I recently learned of a pastor who was removed from his role after one of his elders discovered he wasn’t writing his own sermons. He had been downloading them from a “sermon supplier” website and preaching them as if they were his.
Even without the power of GenAI (or Generative Artificial Intelligence, such as ChatGPT), some pastors disregard morality for the sake of saving time. This is a real problem, even though it is rare. GenAI makes stealing sermons even easier.
Before I explain why you should limit your use of GenAI, I must admit I don’t wholly forbid it. When you start typing into Google’s search engine, you’re using GenAI. It’s not wrong to use technology to find what exact verse says “iron sharpens iron.” Likewise, it’s not wrong to use GenAI to correct typos, alliterate key points, or find related verses to your text. Personally, out of the current GenAI options, I prefer using Claude. My conscience allows me to use some GenAI. I use it almost daily.
But you should limit its use in sermon preparation for these four reasons.
1. Using GenAI is (Often) Plagiarism
Plagiarism is grounds for removal from the pastoral office. It breaks two of the Ten Commandments: stealing and coveting. Stealing includes taking something that belongs to your neighbour, and whether goats, apples, or intellectual creativity.
Coveting is wrongly desiring something that is not your own. You shall not covet the humor of Matt Chandler, the zeal of John Piper, the wisdom of Tim Keller, nor the fame of John Mark Comer. A sin like plagiarizing someone else’s sermon begins in the heart as covetousness. Pastor, you are known and loved by Christ, you have no need to impress your congregation by playing pretend.
2. Using GenAI Will Stunt Your Growth
The greatest calling of the pastor is not the delivery of a sermon but the development of character. You should not be a pastor unless you are virtuous and growing in virtue (see 1 Timothy 3 and the context surrounding Paul’s admonition to Timothy, “that all might see your progress” in 1 Timothy 4:15).
I fear too many pastors are caught up in questions of “what’s best?” instead of “what’s good?” It’s good to grow in your love and joy in your people, which develops as you write (cf. 1 John 1:4). Writing sermons forces you to consider your audience and write for them. It is an act of love. I tell students that using GenAI to write their papers is like going to a gym and bringing a robot to lift the weights. By using GenAI to write sermons, you bypass an opportunity to grow essential love muscles, including in your knowledge of God and your love of God’s people.
3. Using GenAI Can Dehumanize The Church
Church gatherings are not mere content delivery mechanisms – they are the embodied proclamation of the risen Lord in a fallen world. The church is not filled with “brains on a stick,” but image-bears of God. Pastor, you cannot feed them via machinery. The drive for time-savings in all aspects of life is a sinful tendency. Machines may speak in every tongue but they cannot love; they cannot be patient, they cannot be kind (cf. 1 Cor. 13:4).
I worry many churches started down a slippery slope years ago, adopting what is pragmatic in their gathered assemblies, instead of looking to Scripture. Perhaps it started with a seeker-sensitive movement, or laxity through the pandemic, or more likely, a deeper technological integration into church programming. Even so, we must ensure our doctrine of the church (ecclesiology) is more informed by historical, biblical orthodoxy than by pragmatic innovation. It is better for a pastor to be present with his people and to preach a text without elegance or extensive research than for a corner-cutting pastor to rely on technology. Some trust in chariots, others in Chatbots, but we trust in the name of the Lord (Ps. 20:7). Give me an image-bearer who is in love with God and has wrestled with him in the text, not a machine made to mirror man.
When a pastor writes a sermon, he is informed by many decisions about “what we need to hear” that are sometimes unconscious, formed by pastoral visitations throughout the week. GenAI doesn’t have access to the kind of data a pastor has, the human data (which is not “data” at all, as people cannot be quantified into machinery).
4. Using GenAI Can Cause Division
I anticipate that at least some church members would have issues of conscience with GenAI being used to generate content like sermon introductions, or even the discussion questions for small groups. As a church leader, you need to be careful about introducing new tools or practices that could cause division. And if you’re embarrassed to admit you use GenAI, then that’s a sign you shouldn’t. Romans 14 calls the church to unity amid division on secondary matters, and I believe the potential damage to people’s consciences outweighs the individual benefits a pastor might gain.
Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 8–10 Paul explains that idols may not be problematic in themselves, but it is the perception of others and their consciences that matters. That principle applies here—our freedom in using technology must not come at the cost of your brother’s conscience.
For all the reasons listed above and more, your sermon doesn’t need GenAI.
Pastors have long used commentaries, cross-references, copies of other pastors’ sermons, exegesis tools—and rightly so, in moderation. Most would agree these are aids, not crutches, when used well. But GenAI introduces a new gray area. Asking ChatGPT for feedback on an already written sermon and lightly incorporating some feedback doesn’t seem to cross an ethical line. But what about an AI-generated illustration? Drafting an outline from a text? Crafting a polished conclusion? Personally, I avoid those uses, for the reasons above, but I understand why some pastors might go down that path.
We need to ask more than, “How might this save me time?” Ultimately, a pastor must ask himself and his elders: Is my use of GenAI ethical? Is it plagiarism? Is it stunting my growth or producing unintended consequences? Does it contribute to the dehumanization of the gathered assembly? Might it cause division?
Those are the questions we must ask. Because no matter the tool, no matter the trend, we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to algorithms and foolishness in a technological age.
