SermonSpark is an AI-powered sermon assistant for church leaders. The goal is to support pastors during every phase of their sermon-writing process. This includes sermon research, sermon writing, and helping their sermon reach more people it’s been shared.
Generative AI platforms (for example, ChatGPT) are useful to pastors in many ways. However, church leaders aren’t always sure which platform is the most appropriate or how to provide clear instruction to the AI. SermonSpark utilizes a variety of generative AI platforms with specially tailored, thoroughly tested prompts to bring consistently useful output into one central location.
SermonSpark offers over 20 powerful tools to help with sermon preparation. Each month, users receive a set number of credits. Using a tool within the platform costs a certain number of credits, allowing users to choose how to allocate them based on their needs.
Some church leaders may wonder if any artificial intelligence system should be trusted. There was a time when people didn’t trust cell phones, the internet, and Google. Now, we understand that every new technology is a tool and an opportunity to improve our lives. However, every new technology also presents new challenges that must be considered. The use of artificial intelligence is no different.
Speaking to many of the Large Language Models leveraged by SermonSpark specifically, one has the ability to ask these AIs to respond to questions as if it were an evangelical Christian. Therefore, the fear that artificial intelligence will only spread false doctrine is mostly unfounded. These AI models do not have an agenda other than generating helpful responses built on extremely large sets of training data.
The Large-language models (LLMs) leveraged by SermonSpark were created to generate unique responses based on massive sets of human-generated training data from books, articles, and the internet. Put another way, these models are intended to respond to a prompt the way their training dictates a human would.
However, these models have limited critical thinking and fact-checking ability. Further, depending on the model, the data on which it was trained may be limited to content that is a year or more old. These models would know nothing of specific recent events.
This means users should consider SermonSpark responses helpful and generally accurate, but always fact-check any assertions.
Plagiarism is the act of using another’s work as if it was your own. There are two main questions to address with respect to plagiarism and the uses of AI systems such as Large Language Models:
1. Do the AI responses themselves plagiarize the work of others?
The responses produced by generative AI systems are built on massive data sets of publicly available resources, with randomness injected. As a result of this, it is highly unlikely that a Large Language Model will ever plagiarize a source, simply because it is drawing inspiration from too many different sources all at once.
Imagine if you Googled 5 websites that discussed a topic like “What is forgiveness?”, and then proceeded to write three paragraphs on the topic. Your response will be directly inspired by the source material, but should be unique. Generative AI systems effectively act in a similar way, except they will typically be impacted by a much larger amount of source material.
2. Is my use of the response considered plagiarism of the AI system?
When using AI (and in all of your endeavors), you should make sure you give credit to your sources. According to APA guidelines, AI-generated material should be considered similar to any algorithm output. As generative AI systems increase their capacity to execute more complex tasks, church leaders should make sure they give credit to their sources.
Pastors use all kinds of tools when writing their sermons each week. These tools include the following:
In many ways, these are the avenues through which the Holy Spirit speaks to a pastor. SermonSpark is another tool you can add to your sermon-preparation toolbox. For example, as you’re writing your sermon, have you ever wondered what questions your congregants might want answers to on your topic? Or have you ever looked for the perfect illustration or metaphor that could explain a complex topic you’re trying to share with your congregation?
The truth is, AI is great at these tasks and many more. Using AI in these ways doesn’t bypass the Holy Spirit. Instead, AI offers valuable insight and perspective that can deepen your talk, enabling it to connect to more listeners than ever before.
There’s more nuance to answering a question like this than one might think. For example, is a person considered lazy for using Google Maps for directions instead of taking the time to trace their trek on a physical map? Or, is a person considered lazy for purchasing tickets online instead of driving down to the ticket office and purchasing in person?
The truth is, every technology offers conveniences that save us time and make our life easier. This doesn’t mean there are no downsides to new technology. New generations don’t know how to use rotary phones and won’t know how to use a physical map to get anywhere. Similarly, once you have access to new perspectives, information, and sermon support through SermonSpark, it may be difficult to go back to a sermon-writing world without those quick and helpful conveniences.
In general, using any new technology doesn’t make us lazy, it makes us smart by saving us time while helping us do what we do more efficiently. A pastor’s job is already stressful and busy enough, finding ways to do your job more effectively and efficiently is being a good steward with the time and gifts God has given.
