: The READ Habit1 Thessalonians 5:21The lawyers who cited court cases that didn’t exist, and the habit that keeps a pastor from doing the same.
- 8Guardrails for the Gospel1 Corinthians 10:23What never goes into a chatbot, and the questions to ask before anything sensitive goes near one.
Part Three
The Work Itself
The actual work of a pastor’s week, ending with the care of your own soul.
- 9Preaching in the Age of Prompts2 Timothy 4:2Saturday night, an unfinished sermon, and whether you could stand behind a manuscript you never prayed over.
- 10Care That Can’t Be AutomatedGalatians 6:2Funerals, hospital rooms, and confidences that stay out of a consumer AI chat.
- 11Making Disciples, Not ContentEphesians 4:13Turning Sunday’s message into a week of devotions without mistaking output for growth.
- 12The Other StuffColossians 3:23Administration, teams, and leading well, starting with an icy Saturday night and a cancelled service.
- 13Pace PreachesLuke 5:16The care of your own soul. It may be the most important chapter in the book.
Plus a prompt library you can use this week, a dated guide to tools and privacy settings, and a one-page quick reference.
From the foreword
Michael L. Mathews, Oral Roberts University
“He knows what it is like to hold a dying saint’s hand at 2 a.m. He understands the weight of preparing a word from God while managing administrative chaos. He has earned the right to speak into this conversation because he lives it.”
The question has never been whether the Church will use technology. We have always done so, from Gutenberg’s printing press to Billy Graham’s television crusades. The question is how we use it. Will we allow tools to serve our calling, or will we serve the tools?
Throughout these pages, you will find a pastor who is unashamed of both his Spirit empowered roots and his willingness to explore new tools. He does not apologize for expecting the Holy Spirit to move, and he does not apologize for using ChatGPT to draft a bulletin announcement.
The future belongs to leaders who can hold the tension Joe Cook models in these pages: deeply rooted in timeless truth, courageously open to timely tools.
Free sample
Read Chapter 1: Faith Over Fear
“If you’ve ever typed a sermon in Microsoft Word and watched a red line appear under a misspelled word, you’ve already used artificial intelligence.”
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About the author
Rev. Joe Cook
Rev. Joe Cook has served in pastoral ministry for thirty years as a pastor, church planter, and hospice chaplain. He is the pastor of Hope Church in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
For many of those years Joe has also worked a full-time job outside the church. Today he works in the technology industry as a regional director and sales engineer for a telecommunications infrastructure company, so he knows what it’s like to finish a full week at one job and walk into a full weekend at the other. That busy life is where this book came from.
He and his wife, Danielle, have been married thirty-three years and have four grown children and a growing number of grandchildren.
Also by Joe and Danielle Cook: Guardrail Parenting
Keep working
The Pastor’s Workbench
A while back I was asked to teach a group of ministry leaders overseas how to use AI faithfully in their work. When it was finished, I realized the small churches here at home needed the same kind of help, so I built a place for it.
The Pastor’s Workbench is a free online community for small-church and bivocational ministry leaders who want to use AI responsibly and build simple systems that give them more time for prayer, people, family, and study. The CARE and READ frameworks in this book come from it.
Contact
Write to Joe
Questions about the book, an invitation to speak with your pastors or staff, or a story about how you’re putting these tools to work in your church. I read every message.
Get the book
Kindle edition available now on Amazon. Paperback coming soon.