Josh Greiner
A counselee can now take the homework sheet you handed him on Tuesday, type it into ChatGPT (or their AI service of choice), and have it finished before he pulls out of the church parking lot. The chapter summary, the ten things worth underlining, the list of verses on anger, the paragraph on what he learned this week. It all comes back in seconds, and it probably reads better than what he would have written himself.
I think we all agree that this would create a huge problem in counseling. Counselees who use AI to do all their homework would not benefit from the change process homework was meant to support. But let me turn the question around for a moment. Let me turn it back to the counselor first. If AI could do all of the homework you assigned, then you may have failed as a counselor, because everything you assigned might have been solely cognitive.
Where Our Homework Stalls
Ephesians 4 gives us the pattern for change. We lay aside the old man (v. 22), we are renewed in the spirit of our mind (v. 23), and we put on the new man (v. 24). Then Paul makes it concrete: “He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need” (Ephesians 4:28). Paul is not content with the thief simply stopping. He wants him working, and he wants him giving.
So much counseling homework stops at verse 23. We assign a passage to memorize, a chapter to read, a sermon to listen to, a journal to fill out. Those are good assignments, and don’t hear me say otherwise. But if every assignment on the sheet lives in the head, we have stopped short of the change the Bible calls for. James puts it this way: “But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22).
AI just makes this problem easier to see. A chatbot can read, summarize, define, outline, and explain. It will even invent a week of journal entries if you ask it to. But it cannot sit across the kitchen table from an angry spouse and give a gentle answer. Only your counselee can do that. Or, to put it another way, what is the difference between the homework you assigned and what ChatGPT could turn in for him? If there is no difference, he can finish all of it from his recliner, and he has not been asked to do what God is calling him to do.
Assignments a Chatbot Can’t Turn In
Here is my point. Reading and memorizing are not the problem. The problem is when that is all many assign. If every piece of the homework could be completed by typing it into a chatbot, then nothing on the sheet requires the counselee to obey.
Consider a college student in the first few weeks of counseling for pornography. Here is how some common assignments look, and how a small addition changes them:
- Reading. “Read Chapter 1 of Heath Lambert’s Finally Free and underline ten things you found helpful.” A chatbot can produce ten things to underline without anyone opening the book. Add this: “Come ready to share one example of how you applied a principle from the chapter this week.” Now he has to live something before he can report it.
- Memorization. “Memorize 1 Corinthians 10:13–14.” A chatbot can type out the verse. It cannot take the way of escape. Add this: “Write out a list of ways you will flee in the moment of temptation. Put it on your phone, on your fridge, and in your bathroom, and give a copy to your accountability partner. Come with at least two stories of when you used it.”
- Accountability. “Contact a godly man in our church and ask him to join us in counseling as your accountability partner. Do this by tomorrow at 10:00 PM. If he is willing, have him reach out to me.” There is no version of this a chatbot can complete. He either called or he didn’t.
- Serving. “Contact the head of maintenance and ask if you can help with cleanup after Wednesday night ministries and after Sunday morning services.” A young man who has spent his evenings alone in his room now has somewhere to be on Wednesday night.
Notice that he is still reading and still memorizing. We are not dropping the renewing of the mind. We just don’t stop there.
Why Doing-Homework Serves the Counseling Room
Now, there is another benefit here. Homework that requires action gives us what we need in the session.
It is objective. When I review homework, I use a simple system: a check mark means it was done, an X means it was not. “Did you call him?” has a yes or no answer. “How did your reading go?” usually does not.
Think about a husband who will read every chapter on biblical leadership you assign him. Then you ask him to lead a fifteen-minute meeting with his wife on Sunday night, and he doesn’t. Now you have seen his passivity with your own eyes, and you have something to work on. Homework like that exposes the heart.
My eldest son (13) is growing like a weed right now. While our family does not do this, many folks do: they mark their children’s heights on doors at various ages. By marking height on the doorframe and checking it again a few months later, you can see the growth. Action-based homework gives the counselor, the counselee, or a pastor that same kind of mark on the wall if it is being completed. When there is a question of actual growth (or lack thereof) you can look back on the action items in your homework.
One Question Before You Hand It Over
Let me say a word if you are feeling a bit discouraged here. Writing good homework is hard, and it takes time. If you can’t finish it in the session, take a few minutes afterward, pray, and come back to it.
When you are done writing homework for a session, read the sheet back and ask: Could a chatbot do all of this for my counselee? If the answer is “Yes,” then let’s take another pass at the homework!
About the Author
Josh Greiner is an ACBC-certified counselor and Fellow. He serves as Lead Pastor of Berean Baptist Church of Portage, Michigan, where he leads the church’s biblical counseling ministry. He is married to Shana, and they have four children.
