Sermon preparation rarely looks heroic. It’s mostly hidden hours – an open Bible, scribbled notes and whispered prayers. Yet those of us called to preach know it is holy ground. We wrestle with the text not just to have something to say on Sunday, but to be shaped by the Word before we proclaim it. The work is slow and weighty, but that weightiness is one of the great privileges of ministry. Like Paul, we are compelled to preach (1 Cor. 9:16), not merely out of duty, but out of love: for Christ, for his people, and for the truth. It’s a work that humbles us, because it draws on our whole selves: study, prayer, creativity and repentance. Yet God meets us in it. Before the Word reaches the pulpit, it reaches the preacher and that is grace beyond measure.
In every generation, preachers have faced the temptation to bypass the hard path – to borrow words, to lean on others’ labour, and to reach for shortcuts instead of submitting to the slow shaping of the soul. In our generation, new tools have made the temptation even stronger. I’m talking, of course, about AI.
Brothers, do not ask AI to write your sermons for you. There is no joy or reward in crossing the finish line without having run the race.
That may sound surprising coming from someone helping to build AI-powered tools for one of the world’s leading Bible study apps. Yet there’s a difference between wisely embracing new technology and surrendering your calling as a shepherd. My hope is that this article will help you use AI tools with wisdom while remaining faithful to your calling as one who feeds Christ’s flock.
How does AI work?
At its core, AI tools like ChatGPT work by predicting what words are likely to come next in a sentence, based on patterns learned from massive amounts of text. They don’t think or reason like humans, but are good at sounding like they do. When you give a prompt, the AI generates a response by predicting what comes next, drawing on its training to generate answers that are coherent, often insightful and tailored to your input. However, these systems don’t know the Bible, they don’t care about truth and they can’t pray. They offer fluency, not faithfulness; speed, not sanctification; words, not worship; style, not soul.
Conversational AI tools
I use AI tools every day, including in my study and sermon preparation. In this context, we should consider general-purpose conversational AI tools (like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude) and specialist Bible-study tools like Logos (the app I work on). I use and benefit from both.
The strength of conversational AI tools is that they are open-ended. You can ask them for almost anything. They are fantastic conversation partners. In the context of sermon preparation, I think there are three primary use cases.
Getting unstuck
First, AI is great for ideation and getting you unstuck. Perhaps you’re midway through your prep, happy with the first two points, but stuck on the third. What you’ve written isn’t communicating what you want. You know what you want to say (so you’re not surrendering your calling), but you’re struggling to find the words. In that scenario, you can paste the first part of your sermon into a conversational AI tool, explain what you’re trying to do, and ask for several ideas. Because AI excels at predicting what words come next, it picks up on your style and substance from the first part and can help unblock you. That’s not to say you should blindly accept its suggestion, but usually, some of its ideas will be good enough to get you going again.
Here is an example prompt.
I’m writing a sermon. Here’s what I have so far. <Paste in the sermon or upload it> I’m struggling with that third point, though. I want to [explain what you hope to accomplish with this point]. Don’t write the point for me, but suggest some things I should be wrestling with as I write this point. Think about what I need to explain, what I need to illustrate, and what I need to apply. Be deeply rooted in the text.
How will my congregation hear my sermon?
Second, these tools are great for helping you understand how a sermon might land with your congregation. Describe what a faithful sermon looks like, and then describe someone the sermon should appeal to. It could be a real or imaginary person, or a composite of people in your congregation. Ask the AI to help you see the sermon from the other’s perspective. Repeat this exercise for two more characters different from the first. Over time, build up eight or ten of these ‘listeners’, and choose two or three each week to ‘listen’ to your sermon.
Here is an example prompt.
Faithful preaching is the Spirit-empowered, biblically faithful proclamation of God’s Word that exposits the text in context to reveal the glory of Christ crucified and risen. It brings the listener face to face with God through truth that convicts the heart, renews the mind, and transforms the life.
From the perspective of the following person, how well does the attached sermon achieve these goals? The person is a 70-year-old divorced woman, a Christian for thirty years. She’s spiritually mature, eager to serve, but limited by recent health issues and declining energy. Though no longer in paid work, she still seeks purpose and visibility in church life. She also carries deep concern for her children and grandchildren, who are not following Christ. How well does the following sermon speak to her? Did it show her what the Bible says? Did it help her see more of Jesus? Was the main message clear? Did it speak to her heart, not just her head? Will it change how she lives or trusts God this week? Be honest, and don’t flatter. Emphasise the weaknesses, not just the strengths.
<Paste the sermon into the prompt or upload it>
Improve the quality of my writing
Third, conversational AIs can improve the quality of your writing. If you’re looking for more memorable sermon headings or a vivid turn of phrase, AI can help, especially if you ask for several suggestions. Just ensure the AI understands your sermon notes are for spoken, not written delivery.
Here is an example prompt.
This is a paragraph from the sermon I’m working on. I’m happy with WHAT it communicates, but not HOW it communicates it. It should be marked by clarity, boldness, truthfulness, and Christ-centred proclamation – speaking not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, with language that is plain, urgent, and filled with reverent awe, so that the listener encounters not merely a preacher, but the living God through his Word.
Give me several suggestions on how this paragraph could be improved using the advice above without altering its meaning. Remember that a sermon is spoken, not written.
<Insert the paragraph here>
Specialist Bible study tools
Conversational AI tools are powerful because they’re flexible. You can ask almost anything and they’ll usually help. That openness comes at a cost: accuracy. Ask for a Bible verse and the citation might be wrong. Ask a detailed question and the answer may sound confident but be subtly off. Good responses often rely on well-crafted prompts, something that takes time, experience, and trial and error.
That’s where AI-powered specialist Bible study tools come in. These aren’t general-purpose chatbots trying to do everything. They’re focused, purpose-built for biblical studies.
There are two main kinds. The first depends almost entirely on AI, and most of the content is generated on the fly. The second (like Logos, which I’m involved with) blends AI with a deep library of trusted books, tools and curated datasets. Instead of generating answers from scratch, these tools use AI to help you find and engage with the work of real pastors, authors and scholars.
I’m not a neutral voice, but I don’t use tools that rely solely on AI. They feel to me like toolboxes filled only with screwdrivers. That’s fine if you’re turning screws but if you need to measure, cut or level, they’re no help. Worse, when all you have is a screwdriver, you’ll try to use it for things it was never meant to do. I want a toolkit that brings the best of everything together, like Logos’ Smart Synopsis (AI plus the best books) or Smart Bible Search (AI plus top Bible translations). Whatever platform you choose, I’d encourage you to look for tools that combine trustworthy scholarship and pastoral insight with the efficiency of AI.
There’s another reason I’m cautious of AI-only tools: they’re trained mostly on what’s freely available online. They’ve probably never read Doug Moo on Romans, Don Carson on John, or Alec Motyer on Isaiah. They can’t tell you what those authors say, only what others might have said about them. They also lack access to curated databases found in premium Bible study software. That’s a serious limitation when asking precise questions, like ‘How is gnōmē translated in the ESV?’ When I asked that, ChatGPT missed two of the nine occurrences. That’s not rare. Plausible-sounding errors are called hallucinations and it’s a key risk of AI. For detailed word studies, traditional Bible software is far more reliable.
So my toolkit is Logos (for access to commentaries, word studies, and AI-assisted searching), supplemented by ChatGPT when I need more generalist help.
However, you build your toolkit, ensure it multiplies the effort you invest, not replaces it. Preaching isn’t a task to outsource. It’s a calling to be embraced. We must master the tools, but be mastered by Christ and his Word.
