On a whim, three weeks before a sermon in the book of John, I went to ChatGPT. I typed, “Please write me a 35-minute sermon on John 14:15-31.” I wanted to see what all the buzz was about—if this was indeed all the rage. While the results were actually pretty impressive, with a good summation of the role and purpose of the Holy Spirit, I ended up scratching everything and going in a different direction.
Maybe I’m old school. Maybe I’m becoming the old man yelling at the clouds and ranting at the new ways kids are doing things while pining for the “good old days.” Or maybe the Lord has graciously granted me some wisdom as I age. AI will touch—and improve—many aspects of our daily lives, but I believe that we should keep it out of our teaching ministry. Here are three reasons why youth ministers and leaders shouldn’t write their messages with ChatGPT (or any other AI).
AI Can’t Account for Application
Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14). One of the defining marks of a good shepherd is that he knows who his sheep are and what they need. How effective can preaching and teaching be if it doesn’t address the specific audience to whom the Lord wants to speak? As Jesus’ undershepherd, he wants to communicate to his flock through you. We can’t be effective communicators of God’s word if we don’t infuse our knowledge of our students into our messages. That is why AI cannot replace you in the pulpit.
AI may know how to write a sermon outline or manuscript, but it doesn’t know your people. Everyone preaches from the same 66 books of the Bible, but not everyone preaches to your youth group. Your students have unique characteristics, needs, desires, lifestyles, and sin issues that you are in a position to address through God’s Word. Good sermons are a combination of exegesis and application. They don’t just transmit the words of the Bible; they speak life to the brokenness of the specific people God has called you to lead. This part requires familiarity with the people as well as the text itself, something AI can’t provide.
AI Takes Away Our Ability to Communicate With Our Hearts
A large part of teaching preparation is the wrestling with the text. We shouldn’t outsource our exegesis. As Hebrews says, “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). To preach and lead studies powerfully, we must let the passage penetrate our hearts first. The Word must make its way through us before it goes to our hearers.
So many of the great passages in Scripture are borne from the deep emotion of the author. Paul says, “I now tell you again even with tears” (Phil. 3:18). Jeremiah says, “I would weep day and night for the slain of my people” (Jer. 9:1). These are examples of people who are in deep communion with God and whose words reflect an overflow of that relationship. This doesn’t come from prompting an AI to give you words to say. The best messages come from an intense struggle with the text in the heart, where the teacher is as convicted by the Word as his or her hearers. Merely memorizing words conjured up by an algorithm won’t produce the same result.
AI Takes Away Our Ability to Hear What God Says
The sermon is a concentrated time when the shepherd delivers God’s Word to the people. For this to happen, the youth leader must spend time in communion with God. A large part of that process is prayer. ChatGPT or Gemini prompts aren’t prayers; they’re inquiries to a pool of human knowledge. Artificial Intelligence, for all of its wide base of information, is limited. But God’s knowledge is unlimited.“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth…his understanding no one can fathom” (Is. 40:28). His knowledge extends to places humans can’t go, and he sees things no one can.
AI algorithms are based on what we seek out. God speaks words to us that we need but may not necessarily be seeking. He can illuminate a Bible passage in a way that human knowledge cannot. He can speak to us in a multiplicity of ways, through observations in nature, revelations he will give us about people, and people he will use to speak to us and our circumstances. An over-reliance on AI tools can close us off to the other ways God speaks to us.
When AI Tools Are Useful in Sermon Preparation
Like anything else in life, a tool is good for certain purposes. An axe is great for chopping wood, but you wouldn’t use it to shave your beard. A torch lighter is great for firing up a grill, but you wouldn’t use it to heat your home. Tools have limitations, and artificial intelligence is no different.
If you have an idea of a Scripture you want to use but don’t know its exact location, a ChatGPT or Gemini search can help you find it instantly. I even use Canva AI to make images for my slides. For finer points and presentation help, they are a great asset. But make no mistake, communing with God’s Word and wrestling with it to apply it to the needs of your people cannot be replaced.
Technology can aid our preparation process, but it’s no substitute for the hours spent laboring over God’s Word and what it has to say to both the messenger and the teenagers to whom we speak. Teaching our students is not just a transfer of biblical information; it’s a time when God himself speaks the gospel through his messengers to deliver special words to his people. Our God has spoken throughout millennia through various prophets: Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and culminating in Jesus the Son of God. He also spoke through apostles who pointed people back to Jesus. As youth ministers, we have the same access to God as they did in proclaiming the gospel—the message of salvation from sins. How sad would it be to exchange this privilege for digital convenience!
The message that eternal life is only found in the sacrifice of Jesus is not just a phrase to be met with intellectual assent; it’s a truth that must penetrate deep into our souls through a messenger who has wrestled with it and been changed by it.
Can’t join our Rooted 2026: Biblical Humanity conference in person on October 22-24? We are now offering livestream access for individuals and churches. Find out more information on our Conference page.
