Introduction

Launched on 30th November 2022, ChatGPT is a Transformer-based Language Model that has astounded many with its remarkably human-like ability to perform sophisticated and complex tasks1. Since its launch, it has gained tremendous popularity, attaining a hundred million users in just 2 months2. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), it can generate human-like responses to questions and statements in a conversational manner3. Its surprising capabilities have prompted users worldwide to employ it for a wide range of purposes.
Reportedly, ChatGPT has been utilized to assist researchers in writing essays, summarizing literature data and even identifying research gaps4. It has also demonstrated the ability to achieve a passing or near-passing result on the United States Medical Licensing Examination as well as aiding in translation, solving mathematical problems, and coding5. Its successor, GPT-4 is touted to be even better with early studies indicating its superior performance on bar exams compared to ChatGPT and even outperforming human test-takers6. Generative AIs like ChatGPT and GPT4 have the potential to revolutionize existing educational practices and traditional approaches to research writing due to their powerful capabilities. Consequently, it is no surprise that educators and academics have eagerly sought to study and evaluate the ethical implementation of AI language models in their respective fields.
Within the Christian community, the rise of AI and Large Language Models (LLM) capable of drafting competent essays raises important questions regarding the place and role of AI within the church. Scholars such as William Young have previously explored the concept of “Digital Clergy” and how AI could potentially assist preachers in drafting sermons7. Though the latter may be more achievable due to its narrower focus, it remains a creative and intricate task, as Young aptly summarises,
Composing a sermon arguably is a much more highly creative endeavor. A sermon must be theologically grounded, soundly argued, and culturally relevant. Ideally, it also will be moving and inspirational with rhetorical flourish—a far cry from a corporate earnings report8.
Considering the current capabilities of AI, can it truly aid preachers in composing a competent sermon? A small study by Dale Chamberlain on ChurchLeaders demonstrated that ChatGPT was able to summarize and accurately communicate fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith9. Pastors and leaders from both the Christian and Jewish communities have also experimented with employing the use of ChatGPT in sermon writing10. Notably, Rabbi Joshua Franklin reportedly used ChatGPT to craft a sermon which he then delivered to his congregation at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons. While the sermon was well received, congregants expressed a common sentiment of a lack of empathy and human touch within the sermon. This observation prompted many who participated in similar various small-scale experiments to conclude that AI will not be able to replace humans in crafting sermons11. However, given the current rapid progression of generative AI, it is conceivable that more human-like responses could very well be achieved. This could potentially lead to a novel form of online preaching which utilizes AI-generated sermons. The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the digital church and brought about an increased availability and utilization of online streaming services. A study conducted in February 2021 on Protestant churches in the United States found 85% of churchgoers attending churches that offered a live stream of their service, with 76% of them stating their church posted a video that can be watched anytime12. These figures mark a significant rise from September 2019 when only 41% of churches were reported to have streamed or uploaded any portion of their church service online13. According to the same study, 80% of the churchgoers who attended a church that had an online service watched worship services through an online medium. The integration of AI-generated sermons with technologies capable of producing hyper-realistic videos and audio could potentially bring about synthetic sermon videos, thereby making virtual congregations with content created by AI a tangible reality. Pastors could also leverage generative AI technology as a tool to assist them in crafting sermons or even automate this process entirely in the future. Despite the potential implications on the theology and practice of preaching, the use of AI in the Christian context has seen a notable lack of comprehensive studies compared to other fields. Further research is needed to explore the impact of AI in preaching and its broader implications within the Christian community.
Besides the aforementioned articles concerning sermons generated by ChatGPT and their references, the researcher found a lack of empirical studies that have attempted to investigate the use of AI in automating the process of sermon composition. A thorough literature search on Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar yielded no results regarding empirical studies on the use of AI in preaching. Thus far, studies conducted in this area have been limited to small-scale, journalistic studies that did not employ a rigorous methodology to analyze the content and structure of the sermons. Instead, these studies focused primarily on the personal emotional impact of the sermon content as a means of evaluating the potential for AI to assist in sermon preparation. This research paper aims to address this gap by adopting a Grounded Theory approach to gain a better understanding of the process of sermon composition by ChatGPT, using the gospel message as a specific case study. Additionally, the paper seeks to evaluate the capability of ChatGPT to generate theologically sound sermons that resemble sermons crafted by human preachers. The author hopes that this study will stimulate further discourse on the use of AI in preaching and teaching within the church, considering its theological and ethical implications. The ultimate goal is to effectively utilize AI as a tool to enhance the education and ministry of the church within a biblical framework.