The New York Post put out a piece about AI (Artificial Intelligence) writing sermons for church pastors. "The evolving consensus among clergy," they said "is 'Yes, they can write a passably competent sermon.'" At Church and Culture, someone described the work of ChatGPT as "creepily not bad." Completely and totally evil, but not bad.
Why not? Why can't an AI do the work of a pastor? Why can't a pastor get a sermon from an artificial intelligence? Well, it depends on what you're looking for from a pastor ... and a sermon. If you want "content" -- well-written, pithy, relevant, stuff -- then why not? That AI stuff is pretty smart. But if you want a Holy Spirit-inspired expression of God's Word from the heart of a loving pastor, I'm afraid that won't be coming from AI any time soon. Or ever. We've managed to create "artificial intelligence" (to some degree, I'd say), but what we have not managed to create is a living being with a God-given soul and spirit that can have a living, breathing relationship with the Triune God. If the heart of a good pastor is the spiritual health of his congregation through ministration of the Word, the heart of the best AI is ... nonexistent.
Once again we're making fundamental mistakes based on fundamental perceptions. Man is not so good that he can duplicate God's work in making a living being artificially. Humans are not mere machines. Sunday morning is not a motivational therapy session where a well-meaning automaton can produce a "best life now" spiel on hope. Think about it. What does a machine know about hope? We have not actually made artificial intelligence. We've made a complicated mimic that can fool the unwary. Church is about fellowship (Heb 10:25) and stimulating one another to love and good deeds (Heb 10:24) by the equipping of the saints for the building up of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12). God has provided the means for that (Eph 4:11), and any substitute we provide will be "creepily not bad," but certainly completely wrong.
2 comments:
ChatGPT could only be a valid source of sermons if humans are merely mechanical creatures without soul or spirit like all other animals, and Christianity is simply another religion made by man just as valid as any other religion.
Given all of the news over the past couple of years about pastors plagiarizing their sermons, this just seems like a logical step for those that don't want to put in the work.
But, what if a pastor writes their entire sermon, then runs it through chatgpt as a way to "polish" is?
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