You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT.
There are a lot of articles out there about ChatGPT and how it should and shouldn’t be used - and if it will eventually take over the world.
Putting aside the doomsayers’ concerns for a moment - are there legitimate, ethical ways for us as preachers to use ChatGPT?
While there are probably more, I’ve listed three ways I think we can ethically use ChatGPT as preachers.
Use ChatGPT to research commonly asked questions on a topic.
Let’s say you are preparing a sermon or class on the subject of baptism. You want to make sure you cover questions that many people have about baptism.
You can ask ChatGPT for a list of commonly asked questions about baptism.
Since ChatGPT scours the internet for its information, it’s pulling in real questions people tend to ask about baptism.
You need to do the study on these questions yourself, but ChatGPT can help you discover what people are wondering about a particular topic.
Use ChatGPT to give you sermon ideas around a particular day.
I don’t believe using ChatGPT to write your sermons for you is a good idea. It will do it - but how much will you really benefit from preaching that sermon?
You remember Paul telling Timothy to put great effort into presenting himself approved to God, and being a worker who could “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). The part of that verse that still isn’t in there is “unless, of course, Artificial Intelligence comes along, and then let it do the work for you.”
We can use ChatGPT as a tool to help us in our studies. Sometimes we are trying to devise a sermon idea around a particular day - let’s use Mother’s Day as an example since it’s coming up this Sunday.
We can go to ChatGPT to get that initial “idea” spark.
As I said, write the sermon yourself. But ChatGPT can provide that initial “spark” to help you prepare a sermon or class.
Use ChatGPT to find scholarly writings on a particular subject.
Maybe you need some “scholarly” resources for a sermon, class, or manuscript. ChatGPT can help you find those resources.
The more specific you are, the more helpful ChatGPT’s results will be. As you can see from the list above, even “the death of Jesus on the cross” returns a broad range of articles.
ChatGPT is a relatively new tool available to us.
As with any tool, it can be used appropriately - and it can be abused.
As preachers, there are some legitimate ways for us to use ChatGPT. Just don’t get lazy and abuse it.
Thank you. Very useful. Needed to read this.