Among sermon writers, there is fascination — and uneasiness — about the capabilities of artificial intelligence chatbots on the fly. Now, the emerging consensus among scholars is: Yes, they can write sermons that work. But no, they cannot imitate the real preaching spirit.
“There is no soul — I don’t know how to say it,” said Hershael York, a pastor in Kentucky who is also dean of the school of theology and professor of Christian teaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Sermons are meant to be the heart of worship – and often the best faith leader each week to draw the congregation’s attention to provide theological and moral guidance.
A lazy pastor might be tempted to use AI for this purpose, York said, “but not a great shepherd, who loves to preach, who loves his people.”
A rabbi in New York, Joshua Franklin, recently told a congregation at the Hamptons Jewish Center that he would give a plagiarized sermon – addressing issues such as trust, vulnerability and forgiveness.
After he finished, he asked the congregation to guess who wrote it. When he looked confused, he revealed that the writer was ChatGPT, responding to his request to write a 1,000-word sermon related to that week’s Torah lesson.
“Now, you’re clapping — I’m so scared,” Franklin said as some of the congregation applauded. “I thought truck drivers would be far before marriage, about losing our position to artificial intelligence.”
“ChatGPT may be great for sounding intelligent, but the question is, can it be empathetic? And, at least, it can’t be,” added Franklin. He says that AI has not developed compassion and love, and cannot build community and relationships.
“Those are the things that bring us together,” the rabbi concluded.
Rachael Keefe, pastor of Living Table United Church of Christ in Minneapolis, conducted a similar experiment with Franklin. He posted a short essay in Pastoral Notes online in January, about how to take care of your mental health amid the stress of the holiday season.
It’s fun, but a bit bland, and at the end, Keefe reveals that it was written by ChatGPT, not himself.
“When the truth is true, there is something deeper,” he wrote. “AI can’t understand community and inclusiveness and how important those things are to building a church.”
Several members of the congregation responded.
“It’s not bad, but yes, I agree. More common and a bit scary,” wrote Douglas Federhart. “I like what you wrote more. It comes from a real living being, with a big brain and a compassionate heart.”
Todd Brewer, a New Testament scholar and managing editor of the Christian website Mockingbird, wrote in December about his own experiment — asking ChatGPT to write a Christmas sermon for him.
He was specific, asking for a sermon “based on Luke’s nativity narrative, with quotes from Karl Barth, Martin Luther, Irenaeus of Lyon, and Barack Obama.”
Brewer wrote that he was “unprepared” when ChatGPT responded with a creation that met his criteria and was “better than some of the Christmas sermons I’ve heard over the years.”
“The AI even seems to understand what makes the birth of Jesus good news,” added Brewer.
But ChatGPT’s sermons “lack human warmth,” he wrote. “The preaching of Artificial Intelligence cannot convince us of sympathy with the human condition.”
In Brentwood, Tennessee, Mike Glenn, senior pastor for 32 years at Brentwood Baptist Church, wrote a blog post in January after his computer-savvy assistant joked that Glenn could be replaced by an AI machine.
“I’m not buying it,” Glenn wrote. “AI will not be able to teach a decent sermon. Why? Because the Gospel is more than words. It is evidence of a changed life.”
“When listening to a sermon, what the congregation is looking for is evidence that the pastor has been with Jesus,” Glenn added. “AI will have to – literally – take other people’s word for it… it will never be a sermon that will convince anyone to come and follow Jesus.”
Also weighing in with online essays is the Reverend Russell Moore, formerly head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy division and now editor-in-chief of the Christian Gospel magazine Today. He admitted to his readers that his first sermon, delivered at the age of 12, was a good mess.
“Preaching requires someone who understands the text and can deliver it to people — but not just deliver information,” Moore wrote. “When we listen to the Word preached, we don’t just hear words about God, but words from God.”
“That life-changing news needs to be delivered by a human being, personally,” he said. “A chatbot can research. A chatbot can write. Maybe a chatbot can even speak. But a chatbot can’t preach.
The Southern Baptist department previously chaired by Moore – the Commission on Ethics and Religious Freedom – has been monitoring the development of artificial intelligence for several years under the direction of Jason Thacker, chair of research on technology ethics.
He points out that “wise and pious pastors” will not allow new technology to prevent them from personal immersion in sermon writing.
“But I can also see it being used in a way that is not useful or unethical,” he said.
“Some young pastors may be too dependent on the machine … and don’t see the downside of the tool,” Thacker told The Associated Press. “A lot of pastors are overworked, tired, full of anxiety … People can understand why a pastor might say, ‘I can’t do all that I have to do,’ and then take that idea for granted.”
Hershael York, a Kentucky pastor and professor, says that some of the greatest sermons contain an element of sorrow.
“Artificial intelligence can mimic it to some degree. But I don’t think it can give you the feeling of suffering, pain, grief, like humans can,” he said. “It comes from the heart and soul — that’s what great pastors have, and I don’t think you can get that by proxy.”
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