Why I Won’t Use AI for Preaching

A teenager asked me, “Would you ever use Chat GPT to write a sermon?”  The controversy around AI generated papers and essays is vigorous.  But I hadn’t given much thought to using artificial intelligence to write a sermon.  

I must admit I’ve never used Chat GPT.  But here’s why I won’t use it for sermons.  

Preaching is Personal and Relational.  A sermon is not an info dump.  It requires living life with people day in and day out.  Listen to the teenager who just got cut from the football team.  To the widow who thinks something’s wrong because she still cries when thinking about her husband.  To the young mother of three in survival mode who hasn’t washed her hair in a week.  They deserve more than an aggregation of data, or a conglomerate of the internet’s “best of.” They need personal proclamation, not generic information.  

Preaching is Prayerful.  Chat GPT may write a marvelous theological essay (or not).  But a sermon is not an essay or seminary paper.  N.T. Wright once remarked that we should pray as much as we prepare for a sermon.  If you spend ten hours a week in sermon prep, you should be praying for ten hours.  His point wasn’t the hours, but the prayer-soaked side of bringing a word from God to people.  I don’t want AI to distract me from the essential work of prayer in sermon preparation.  

Preaching is Particular.  A sermon is a particular word to a particular congregation of people in a particular moment in time.  Algorithmic assembly of word patterns mined from the internet will produce generic religious jargon.  My people don’t need godtalk, but sacred speech forged by the Holy Spirit and delivered to them at a particular moment in time and space.  

The Best Preaching Comes by Struggle.  Martin Luther King, Jr. once called preaching “a vocation of agony.”  You wrestle with what God is saying in the text.  You wrestle with the sins and troubles facing your people.  You wrestle with society’s struggles.  

Preaching is a moment at which all these come together.  The preacher is often torn apart from standing in the middle. But the best sermons are forged in this fire.  When you wrestle with God, you come out the other side with a powerful word to preach, not a paper to deliver.  

Preaching Is Not Efficient.  I understand that preachers may use AI to generate first drafts, and then make it their own.  I could be persuaded to use AI in research and organization.  It may save time and gain efficiency.  That said, preaching has never been an efficient vocation.  Sometimes the words flow and sometimes it's stubborn futility.  Some of the best sermons come out of inefficient agony. (See the previous point on struggle.)  

Preaching Can’t Be a Parody.  In the end, I can’t use Chat GPT for the same reason I can’t preach someone’s else’s sermon.  In preaching, God uses a specific voice to speak for him.  It needs to be an authentic voice, not a parody.  It dare not be cliche or a regurgitation of slogans. I refuse to be a fraud pastor.  That means I have to use my authentic voice, as flawed as it may be.  If we rely on code to preach, it will ring fake.  

The Word OF GOD.  It is the Word of God, not of man or machine.   The legacy of prophets and preachers is one of being “possessed” by God.  Prophets are “mouth pieces for God.”  The preacher becomes a conduit of God’s mighty power.  I fear that I might use a machine as a crutch.  I dare not be distracted from dependence on my primary source.  

I could be wrong about the use of artificial intelligence.  It might work for some preachers. I might laugh at myself 10 years from now.  But today, this is my answer to a teenager’s question.