Sunrise Church Statement on AI in Preaching
“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 Timothy 2:15
God knows nothing of a faithful, plagiarized sermon. Paul stresses in 2 Timothy 2:15 that the responsibility of our ministry is not just to say the true gospel. We don’t just present our content to God for approval; we present ourselves. Our ultimate approval is found in Christ. And faithful ministry has faithful ministers. There are those who “need to be ashamed”, like Hymenaeus and Philetus (2:17). Of course, their words have fallen short of the truth. But, crucially, their lives have too (2:18).
God doesn’t just want work, or content. He wants workers doing their best, rightly handling the word of truth. When we delegate the work of “rightly handling the word of truth” to anyone or anything, we miss the call. God wants His messengers to be formed through His word, by His Spirit, into Christ-like representatives of the message they declare. To be competent at handling the word, and being handled by it, is essential to the ethos of gospel proclamation. This is not meant to be a weight for those learning to preach (we all are). Quite the opposite: God patiently approves of us as we ‘do our best’ and rest on the sufficiency of The Perfect One we proclaim. As we diligently learn to proclaim, God covers our shortcomings along the way. This is meant to distill a simple point: God knows nothing of a faithful, plagiarized sermon.
That word is always relevant, but especially in the age of AI. MIT has studied the cost of ChatGPT on brain activity, but AI has an obvious cost on preaching too. At Sunrise Church, this forms a preaching conviction: AI must not replace the core work of sermon preparation. Here are some commitments our preachers adhere to so that AI does not give us ‘cause for shame’ in our preaching. As these technologies develop, this list may expand. We encourage preachers to relate to this biblical conviction according to its spirit rather than its letter:
As preachers, we present ourselves to God and do not use AI to write our sermons, in whole or in part;
As preachers, we seek to rightly handle the word of truth and so do not use AI to exegete/outline the passage;
As preachers, we seek the guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit to understand the text and do not use AI to consult commentaries before doing so;
As preachers, we only use facts surfaced in sermons from AI research (ex: bible verses, quotes, secular research) if we can validate their truth and correct use in their original contexts;
As preachers, we earnestly labor with God to write our sermon before consulting AI for any legitimate use in the sermon writing process.
Legitimate uses of AI, after earnestly laboring with God to achieve that end yourself, include:
Surfacing facts (ex: bible verses, commentaries, secular research) more efficiently than a Google search (ex: what are 10 bible verses on shame);
Pinpointing illustrations from nature, history, creative media, etc, for a specific concept that you have already identified (ex: give me 10 salient quotes from movies, books, poems, TV and history about the pain of breakups);
Asking for recommendations of where to cut down verbose language from your manuscript (ex: I am 300 words over, what are 500 possible words I could cut?);
Uploading files of your sermon manuscript and our Sermon Review Form to ask for feedback, while providing sound theological guardrails (ex: ChatGPT, assess my sermon manuscript according to the Sermon Review Form. Be very specific about areas that fit the criteria and highlight areas for improvement according to the criteria. Please be very specific in this feedback, especially in the areas for improvement. I respect the preaching styles of Tim Keller, John Piper, Jon Tyson, Ben Stuart, Charlie Dates, Bryan Lorritts and Charles Spurgeon.)
In addition to prayer and personal labor, preachers must think critically about any use of AI. Algorithms hallucinate. Not all advice, even from veteran pastors, should be applied. And, crucially, we do not trust in direction from the technological cloud, but the Heavenly Cloud. Be sensitive to God’s will for your formation as you seek to redeem all of creation for His glory.