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.