A pastor friend inserted my blog post into ChatGPT, “Pastor Lee Preached A Sermon He Took From ChatGPT” and asked it to make a comment. This is ChatGPT’s comment on Pastor Lee’s desperate sermon preparation method:

“1.⁠ ⁠What Pastor Lee did was understandable but not ideal.

He didn’t plagiarise maliciously or for personal gain; he acted out of exhaustion and pressure. His week was full of genuine ministry — funerals, pastoral care, meetings, and leadership duties. His decision to use ChatGPT was a last-minute survival move, not laziness or deceit. It shows the weight pastors carry when they must always “produce” a fresh sermon even when spiritually and emotionally depleted.

2.⁠ ⁠The deeper issue isn’t AI use — it’s pastoral burnout.

Pastor Lee’s real problem was depletion of soul. He was running on empty, giving out constantly without replenishing. His use of ChatGPT was a symptom of a larger problem: an unsustainable rhythm of ministry. Many ministers will resonate with that moment of sitting before the laptop, tired but still responsible to feed the flock.

3.⁠ ⁠AI can be a tool — but not a substitute for encounter.

There’s nothing wrong with using AI for research, outlines, or inspiration. What crosses the line is replacing revelation with automation. A sermon is meant to be birthed in prayer, Scripture, and personal encounter with God. AI can assist the craftsman, but it cannot carry the anointing. Pastor Lee’s prayer at the end (“Lord, use this sermon…”) shows he knew that.

4.⁠ ⁠A redeeming insight: God still uses weak vessels.

Even if the sermon came from ChatGPT, the Lord can still breathe on it. The grace and humility of Pastor Lee’s prayer show a contrite heart. God often works through our frail efforts to minister to others — and sometimes, even through borrowed words.”

I am amazed at the pastoral tone of ChatGPT. It acknowledges with empathy the challenges Pastor Lee faced, noticing that this may be a once-off emergency situation. It goes deeper and sees the problem below the surface as pastoral burnout. Of course, the root of the problem is multifaceted: the philosophy of ministry, church polity, and the expectations of the church community, as well as the pastor’s personal growth and wholeness.

It rightly sees itself as a tool, an aid, a servant to Pastor Lee. When is the line crossed? When one places complete reliance on the tool rather than on the Lord. It’s about where one places his or her trust: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7). “There’s nothing wrong with using AI for research, outlines, or inspiration”. Some will agree with using it for research and inspiration, but not for the outline. Before AI came along, we had been using Google to search for explanations, possible outlines, illustrations, and quotations. Before Google came along, we researched books, commentaries, books on sermon illustrations and quotations, magazines and newspapers. Can we see AI as Google with amazing synthesis capacities?

Can God use a ChatGPT-researched and -inspired sermon to bless his church? Of course, he can and does. Let us not limit God’s power. Pastors have used sermon outlines of other experienced pastors and seen their message bless others. Many of our sermons were inspired by books we read, sermons we heard and read, and commentaries written by noted preachers and scholars. We stand on the shoulders of better preachers and scholars as we proclaim and teach the Gospel and “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

However, the preacher should first do the hard work of digging into the scriptures to understand them and personally respond to the message before communicating it. A scripture I love and memorised is Ezra 7:10: “For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching the decrees and laws in Israel.” Notice the order of the ideal relationship with scriptures: STUDY. PRACTICE. TEACH.