From an Outhouse to Open AI

I was born into a world that many younger people today cannot even imagine. We lived in a house without indoor plumbing. Our bathroom sat behind the house in a little wooden building we simply called the outhouse. In the winter it was freezing cold, and in the summer it was miserably hot. It was inconvenient, uncomfortable, and primitive, but to us it was normal because it was all that we had.

One of my memories involves helping my grandfather re-dig the outhouse at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church. That was not a metaphorical experience or a sentimental illustration. It was real work. Dirt under the fingernails. Sweat on the brow. We were maintaining an old system because that was the system we had inherited.

As the years passed, however, the world changed. Eventually the plumbing moved inside. What is interesting is that every advancement in life seems to bring resistance with it. There were undoubtedly people who questioned indoor plumbing when it first became common. Some likely argued that the old way had worked just fine for generations. Others probably believed modern conveniences would weaken people or make them dependent on technology. Yet despite all the resistance, common sense eventually prevailed. Indoor plumbing was not a rejection of the home; it was an improvement to the home. The structure remained the same while the infrastructure became more efficient.

That thought has stayed with me as I watch the rise of artificial intelligence and platforms like Open AI. Long before most churches were thinking seriously about digital ministry, I built a website dedicated exclusively to Missionary Baptist doctrine and theology. I was not interested in creating another generic religious website that blended every denomination together into a vague evangelical soup. I wanted a place where Missionary Baptist beliefs could be preserved, explained, and defended clearly.

I spent years reading and studying the works of men like W. T. Russell, F. L. Ray, H. C. Vanderpool, and Jerry Reynolds. I worked through old articles, outlines, sermons, associational records, doctrinal debates, and historical writings. I also studied periodicals like The Baptist Banner and Voice of the Baptist. None of it came from secondhand rumors or denominational stereotypes. I uploaded most of this material to my website and tried to represent our theology honestly and accurately.

As a result, If you examine this material you can clearly articulate what Missionary Baptists believe concerning the church, baptism, salvation, sovereign grace, church authority, communion, missions, separation, and the Kingdom of God. That matters because many people speak about Missionary Baptists who have never seriously studied what we believe.

Today we are facing a challenge that many churches still do not fully recognize. Artificial intelligence is already shaping theological conversations. Young people are asking AI systems questions about salvation, election, eternal security, baptism, women pastors, church authority, eschatology, and countless other doctrinal subjects. The problem is that most AI systems pull information from broad religious sources that often contradict one another.

A Missionary Baptist teenager can ask a question online and receive a mixture of Catholic theology, Reformed theology, Pentecostal theology, Lutheran theology, generic evangelicalism, and liberal scholarship all blended together into one answer. That should concern us deeply because doctrine matters, and clarity matters.

For that reason, I believe the question is no longer whether Missionary Baptists should build their own theological chatbot. The real question is why we have not already done it. 

Why should every other theological system preserve and distribute its teachings through modern technology while Missionary Baptists hesitate at the doorway? We possess generations of sermons, books, associational minutes, doctrinal statements, debates, and theological writings. Yet much of that material remains buried in old filing cabinets, preacher libraries, and forgotten shelves while the digital world races forward without us.

Imagine an AI system trained specifically on Missionary Baptist theology and history. Imagine a resource built upon trusted doctrinal writings and historical Baptist material instead of internet confusion. Young preachers could search doctrinal topics within seconds. Church members could ask difficult theological questions and receive answers grounded within a distinctly Missionary Baptist framework. Historical writings that are slowly disappearing could finally be preserved digitally for future generations.

None of this would replace pastors, churches, or the work of the Holy Spirit. Tools have always existed to help believers study and communicate truth. A concordance does not replace prayer. A commentary does not replace the Bible. A hymnal does not replace worship. Technology itself is not the enemy. Like every tool, its value depends upon how it is used.

Of course, there will always be resistance. There are people who oppose nearly every advancement, simply because it feels unfamiliar. In the past we’ve resisted using piano’s (English Baptist condemned the use of pianos at church because it was used in the Pub), Song Books (Song books were a human invention and not of the Spirit) radio preaching, microphones, baptisteries and yes, indoor plumbing. Many of the same things that were once criticized are now accepted as normal but condemned as modern by our forefathers. Resistance by itself is not proof of spirituality. Sometimes resistance is simply fear wearing doctrinal clothing. Through the years we learned the difference between compromising truth and improving delivery. Those are not the same thing.

That brings me back to the outhouse. There was a time when an outhouse was necessary because people had no better system available. But eventually better infrastructure was developed. Water could be brought directly into the home. Sanitation improved. Access improved. Efficiency improved. The house itself did not disappear because the plumbing changed.

In many ways, Missionary Baptists are facing a similar moment. We do not need to abandon doctrine in order to embrace technology. We do not need to surrender our convictions in order to preserve our heritage digitally. In fact, refusing to preserve and distribute our theology through modern tools may ensure that future generations never hear it at all.

If our doctrines are true, then they deserve preservation. If our ecclesiology is biblical, then it deserves explanation. If our heritage matters, then it deserves digitization.

The world has traveled from outhouses to artificial intelligence within my lifetime and I have lived on both ends of that journey. I have dug outhouses with my grandfather, and I now converse with AI systems capable of searching millions of pages in seconds.

That reality ought to humble us, but it should also awaken us. Technology is already shaping theological conversations whether we participate or not. The only remaining question is whether Missionary Baptists will help shape those conversations themselves, or continue standing outside criticizing the future while everyone else builds it.