Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Should I Use AI to Help Me Write Sermons?

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Should I Use AI to Help Me Write Sermons? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to a new week. On this Monday, we
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  Speaker 1: returned to the topic of AI. We touched on it
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  Speaker 1: recently in apg E nineteen eighty five. John Piper on
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  Speaker 1: Chat GBT and their Pastor John, You explained that Christian
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  Speaker 1: hedonism offers a unique angle on AI, emphasizing that God
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  Speaker 1: is glorified when humans not only understand Him but also
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  Speaker 1: rejoice in Him from the heart, something AI lacking spiritual
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  Speaker 1: affections and a supernatural heart, cannot replicate. Never, AI is
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  Speaker 1: fundamentally disconnected from God's intended purpose for our intelligence. Since then,
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  Speaker 1: you followed up with even more thoughts in your sin
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  Speaker 1: conference message, explaining why we never hear about artificial emotion. Interesting.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose there's still a lot to address here as
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  Speaker 1: you build out your thoughts on AI, Pastor John, We're
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  Speaker 1: going to revisit the topic with two new angles raised
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  Speaker 1: by podcast listeners, a pastor and a college ministry leader.
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  Speaker 1: The first email is from an anonymous pastor. He asks
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  Speaker 1: this quote, Pastor John, do you think it's okay to
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  Speaker 1: use AI platforms like Gemini and chat GPT to help
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  Speaker 1: draft a sermon, youth lesson, or Bible study as long
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  Speaker 1: as that review, adjust and ensure it aligns with God's
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  Speaker 1: word end quote. The second email comes from a college
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  Speaker 1: ministry leader. Hello, Pastor John, thank you for this podcast
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  Speaker 1: and the ways it has blessed so many. My question
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  Speaker 1: is can I use AI to write my newsletter to
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  Speaker 1: ministry supporters. I provide real updates and true facts, but
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  Speaker 1: I find writing particularly frustrating. While AI would help me
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  Speaker 1: write newsletters more quickly and frequently, I worry it could
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  Speaker 1: feel misleading to my supporters. What are the potential dangers
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  Speaker 1: of pastors using AI for ministry tasks like sermon preparation
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  Speaker 1: and newsletter writing.
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's start with the definition. I got this straight
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  Speaker 2: off of another artificial intelligence defining artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence
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  Speaker 2: is a technology that enables computers and machines to simulate
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  Speaker 2: human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity, and autonomy.
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  Speaker 2: Plus quote And what you just referred to Tony in
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  Speaker 2: the question is my message at seeing where I drew
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  Speaker 2: attention to the fact that missing from that definition that
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  Speaker 2: list of things that it simulates is emotion. Feelings are
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  Speaker 2: not listed there. Why And I made a big deal
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  Speaker 2: out of that because the ultimate purpose of the universe
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  Speaker 2: is that God be glorified. And He is glorified not
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  Speaker 2: merely by being rightly thought about, logically comprehended, but by
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  Speaker 2: rightly being enjoyed, admired, appreciated, valued. And God is most
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  Speaker 2: glorified when we are most satisfied in Him, which means
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  Speaker 2: no artificial intelligence will ever be able to worship. Worship
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  Speaker 2: is not simply right thinking, which computers can do. Worship
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  Speaker 2: is right feeling about God. That's really crucial. Unless we
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  Speaker 2: begin to think that artificial intelligence can take the place
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  Speaker 2: of human beings in accomplishing the divine purpose in the universe,
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  Speaker 2: it can't. The affections of the human heart are fundamentally
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  Speaker 2: of another nature than the logical thinking process of the
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  Speaker 2: human mind. We are not bothered, I'm not bothered anyway
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  Speaker 2: that a computer can simulate human logical reasoning. But we
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  Speaker 2: consider it ludicrous when a machine attempts to rejoice or delight,
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  Speaker 2: or be glad, or stand in awe, or be amazed,
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  Speaker 2: or feel grief or fear. We know that these are
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  Speaker 2: the making of the human soul, so uniquely that they
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  Speaker 2: will not be replaced by machines. The very phrase artificial
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  Speaker 2: emotion is an oxymoron. So that was the point of
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  Speaker 2: the message at SING and I think that distinction between
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  Speaker 2: artificial intelligence and artificial emotion frees us from an overly
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  Speaker 2: fearful reaction to what AI can do and can't do.
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  Speaker 2: What we have essentially in the form of artificial intelligence
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  Speaker 2: called chat GPT or others. But I'm focusing a chat
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  Speaker 2: GPTs what I'm most familiar with and have worked with most.
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  Speaker 2: What we have here is a powerful online assistant design
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  Speaker 2: by its own definition. If you tape into chat GPT,
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  Speaker 2: what are you? It'll tell you I am an assistant
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  Speaker 2: to quote, to understand and generate human like text based
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  Speaker 2: on the input it receives. Users can ask questions. I'm
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  Speaker 2: still quoting. Users can ask questions, seek information, or engage
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  Speaker 2: in conversation, and chat GPT responds with relevant and coherent text.
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  Speaker 2: That's crucial end quote. Now that's new. Google doesn't write
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  Speaker 2: essays or poems. Chat GPT does. So you can get
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  Speaker 2: a lot of information from Google, ask it all kinds
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  Speaker 2: of questions and get the answers you want. It won't
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  Speaker 2: write a poem for you, and chat GPT will, which
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  Speaker 2: means that chat GPT has at least these two distinct
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  Speaker 2: functions information and composition. You can ask chat GPT to
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  Speaker 2: give you the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. For example, you
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  Speaker 2: can say, write me a one hundred word paragraph describing
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  Speaker 2: and it would just write a beautiful one hundred word
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  Speaker 2: pairgraph describing the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and give you
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  Speaker 2: a list. And in that sense, chat GPT is simply
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  Speaker 2: a very sophisticated addition to other sources we regularly use
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  Speaker 2: to help us know what we need to know and
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  Speaker 2: understand what we need to understand. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, articles, books,
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  Speaker 2: google searches, and so on. We've been doing this for
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  Speaker 2: a thousand years, getting help from other people to help
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  Speaker 2: us know what we need to know understand what we
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  Speaker 2: need to understand. That's just relatively old school if you
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  Speaker 2: use chet GPT that way. What's new is that you
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  Speaker 2: can ask chet GPT to write a two thousand words
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  Speaker 2: sermon on the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, you can say you can tell GPT you
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  Speaker 2: can type in please write me a two thousand words
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  Speaker 2: sermon on the Prodigal Son from Luke fifteen in the
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  Speaker 2: style and language of theologian John Piper or John Calvin
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  Speaker 2: Arsie Sproul, and you will get an astonishingly well written
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  Speaker 2: sermon in the style and language of the theologian that you.
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  Speaker 1: You ask about.
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  Speaker 2: Or you can ask GPT to write your monthly newsletter.
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  Speaker 2: Just give him a few facts and tell him to
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  Speaker 2: write it in X number of words, and he'll do
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  Speaker 2: it as well as you can do it. Probably. Now
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  Speaker 2: here's something for you to think about. When I saw
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  Speaker 2: what Tony you wanted me to talk about here with AI,
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  Speaker 2: I went to chat GPT and here's what I typed in,
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  Speaker 2: Please write an eight hundred word answer in the theology
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  Speaker 2: and style of theologian John Piper to the question what
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  Speaker 2: are the dangers of a pastor? Using AI end quote,
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  Speaker 2: That was what I asked. Took him five seconds and
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  Speaker 2: he produced an eight hundred and fifty seven word essay
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  Speaker 2: that was so good that if I we're reading it
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  Speaker 2: right now, I don't think you, Tony or your listeners
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  Speaker 2: would know that I'm reading from chat GPT. It was amazing.
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  Speaker 2: So there was there was an introduction. Then there was
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  Speaker 2: point one, the danger of disconnection from the divine, and
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  Speaker 2: a quote from sewod Corinthians two point number two, No,
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  Speaker 2: I think it was First Corinthians two point number two,
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  Speaker 2: The risk of impersonal ministry and a quote from John
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  Speaker 2: ten their according scripturecause John Piper does it sort of
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  Speaker 2: thing right point number three, The challenge of theological integrity,
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  Speaker 2: a quote from Hebrews four point four, The peril of
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  Speaker 2: ethical compromise, point five, the threat of idolatry, inefficiency, and
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  Speaker 2: a quote from someone twenty seven and a conclusion called
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  Speaker 2: a call for dessernment. I mean, it is excellent, unbelievable,
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  Speaker 2: and if and if you, if I had read that
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  Speaker 2: to you as my own, it would have been.
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  Speaker 1: Wicked.
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  Speaker 2: This is what I want to the folks to hear. Wicked.
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  Speaker 2: I'm using a strong word because I feel strongly about this.
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  Speaker 2: This goes to the heart of God and the meaning
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  Speaker 2: of Christianity and the integrity of the Church and her ministers.
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  Speaker 2: Neither God nor his people speak in a way so
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  Speaker 2: as to bring about in the minds of other people
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  Speaker 2: thoughts that are not true about us or what we say,
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  Speaker 2: or feelings in them that are not appropriate about us.
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  Speaker 2: That is, we do not deceive. We are people of
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  Speaker 2: truth and transparency and honesty through and through, or we
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  Speaker 2: are nothing. So answer, no, don't have chat GPT write
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  Speaker 2: your newsletter. Don't do it unless you're going to put
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  Speaker 2: in clear letters at the top. This newsletter was created
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  Speaker 2: by chat GPT. That's honest, and your supporters won't like it,
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  Speaker 2: even the secular world without any of our Christian commitments,
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  Speaker 2: namely the Chicago Manual of Style. Right, you know what
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  Speaker 2: that is. It tells you how your footnotes and everything.
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  Speaker 2: The Chicago Manual of Style already has guidelines for how
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  Speaker 2: to cite chat GPT sources. When you're quoting from something
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  Speaker 2: that was created by chat GPT, the Chicago Manual of
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  Speaker 2: Style tells you how to give it credit. And if
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  Speaker 2: the world does that, oh my goodness, how much more
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  Speaker 2: should we be concerned to be honest through and through?
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  Speaker 2: And Second, no, don't have chat GPT write the first
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  Speaker 2: draft of your sermon, which you then check, adjust and customize. Frankly,
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  Speaker 2: I'm appalled at the thought. Appalled. I know that resources
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  Speaker 2: and websites have existed forever to help pastors cut corners,
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  Speaker 2: create your outlines, provide illustrations, tell you how to do research,
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  Speaker 2: and so on. There's nothing new about this and it's
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  Speaker 2: been appalling to me all the way along. For this reason,
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  Speaker 2: one of the qualifications for being an elder pastor preacher
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  Speaker 2: in the Bible one Timothy three to two is the
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  Speaker 2: gift or the ability to teach deduct to costs. That
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  Speaker 2: means you must have the ability the gift to read
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  Speaker 2: a passage of scripture, understand the reality it deals with,
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  Speaker 2: feel the emotions it is meant to elicit, be able
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  Speaker 2: to explain it to others, clearly, illustrate, and apply it
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  Speaker 2: for their edification. That's a gift you must have. It's
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  Speaker 2: your number one job. If you don't have it, you
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  Speaker 2: should not be a pastor. Let's use chat, GPT and
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  Speaker 2: others other sources that are coming along for information, even
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  Speaker 2: for inspiration, just like you use commentaries and articles and
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  Speaker 2: books and songs and poetry, but don't use it for
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  Speaker 2: composition unless you're gonna give credit for it. So if
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  Speaker 2: you if you're gonna, if you're gonna have chat, b
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  Speaker 2: GBT write your first draft and you're gonna tweak it,
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  Speaker 2: then you better say to your people chat, GPT, artificial
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  Speaker 2: intelligence has composed the Word of God for you.
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  Speaker 1: This morning point is suggestion to cap your thoughts here.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: From AI to the ancient Letter of Romans. We're gonna
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  Speaker 1: transition as John you call Paul's Letter to the Romans
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  Speaker 1: the greatest letter that has ever been written in the
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  Speaker 1: history of the world by anybody, Christian or non Christian.
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  Speaker 1: That is high praise from a man who has been
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  Speaker 1: studying the letter for over sixty years. Paul's epistle is
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  Speaker 1: a profound summary of key theological realities, including humanity's condition
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  Speaker 1: outside of Christ, justification by faith, how to live out
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  Speaker 1: the Christian life. It penetrates deep into these realities more
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  Speaker 1: than any other book, shaping the history of the Church
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  Speaker 1: through pivotal moments like when Augustine was converted and Martin
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  Speaker 1: Luther had his breakthrough on what righteousness is and how
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  Speaker 1: to attain it. Massively important book is Romans, and one
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  Speaker 1: we read together in the month of March. And to
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  Speaker 1: get us ready, we'll ask Pastor John's advice from sixty
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  Speaker 1: years experience of reading Romans. You're not going to get
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  Speaker 1: this from AI. You're going to get this from John
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  Speaker 1: Viper alone. I'm Tony Raik. We'll see you on Thursday