AI and the Pastor: The Existential Dimension
Author’s note: I am sharing this scenario with the blessing of my friend, who approved the content of the article in advance of publishing.
The mother of a childhood friend died suddenly, and on the day of her passing, my friend reached out to me, “Mark, I’m with my father. He wants you to do my mom’s funeral.” I replied without hesitation, “Yes, of course, I’ll do whatever would be helpful.” Little did I expect that crafting the message would be so challenging. After all, I had known her for over 50 years.
My first challenge was getting the family together on a Zoom call. It never happened, and I had separate conversations with the two siblings. Talking to one sibling, they wanted a Christian service in a church with scripture, because “That’s what Mom would have wanted.” Talking to the other sibling, they advocated a “Christian light” service, because “Mom in her later years no longer attended church and wouldn’t have wanted her funeral in a church or any scripture, because she saw both as patriarchal.” However, they agreed on one point: “Mom was a complex person.”
I felt pressure on two fronts: 1) the clock was ticking, and 2) I was caught up in the long-simmering tension between the siblings, much of which had little to do with the funeral service. How could I deliver a message to satisfy both siblings while providing genuine pastoral care to them and others? I was stuck. So, I did what any thoughtful and time-pressured pastor might do: I turned to AI.
In our separate conversations, unbeknownst to them, the siblings had also agreed on three key aspects of their mother’s personality and what mattered most to her, which I entered into a generative AI engine. Within seconds, I had a message—it was drivel. The message was so generic as to be useless. As Rev. Melissa Florer-Bixler wrote in The Christian Century, “I asked ChatGPT for a sermon. What it wrote seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere” (Florer-Bixler, A Pulpit Without a Context, The Christian Century, July 2024). In other words, it wasn’t incorrect, as it drew from multiple sources across the web that agreed upon the gist of a message; however, by doing so, the sermon lacked context that honored the rich relationships and narratives of Florer-Bixler’s community. I felt the same for the woman and family I had known for over 50 years.
Recent research has confirmed this lack of connection with human audiences in AI writing. In one study, the researchers compared papers written by AI versus those written by college students. They found that “student essays are significantly richer in the quantity and variety of engagement features, producing a more interactive and persuasive discourse.” On average, they noted that students used three times as many “engagement techniques” versus their AI counterparts to make their writing salient and connect with their readers, including personal asides, rhetorical questions, and references to the specific assignment and reader (Hyland, K. Does ChatGPT Write Like a Student? Engagement Markers in Argumentative Essays. Written Communication, April 2025). This work of connecting with others mirrors the efforts and techniques of the most effective preachers I’ve known.
Reflecting upon my experience, a key question emerged: What is the purpose of AI in generating a sermon? If it’s to finish a sermon expeditiously, then AI does that. But it misses the point of writing and delivering a sermon in the first place. As faith leaders, people turn to us in times of doubt, distress, and grief. They want us to enter into those moments fully with them. The word compassion derives from Latin for “to suffer with.” We risk straining this profound human connection when we turn to AI for sermons. In addition, we can shortchange our growth as spiritual leaders. Wisdom comes only through lived experience, or as psychologists refer to it, “implicit learning.” Wisdom does not arrive as an “explicit” answer that can be downloaded from the internet, generated by a chatbot, or looked up in our favorite theological texts. Wisdom emerges indirectly, over time, by leaning into our work as ministers, as we wrestle with interpreting nuanced scripture passages, navigating challenging interpersonal situations, and living out our calling daily. It’s only in practice that our wisdom as spiritual leaders grows.
Ultimately, I chose to embrace the discomfort of the family tension as I crafted the funeral message. Rather than ignoring the tension, the different sibling perspectives became a meaningful part of my writing process, which added depth and nuance to the message and honored their mother in all her complexity. It also meant a couple of restless nights as I tried to understand the family dynamics and fretted about how to say things! This existential wrestling, however, gave me a better appreciation for the ministry called for in that moment. It helped me to understand, minister, and be fully present with this family in their grief.
Five questions to consider in using AI as a spiritual leader:
What is my purpose for using AI with this particular ministry task?
What is my hoped-for outcome?
What are the possible unintended consequences?
How does AI fit with my values in this situation?
How does using AI for this ministry task further my development as a spiritual leader?
