AI Makes Sermon Prep Effortless. That’s the Problem.

The question of using AI during sermon preparation seems to be getting more than a bit of attention these days, and the overall direction of some pastors’ thinking on that question concerns me. It concerns me deeply.

I remember receiving my first email from an AI-sermon-assistant company. I replied immediately, no doubt naively assuming I’d be communicating with a human. I asked whomever had sent me the email to shut down what they were doing, and right away. I told them that what they were offering would cut out the very heart of preaching, to say nothing of the heart of the preachers who use their product.

I think about what Paul says to Timothy, words that should ring in the ears and register in every preacher’s heart : “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15, emphasis added).

You’d almost think Paul was trying to say something there: “Rightly handling God’s Word requires work, Timothy. Don’t neglect to do the work, Timothy.” We shouldn’t overlook or minimize Paul’s repeated emphasis on hard work.

I also think of how Ezra’s approach to his ministry of the Word is described: “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10, emphasis added). That “study” piece seems important.

We shouldn’t overlook or minimize Paul’s repeated emphasis on hard work.

Pastor, when you’re considering whether to use AI in your sermon preparation, first ask, How would I otherwise get done what I’m asking AI to do for me? What am I forfeiting by using AI to do this?

In many, perhaps most, cases, what I’m replacing is careful, prolonged thought and earnest, prolonged prayer. But those tasks are absolutely essential to faithful sermon preparation. Without them, our preaching is something other than what God has called us to do.

Any time you ask AI to replace essential study and prayer, you’ll deprive both yourself and your hearers of what’s necessary for faithful and effective preaching. There are two major reasons for this.

1. God uses careful study and earnest prayer to mold the preacher.

This prolonged work produces an effect that turns preaching from public speaking on a religious theme to a presentation of God’s Word in demonstration of the Spirit’s power. I love how Christopher Watkin puts this: “Which tasks are doing irreplaceable work in me while I do them?”

I trust we’re all thoroughly convinced of the priority of character in the equation of our preaching. How is this character built? God works character and credibility in us as we submit to the hard and thorough work necessary for preaching. Certain qualities are only developed through struggle and suffering.

Too often, way too often, AI eliminates the struggle and suffering, and as a result, the preacher is rendered anemic and insufficiently formed. Then, unavoidably, our people are underserved—in fact, ill served.

2. God uses careful study and earnest prayer to mold the sermon.

Not only does using AI forfeit a necessary work in the preacher, but it also forfeits a work necessary to the process of sermon preparation itself. Careful, prolonged study and earnest, prolonged prayer are needed if preachers are to understand the Word they’re called to preach. There’s no getting around this.

We need to take seriously Paul’s words to the Corinthians:

Who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual (1 Cor. 2:11–13, emphasis added).

Paul then speaks of the things of God as being “spiritually discerned” (v. 14). How else are we to understand and discern spiritual things than by the Spirit? And how else are we to lay hold of the Spirit’s work than by humble, prolonged, earnest communion with him?

Pastor, when you’re considering whether to use AI in your sermon preparation, first ask, ‘What am I forfeiting by using AI to do this?’

These reasons are close to being two sides of the same coin, but each has a unique nuance. And in each case, something essential to preaching is forfeited by AI’s intrusion.

Now, you might legitimately ask, Is there no place at all for using AI in sermon preparation? I can’t go so far as to say there’s absolutely no use to which AI can be put safely and without loss.

But I appeal to all Christian preachers: Brothers, use it ever so sparingly and briefly, perhaps for some small bit of research. But never use it at the expense of your heart and the integrity of your calling. You were called to a task that requires prolonged, careful study and prolonged, earnest prayer. Don’t give those efforts up and in the process give over the effectiveness God promises to those who willingly do the work.