Weekly Email: December 22, 2025

Just a reminder that you do not have class this week and the seminary offices are closed.

• Most assignments from week 3 (December 15–22) are due tonight

• No class December 22–28

• Week 4 begins December 29

• Seminary offices are closed from December 22–26, January 1

Student Tip: AI, Seminary, and You

Generative AI is everywhere. You can barely open an app or use a service today without some new AI feature being thrown at your face acting like it is the savior of the world. That same reality has reached the classroom, both online and on campus. For this email, I want to talk about AI in one specific context: your seminary education. I am not trying to settle the overall ethics debate. I simply want to name the reality that it is here, and what integrity looks like when a tool can do some of your coursework for you.

At the end of the day, your seminary education is not mainly about getting a degree to hang on your wall or putting letters in your email signature. Seminary is about formation. You are here to become a certain type of person. You are learning how to think biblically, argue theologically, understand the history of Christianity and how we got here, and grow in a heart for the nations. You are learning how to take big ideas and put them in a way people can understand.

All of this is hard work. Some parts may get easier over time, but other parts get harder. The more you learn, the more you realize what you still do not know. That is normal. That is part of the process. But if you short-circuit that process now, you are short-circuiting your ministry now and in the future.

In ministry, you are going to feel the same crunch times you feel in seminary. That sermon is going to come up quicker than you expected. The counseling conversation will be heavier than you planned for. If you are training yourself to take shortcuts now, those shortcuts will become easier and easier. You will keep telling yourself, “It is just this once,” and those paragraphs will be built out, word-by-word, quicker and more polished than you could do on your own.

So ask yourself a blunt question. Does your congregation deserve a sermon generated by AI throughout the whole process? Or do they deserve to hear how the Spirit has been working in you throughout the week? The raw, rough thoughts that still have your soul in them. Your love for Christ. Your love for them. AI always promises a quick fix, a better fix, a more polished fix. But preaching, teaching, counseling, and ministry are not mainly about polish. They are about honesty. They are about faithfulness. They are about the Spirit taking hold of words that came from a real person who has prayed, wrestled, and believed.

Now, I fully recognize there are use cases for AI in other areas of life. But that is a different context than seminary education. In seminary, your default posture should be that the work is yours. You do the writing. You do the rewriting. You do the editing. You do the drafts, the ideas, the outline, and the thinking that gets you there. Your professors may give guidance on allowable uses in certain assignments, but the starting assumption should be that you are doing the work yourself.

I also recognize the line gets a bit grey. Tools like Grammarly started as spell-check, and now they can offer full rewrites. The line is not always black and white. Sometimes it is gray. When it feels gray, I want to urge you to lean toward caution. I would rather you turn in something less polished that you can fully own than something more polished that was partly you and partly a machine.

Here at Southern, we do use AI detection tools. We also recognize this is not foolproof. It does not give a final verdict. It gives indicators and percentages. Because of that, there may be times when a professor or OTA follows up and asks, “Did you use AI on this?” In many situations, students can honestly say, “No,” and that is great. The question is often just a reality of the moment we live in, and those follow-ups should not be understood as an automatic accusation.

But I know some of you will be tempted to take the shortcut. It is tempting when the week has been busy, time got away from you, and AI promises you can finish the assignment much quicker. When that moment comes, I want you to choose integrity. Email your OTA or professor. Admit you are behind. Take the late penalty if needed. Keep your name clean.

Better a lower grade than a slow erosion of your soul.

I want you to picture graduation day. The robe, the aisle, the handshake. Do you want to cross that stage knowing you did the hard work, even when it was messy, even when it cost you time, even when the sentences didn’t make the most sense.

Do you want to cross that stage knowing you protected a grade by shortcut? The temporary embarrassment of “I mismanaged my time this week” heals. The lasting shame of “I did not actually do the work I said I did” does not.

All throughout the Bible, we see that God cares about the heart. It has always been a heart issue, not mere rule-keeping. He looks for repentance, humility, and open hands that say, “I am weak. I am not there yet. I need help.” That is the posture God strengthens. That is the posture he uses to form faithful shepherds, teachers, and servants.

So when the screen glows with an easier path, remember why you are here. Choose the slow formation. Choose the paper that sounds like you. Choose the honest paragraph over borrowed brilliance. The degree will still hang on the wall, but the person who earned it with integrity will be ready to equip and strengthen Christ’s church.

Program News: Merry Christmas!

Marry Christmas! In the midst of our full schedules, we pause to remember that God has drawn near to us in Christ. I’m praying you have a meaningful week as you celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Quick Reference of Upcoming Term Dates:

• Current Week: Winter, Break Week (December 22-29)

• Spring 1 Term Begins: February 2, 2026

• Spring 2 Term Begins: April 6, 2026

Register for Courses →
Spring Experiential Modular courses are full, so be on the lookout for the fall schedule if you would like a spot.

As always, thank you for reading. I’ll be back with you next week.