I’ve been thinking about this topic for the past few years now, and been gathering a few points to cover as to make it comprehensive and valuable to Christians working in the tech space. I am a full stack web and mobile developer, who is also involved in DevOps and AI engineering. With experience working with different startups and companies locally and abroad, and even governmental projects that required handling a lot of data and resources. I am also the founder and CEO of ScholarXIV, an autonomous research agent company building personal agents and training models for use in research. Apart from that I love community building and hosting events, I have a tech podcast on YouTube, love making content on socials, and experimenting with different tech (physical and software) — you can learn more about me on dagmawibabi.com. I am also an outspoken Christian online, sharing my faith in Christ across my platforms. I am telling you these things as an introduction and maybe as a basis of trust as to show you I know what I’m talking about, I’ve experienced it first hand. So let’s get to it…
Work and it’s Place#
The world wants to make the workplace look like it’s a contained, well planned, secure, a solved area run by professionalism and bureaucracy. With different trainings and guidelines researched and produced, taught across offices and to leaders, the workplace is an area of life where it’s somewhat of a human-made, efficient, self-contained bubble detached from the spiritual world. But that is so far from the truth. In-fact most successful leadership principles are borrowed from Christianity, a lot of people have come to Christ through the events and people that happened at their workplaces, and on the contrary a lot of people have also fought and run away from God due to what happened at their workplaces.
Work is very attached to people in so many different ways. Some people make it their whole identity (if I can’t code anymore then what am I?), others base their relationship with God on it (if God doesn’t get me a job, does He really care about me?) … In the Bible we first meet God as a worker, then it’s also some work that He assigned to Adam, then Jesus comes along and considers what He has done as work, then eventually tasks believers to continue the Good Work too. So work is something good and honorable to God. He has even put happiness in work, people often feel happy over their completed tasks and projects, they delight in the works of their hands. You should listen to The Theology of Work sermons and understand the spiritual position of it.
So despite the world trying to make work something purely a physical and mental task, it’s far more than that and has spiritual values. The workplace is also another area where good work ethics and professionalism can’t protect against bad spirits and spirit possessed individuals. So to take the spirit out of work and the workplace is to be blind to the factors at play.
So remember that just like you or your colleagues, team leads and management are always influenced by professionalism, you’re also influenced by the Spirit within you and in that area. Meaning, as good as reporting to HR and management is, as helpful as civil conversations are, praying and requesting God’s involvement are some fundamental things available to you. One key idea to have with you is that entering the workplace doesn’t mean leaving the spiritual connection you have with God. God is ever present and there with you at your desk, workstation, lab, studio, editing room and more. He is there helping you work, guiding you solve the problem at hand, blessing you to be fruitful, and protecting you from bad things. By placing you in that workplace, God is using you as His hands and mouth to the people around, as a blessing to the workplace and project, and as a Spiritual balance to the evil individuals there.
The Christian Worker#
The Christian worker is held into a far higher work standard than anyone else. This individual is held accountable to ethics and standards far beyond work ethics and professionalism. Maybe unbeknownst to you but, if you consider yourself to be a Christian and people are aware of it, then your work output and professionalism speaks more about your faith in Christ, than your actual words. People will judge you and your faith in your God, based on your principles at the workplace, and your care and effort into the work you are doing.
That is why I believe the Christian worker is supposed to set the highest of standards and care at the workplace. From simple routines like arriving on time to more collaborative tasks like helping your teammates catch up, these things add up and express your faith in Christ and preach the Gospel with far meaningful words than the ones out of your mouth.
But that’s not all, in Matthew 5:16 it says “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” and in 1st Peter 2:12 it says “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” — God tells us that the work that we do, the way that we behave and the honesty of our communications will be instruments of glory to God for other individuals, often non-believers.
Sure you may not like the current job that you have, your colleagues may not be the best, your boss is very rude, and things aren’t going well in life. But through it all, God is with you and He will give you the grace, wisdom and love to go about your work honorably and in a route that honors Him. So remember your diligent work is acceptable worship to God.
“One who is slack in his work, is brother to one who destroys.” — Provers 18:9
God Deserves the Best#
But far greater than every other point is the fact that God deserved the best. We are told that God is our ultimate lord, and boss and we are told to work as if it’s for Him, because ultimately it is. Colossians 3:23-24 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
This God, that has given His soul to save us, travelled from heaven to Earth, be tortured and tormented, taking our place in punishment but instead giving us His honor and grace, wisdom and blessings, deserves everything good we can offer back to Him. In all that we do, whether digital or physical, whether mental or labor, whether in solitude or in teams, God deserves the most effort, highest quality, and well thought out products, services, and more.
Though I am hired as a software developer at company Y, and my role is writing internal tools there, ultimately, past my team leads and managers, I am working for God. With that mindset in place, you should aspire to care the most, to build the best, and to maintain properly as if God Himself was the colleague that’s going to use that internal tool. I have seen this first hand, that working with this perspective will drastically make you happier at work, but most importantly make your relationship with God even more delightful and fun.
This doesn’t even take into consideration the outward consequences of working with this mindset. Your team lead and colleagues will love and appreciate your work, people will refer you to others, getting recognition and promotions will be part of it. But be careful not to make these consequences the intent of your diligent work. God loves those who love Him, and not the fruits of His hands.
Now let’s focus on the Christian techie in particular…
The Christian Dev#
Tech is one of the fastest growing and quickly changing fields out there. The last few months of progress in tech, perhaps even just in one subset, like AI, is equivalent to multiple years in another field. Tech is also one of the well funded fields out there, with billions of dollars being poured into and transacted at. But most of all, tech products are adopted by many regular people across the world. It’s one of the few fields that has produced the same product used by a farmer in Ethiopia and a trillionaire in the US.
Software in particular is very extensive in it’s growth and reach but I’m not really here to tell you the impact of software but to remind you how far and wide software has reached in adoption. It is an entire economy in on itself and working in this field is filled with excitement and a lot of learning and experimentation. But just like the workplace, the software ecosystem isn’t only influenced by digital code but by so many different factors including spirits.
The same way Christians have built Bible apps and platforms like “Got Questions” that have brought millions to Christ, others have built porn and gambling sites that have taken the lives of millions more. It may be so obvious to you but a porn site is actually built on the same tech stack as one of your side projects. So it’s not the tech stack that’s at fault here. Blaming the tech is like blaming the elements that exist in the universe. The chemist might use the exact same elements to produce glucose or arrange them slightly different and produce formaldehyde. Both are made entirely of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Glucose fuels our cells, while formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic. It’s the same with software and AI.
The Purpose Within#
Your purpose is what sets you apart. You have been saved, but you are kept in this world for a grand purpose of God. Your career in tech, whatever it may be, is way beyond finances, fame, technological advancements and more. It is a means to glorify God and to shine your light in the world. Remember God is the best resource manager, He doesn’t waste the placement of His Christians. So for God to place you at that position, at this time, is far more purposeful and well planned in the eyes of God. He does not sprinkle His salt where food is absent, He does not shine His lanterns where it’s already lit, so you have to know that there’s far more depth of your work than what meets the eye.
The products you build and the websites you launch are the tools that will enrich the Church in resources, gather believers, help spread the Gospel, and encourage one another. What caught me by surprise is that even products not specifically built for spiritual or church activities somehow tend to be a cause for spiritual blessing for people. People will often look at the builders of an incredible product and ask what makes that person special, and soon will find out that the individual is a normal human being but is helped by God.
Understand that you work for God, but also God works through you. If you remain at the first half of that sentence, you will be prideful and would have a very incomplete view. It’s also important that you know that God works through you and with you, He is the engineer and the colleague. This should humble you, because not everything impressive you’ve ever built or designed, is ever fully your ability. You have been given support and guidance, some of the errors you’ve made were handled behind the scenes, and so much more. So take a step back and sit down, before you feel like you’re some epic god among the men just because you solved a problem most haven’t. In-fact greatness is never ever achieved without God. So when you reach that point, it’s a good reminder that God has been with you and helped you beyond measure, it’s time to be grateful for that.
Resisting the Temptations of Tech#
Software enables people to quickly be rich with little to no upfront capital. A well built or trendy game might go viral and earn it’s creator millions. So oftentimes we see people hopping from trend to trend trying to catch this wave of instant success. But often they fail but the mindset remains. That is when temptation arises. If TikTok is being used the most because of it’s simple features, why shouldn’t I make TikTok for X? Then you will see most areas have been TikTokified, then you will resort to the sinful sides too, TikTok for Porn, TikTok for Gore, TikTok for Instant Gambling….
Everyone capable of building a product from start to finish has faced this temptation, and millions more will too. You will be tempted to build these products that appeal to people’s greed, lust, hate, anger and more. But you should dismiss and avoid it. The temptation might be quick gains in cash or virality, but the journey is far darker than you’d expect. It will personally haunt you and break your heart seeing the effects of your work pushing people away from God, some would even lose their lives because of it. So don’t take it lightly, it is a serious temptation that you should pray against and avoid consistently.
Some decisions are easier than others. An offer to build a gambling site might be super easy to dismiss than an offer to build an addicting social media app. One may abuse people’s finance, while the other abuse their time and attention. But both will take people away from God and that is the serious crime here. Because not everything is revealed upfront you should always pray for wisdom, understanding, and discernment.
It is the ability to look multiple steps ahead that makes Christians different. In-fact I’d argue that salvation itself has the sight of the future within it. For the wages of sin to be death, one must look forward to payday. For the reward of salvation to be eternal life, one must look past the sufferings of today. If the present is all that we see, then Christ’s death for those three days was meaningless. But one must look ahead just like Jesus did; it said that “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. “ (Hebrews 12:2)
You need this wisdom to look ahead and discern, when working with people, a new technology, or a project or design. If all you can see is the instant gratification or success (instant in this case doesn’t only mean quick, but also worldly, for this life is but a blip in the span of eternity) and not the outcome of the consequences, the sin and destruction then you’ve lost, sinned and caused so much damage.
Building Christian Tools and Services#
Your skills and craft, is not your own. Do not always benefit yourself or your company, be part of the church and contribute to believers. There is no reason your church shouldn’t have a website while you’re there. So contribute.
Be kingdom minded. Remember to use your skills for direct Christian tools and products too. One of my biggest inspiration is the Bible app and it’s founders. Bobby Gruenewald was running his hosting company when he came up with the idea of the app, established a team and started building it. Which would later be used by billions of people, and impacted so many lives. So don’t shy away from building tools, apps, sites, and guides that help believers in their journey and also introduce non-believers to God. This is one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do.
So remember to code for Christ and the great commission you’ve been tasked for.
Christians and AI#
If we were to deem AI to be evil, it would be like calling React evil. The tech stack is not at fault here, the people using the tech stacks are. The same way I can fine-tune an AI model in Christian literature and help people dive deep into theology, I can also train a model on sexual literature and help users have lustful conversations with in. It’s not the model but the people training and building on it that are a variable in the equation.
Simply put, you should be aware of the ideology and data being used to train these LLMs by these companies. It’s been public conversation that some models are trained to be very liberal, while others to be very conserved. Some would be biased to encourage LGBTQ ideas, while others would hide history to obey government monitoring. So it’s very important that you have a solid understanding of the companies training these models before you start using them for your Bible Studies and/or at Church.
But the more deeper thing to see is the relationship aspect of AI. What is being advertised as a frontier model in the AI ecosystem, is far greater than a statistical language model. Most of these AI Labs say they’re building AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) but the subliminal message in marketing is more of an Artificial God Intelligence. Most people have been deceived (or are intentionally deceiving others) that these AI models are conscious or will be conscious, and will be a human made god.
There are countless people who have romantic relationships with different AI models, in-fact there are reports of people in frontier AI labs that have started worshiping some of these models. The premise is that AGI will be smarter than all humans combined, be able to process information than anyone on earth, cure all diseases and solve all problems, and start producing work that is far more complex than anything we’ve ever made before (AGI will be the last human invention is the popular narrative)
This is simply the golden calf story in the Bible, the deity made by the people to lead them in the wilderness; “Come, make us gods who will go before us... Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods” (Exodus 32:1-4) — the marketing around AGI is the modern day golden calf.
Remember when Moses asked Aaron why he would do such a thing, Aaron replied: “You know how prone these people are to evil… So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Exodus Exodus 32:22-24) These frontier labs and their leaders may not always want to do this, but they’re adhering to the requests of the people wanting their golden calves. This doesn’t mean the leaders aren’t at fault, but it goes to show that they’re not always the source of it. But it all concludes it saying: “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold." (Exodus 32:31)
It is with great love I warn you to not fall for the deceptions out there. AI must not write your sermons, nor sing your worship. You, the temple of God, carry the Holy Spirit who is far greater in all abilities than anything in the universe and outside of it. It’s from your mouth God seeks praise, it’s with you that He asks a relationship with, it’s Him that He wants you to go to to pour your heart out, and it’s Him and His word that He wants you getting inspired by for your sermons. I earnestly pray that people reading this never put any AI product in place of their friends, and family, loved ones and church, and most of all in place of the Holy Spirit, your best friend for eternity.
It’s very obvious but I have to include it here; God is greater than any super intelligent machine that we can build. God is far more intelligent, unlimited, powerful and impossible to comprehend than anything, ever. Even in heaven, in the span of eternity, with fully formed and perfect minds, we will never know Him.
Resting Notes#
Under different circumstances you might have built products that you know God won’t approve of. You might have used the skills and wisdom God gave you to build tools and services that work against Him. But remember while you are alive and reading this, God is faithful to forgive you. God is able to handle consequences, but you need to be saved too. So repent and return to Christ. Your seat at the table is reserved for your return.
It is not too late to reorient yourself in the workplace as well. You might have been the type to not care for work, distract others, and have toxic relationships there. But like how a person who is going through grief, or a person who has had major surgery, you can behave differently and start a new workflow and attitude at work because of your transformation in Christ.