ChatGPT: Valuable tool or path to destruction?
“I’m not singing those ‘off the wall’ choruses.”
Somehow the hymn book had become sacrosanct by the 1970s in the church, and replacing those sacred pages with transparencies was tantamount to heresy. When I figured out how to hook a Commodore 64 computer to a video projector it only added flames to the fire; technology was destroying the church.
Technology changes, but the push back remains; online church feeds consumer Christians, video teaching promotes superstar preachers. Now we have a new target in ChatGPT, the latest development in artificial intelligence (AI) that writes high school papers, passes college exams, and fixes human errors. What damage will this new technology wreak on the church as pastors turn to ChatGPT to write their sermons and respond to their parishioners? We've survived transparencies and holograms (so far), will AI be our demise?
The story of the church is tied to harnessing emerging technology. The ancient Romans built aqueducts, which led to growing cities, and roads, which enabled safe travel. The Apostle Paul took advantage of these innovations to spread the Gospel to bustling cities across the Roman Empire. The printing press was used to mass produce Bibles, which led eventually to the Reformation as people were able to read scripture for themselves. The Beatles in the 1960s needed to be heard over thousands of screaming fans which led to the creation of large, high-quality loudspeakers which in turn fueled the Jesus Music revolution of the 1970s. (Anyone else remember Love Song? Larry Norman? Andraé Crouch and the Disciples?) If teenage girls would have sat quietly and listened to I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Maverick City Music might never exist.
Jack Hoey, my fellow laborer on the Rethink Leadership Newsletter, writes that we should proceed with caution, less we lose the heart of ministry along the way. He has a point in that ministry without heart isn’t ministry. I am doubtful, however, that a tool like ChatGPT will take us very far without heart. Just like my table saw will never build a piece of furniture, ChatGPT on its own will never write a sermon that leads people to take their next step of faith. On the other hand, I’d hate to tackle my current project of building a kitchen table without the aid of my saw.
So how do we approach ChatGPT? Just like we would any other tool; with cautious enthusiasm. My table saw helps me make furniture, but it can also cut my finger off. It depends on how I use it. New technology brings new challenges; safe roads eased the spread of heresy, projected lyrics eased the spread of really bad songs. There is a downside to new technology, but with wisdom the church can find ways to leverage the upside to speed the spread of the Gospel.
Here are four ways I think we can put ChatGPT to use today:
Research
I used ChatGPT multiple times to research items for this article.
“Who were the pioneers of Jesus music?”
“How were the Beatles involved in the development of loudspeakers?”
“When was the Gutenberg Bible published?”
I could have used Google, but with ChatGPT I didn’t have to sort through ads for sound systems and articles by crazy people to get to the information I was seeking.
ChatGPT is like having your own personal graduate assistant who never sleeps, never plays video games, and never gets tired of answering inane questions. Just like a graduate assistant, however, you have to sift through the chaff to find the wheat.
ChatGPT is also great for sermon research. Rather than digging through my old college textbooks or wading through Wikipedia, ChatGPT will quickly write brief abstracts on the role of Ephesus in ancient Rome, the history of the Persian empire, or the earliest extra-biblical evidence of crucifixion. Sure, I should remember all of that stuff, but I don’t.
Writing routine copy
The bane of my existence is writing copy for bulletins, websites, and flyers. When asked, “Can you write something promoting this event?” I am tempted to channel my inner Yoda, “There is no ‘can’, there is only ‘will’. Will I? I will not.”
With a little experimentation ChatGPT can (and will) write most of a church’s routine copy. Real Estate agents are using the technology to write their advertising copy and legal documents, freeing them up to spend more time focused on their clients. Think about the potential time you and your staff could save if ChatGPT did the routine writing?
Getting unstuck when writing sermons
No one is saying having ChatGPT write your sermons is a good idea, For one thing, its sermons are mediocre at best. There is no soul, no personal connection, no spiritual essence. (Kind of like the sermons I hear from newly minted seminary graduates, but I digress.) Sometimes, however, I need a little nudge. I am staring at a passage trying to tease out something helpful and coherent to share and I’ve got nothing. Normally I’ll read a commentary, listen to a sermon, or do some word studies. Now, with ChatGPT, I have an additional tool. “ChatGPT, write a sermon based on Psalm 23.” The results aren’t pulpit-ready, but sometimes they give me a new path to explore.
Learning about things they never taught me in Bible School
Here are a few of the things I’ve had to learn as a pastor
How to read a balance sheet?
How to be licensed as a day care?
Can a church operate a for-profit business?
ChatGPT could have saved days of searching, and possibly led to better ministry decisions, if I had access to this technology.
Like every innovation, there are pitfalls to AI and specifically ChatGPT. It is not a shortcut to seeking God, caring for people, and shepherding a congregation. Technology can never replace to role of a pastor. Technology properly leveraged, however, can assist us in doing the work of the Gospel.
