Should AI write sermons?

Imagine your pastor steps up to the pulpit this Sunday and delivers an eloquent, easy-to-follow message on a particular passage of scripture. He or she provides context on where you are in the Bible, making clear the timeline of the book, its provenance, and its contents. You also hear dramatic storytelling about the characters or themes in the book that make you feel like you’re right in the middle of the action. The pastor concludes with some takeaways and applications for a modern life lived with God and his people. You come away better for having heard such clear instruction, and you’re delighted as you walk out the door.

Would your opinion change if you discovered that the pastor used AI to write most of the sermon? How would that make you feel?

This is what a friend and I discussed the other night after dinner. As you know, I’m rather optimistic and hopeful about AI, particularly generative AI and its impact on modern knowledge work.

Now, a modern pastor uses many tech applications throughout their day to assist their work. Perhaps they use an iPad to preach or take notes, productivity apps to manage projects or their teams, or something like Logos Bible Software to research and prepare a sermon. Logos even helps with sermon starter guides and workflows, as well as slides and media to build great-looking teaching aids.

Today’s pastor also uses AI throughout their day rather frequently. Think of Google’s everyday tools like Search, Maps, Calendar, or Gmail. Google allows pastors to type emails and documents more quickly by pressing the Tab key to auto-complete sentences. Google Maps uses AI to provide your pastor with up-to-the-minute traffic details on their route to the church, hospital, or funeral home. Perhaps your pastor uses AI apps to help them schedule meetings, take notes, or run the church’s finances.

That raises an interesting question. If you would be uncomfortable with your pastor using AI to write sermons, where is the line for “acceptable” technology or AI to enhance their work?

Consider that many pastors use tools and methodologies to enhance work that is, strictly speaking, not their own. Think of research firms like Ministry Pass or Docent Group that “custom create—from scratch—content for busy pastors: sermon research, congregational surveys, small group, discipleship, and leadership pipeline curriculum, book summaries, assistance in turning the pastor’s content into books, and position papers and training seminars to help staff and/or attenders grapple with cultural challenges.”

Is this kind of work supplemental to the mission of God, or does it replace the pastor’s communion with God? After all, a pastor is God’s mouthpiece, as it were, to help the congregation grow closer in their understanding and relationship with the Lord. But perhaps that role has changed with the advent of modern information and technology? I, for one, am critical of lengthy sermons, which historically served the purpose of educating a largely illiterate congregation, a service that has maybe run its course now that all of human knowledge is available in a click.

But does it matter what type of work it is? Perhaps a sermon or prayer is anathema for AI, but is a pastor’s letter to a congregant, a book, or a Bible study still okay? After all, today’s popular pastors routinely use ghostwriters to produce content, a practice that John Piper convincingly calls a lie.

Is there a difference between writing and editing? Suppose the pastor wrote the entire sermon, but then had AI edit it to make it sound clearer. Is that a sanctimonious use of this new service? Maybe there’s a short-staffed, bi-vocational pastor who uses AI to answer the phone or reply to messages from potential members?

Thus, I think this is the question every pastor should grapple with when it comes to AI: What percentage of your words are supposed to be the result of your relationship with God, and how much comes from the result of the work of others, whether commentaries, assistants, editors, or AI programs?

There’s not an easy answer. But I am hopeful that we find some middle ground. I’m betting on pastors using AI programs more frequently as the technology develops. After all, transmitting information should be only a small portion of the pastor’s daily work. What’s most important is that they be present with their people amid joy and sorrow, cultivating relationships and a culture that bring real life transformation.

I’m hopeful pastors will build on the God-given, creative efforts of others who build technology that serves the kingdom, freeing them up for the most important things: relationships with their people. Otherwise, their members will simply pass by, seeking information from the latest and greatest on YouTube, served up by AI-based algorithms.