Calvin creates a faith-and-technology center with churches among its intended users

An institution beyond a conference

Calvin University announced a Center for Faith and Technology on October 8, naming Derek Schuurman its inaugural director and locating it within the School of Engineering and Computer Science. Its stated audience includes churches, Christian organizations and educators alongside students and technology professionals. The university describes an explicitly Reformed Christian approach to artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. Source: calvin.edu

The plans include research, public events, teaching resources and practical projects. Calvin also describes collaboration across its existing institutes, including its worship and teaching-and-learning institutes. These are institutional commitments and proposed activities; the announcement does not itself demonstrate their effects on congregations.

Kyle Mitchell’s October 8 WOOD report, available through AOL, independently reports that Calvin’s president announced the center during the university’s AI conference. It includes Schuurman explaining the multidisciplinary ambition. That supplies local reporting on the announcement, rather than an evaluation of the center’s future work. Source: aol.com

What readers can already inspect

The center’s current website identifies resources, workshops and engagement with churches, schools and professionals as part of its remit. It links to a searchable annotated Faith and Technology Hub and a collection of faculty scholarship. A collection being available is different from every item having been produced for the newly announced center; readers should check each resource’s author, date and purpose. Source: calvin.edu

The practical distinction for a church leader is between finding a useful starting point and outsourcing a decision. An institutional label can help locate relevant expertise, but it cannot show that a recommendation fits a particular congregation without examining the recommendation itself.

A question to bring to the resources

Consider a hypothetical church team reviewing guidance about automated member communications. Before adopting a template, the team could identify the pastoral relationship it is meant to support, who would review the messages, and how members could reach a person. It could then look for a resource that addresses those questions and note what remains unanswered. This is our suggested exercise, not a practice tested by Calvin.

James 3:13–18 contrasts wisdom expressed through humble conduct and peace with envy and selfish ambition. Applied to technology deliberations, that passage encourages attention to the character of the discussion and its consequences for others. It does not endorse a university, establish an AI tool’s reliability or make scholarly disagreement unnecessary. James 3:13-18 (NIV)