Should Pastors Use AI Sermon Tools?

Few questions generate as much quiet anxiety among pastors as this one. Not because the technology is impressive—but because the calling is sacred.

AI sermon tools promise speed, clarity, and relief from pressure. But sermons are not simply content. They are acts of witness, formed through prayer, study, and pastoral responsibility.

The Question Beneath the Question

The real issue is not whether pastors can use AI sermon tools. It is whether doing so reshapes what preaching becomes.

Preaching is not merely about delivering accurate information. It is about bearing witness to God’s Word as one who has been shaped by it.

Where AI Can Help (With Clear Boundaries)

Used carefully, AI tools can assist pastors in limited, non-authorial ways.

Permissible Assistance

AI may be appropriate for:

• Brainstorming sermon themes or questions
• Generating outline options for consideration
• Editing grammar or improving clarity of pastor-written text
• Summarizing background material already studied

In these cases, AI functions like a research assistant or editor—not a preacher.

Where AI Crosses a Line

Problems arise when AI tools move from assistance to authorship.

Practices That Undermine Integrity

• Using AI-generated sermons as primary manuscripts
• Preaching content the pastor has not wrestled with personally
• Outsourcing theological interpretation to automation
• Presenting AI-generated work as pastoral witness

The danger is not plagiarism in the narrow sense. The deeper danger is forming pastors who no longer labor under the Word themselves.

Formation, Not Efficiency

AI optimizes for speed. Scripture forms through patience.

The slow work of sermon preparation—prayer, frustration, revision, repentance— is not inefficiency. It is formation.

When that process is shortened too aggressively, something vital is lost: not polish, but depth.

A Pastoral Rule of Thumb

Before using any AI sermon tool, pastors should ask:

• Did I arrive at this insight through prayer and study?
• Could I defend this interpretation without the tool?
• Would I say this differently if speaking to my own congregation?
• Am I using this to clarify my voice—or replace it?

A Word to Church Leaders and Elders

This is not merely an individual ethics issue. It is a governance issue.

Churches should clearly articulate expectations around sermon preparation, authorship, and AI use—protecting both pastors and congregations from confusion or misplaced trust.

So… Should Pastors Use AI Sermon Tools?

With humility and restraint—perhaps.

As shortcuts, substitutes, or silent co-authors—no.

AI may assist the preacher. It must never replace the preacher’s formation under the Word.