Amazon just laid off thousands of people—again.
Everyone’s talking about the jobs.
But no one’s talking about what it means.
Because what’s being replaced isn’t just human labor.
It’s human worth.
We thought AI would replace our work.
It’s actually replacing our sense of worth.
The next wave of AI is already here.
It’s called Vibe Coding—creating not by typing, but by feeling.
You don’t need to know Python or JavaScript.
You just need an idea and the right prompt.
ChatGPT, Claude, Ideogram—they gave us productivity.
Vibe Coding gives us creativity.
This is where the graph of creation hockey-sticks upward.
Not incremental.
Exponential.
The marketplace sees this and starts hoarding innovation.
“How can I scale faster?”
“How can I grow without people?”
“How can I make more profit?”
AI has become a mirror of our appetites, not our wisdom.
And as the world chases efficiency,
the Church must chase meaning.
Historically, the Church has never been first to adopt new technology.
But when it finally does, history changes.
The printing press.
Radio.
The Internet.
Each one reshaped the mission.
But this wave is faster.
The distance between early adopters and late adopters is widening.
If the Church waits too long, the cost isn’t inefficiency.
It’s irrelevance.
Vibe Coding makes creation accessible to everyone.
That’s the upside.
The downside?
Entry-level tech jobs vanish.
Skill ladders collapse.
White-collar work becomes the new automation frontier.
The factory floor has moved to the digital desk.
Our culture built identity on work.
We asked kids, “What do you want to do?” not “Who do you want to be?”
When machines outperform both skilled and unskilled labor,
people lose more than income.
They lose identity.
This is the next great existential disruption:
The erosion of meaning at scale.
Only the biblical worldview offers an identity that isn’t fragile.
Not based on productivity.
But on personhood.
Not earned.
But received.
“Identity in Christ” can’t be a throwaway phrase anymore.
It’s about to become the central battleground of culture.
In the age of AI, the Church must become fluent in meaning.
If you’re a pastor or ministry leader,
before your church adopts AI tools or celebrates productivity gains,
you need to answer three questions:
- Creation: How will you teach people to create with AI as image-bearers of a creative God?
- Work: What happens when work is no longer the primary source of meaning for your people?
- Identity: Are you ready to help people understand who they are when the world no longer needs what they do?
AI will not destroy humanity.
But it may destroy our understanding of what it means to be human—
unless the Church leads.
So… will we let the world define identity in the age of AI,
or will we lead with a better story?
