5 Ways AI Is Changing How Pastors Prepare Sermons

5 Ways AI Is Changing How Pastors Prepare Sermons

A pastoral letter from Dr. Kenneth E. Brock

Beloved co-laborers in the Gospel,

I want to speak plainly about something many of you are wondering about privately. You've heard that artificial intelligence can "write sermons." Some of you are excited about that. Others are deeply uneasy. And a good number of you, especially my bivocational brothers and sisters who preach on Sunday after working all week, are simply tired and wondering whether this tool could give you some hours back.

I have been preaching the Gospel for more than fifty years, so let me be honest with you. AI will never replace the prayer closet. It cannot hear from God on your behalf, and it has never sat at a hospital bedside with one of your members. Used faithfully, though, it can serve you the way a good concordance, a trusted commentary, or a sharp study partner has always served preachers. Here are five ways I see it changing sermon preparation right now.

1. Research That Once Took Days Now Takes Minutes

When you study a passage, you need historical background, cultural context, the original audience, and the meaning of key words in Hebrew or Greek. That work used to mean stacks of books and late nights. AI can now give you a starting summary of the world behind the text in minutes.

Here is my caution: treat AI research as a starting point, never a final authority. AI can sound confident and still be wrong. It can also invent quotations and citations that do not exist. Verify every claim against your lexicons, your commentaries, and the Scriptures themselves. The time AI saves you should go toward deeper study, not less of it.

2. Organizing What God Has Already Placed on Your Heart

Many pastors have had this experience. The Lord gives you the message, and it's burning in you, but it comes out as a jumble of thoughts, verses, and stories. AI is remarkably good at helping you organize. You can pour out your raw notes and ask it to arrange them into a clear outline with a central proposition, supporting points, and a natural flow toward the altar.

Notice the order. The message comes from prayer and study. AI helps with the structure. When we reverse that order and let the machine supply the message, we have stopped preaching and started reciting.

3. Illustrations and Application for Your Congregation

Generic illustrations fall flat. Your congregation isn't generic. It might be a rural church full of farmers, an urban congregation of young professionals, or a senior-heavy flock that remembers the civil rights movement firsthand.

When you tell AI who you are preaching to, it can help you brainstorm illustrations and applications that land where your people actually live. A request for "an illustration about faith" will get you a tired cliché. Ask instead for "three illustrations about trusting God during financial hardship for a congregation of working families in a small Southern town," and you'll have something worth praying over and refining.

4. One Message, Many Ways to Serve the Flock

The sermon doesn't have to end at the benediction. AI can help you turn Sunday's message into a small group discussion guide, a youth version, a midweek devotional, social media posts, or a bulletin summary for members who were sick or traveling.

This isn't about content for content's sake. It's about shepherding. The Word you labored over can keep feeding your people all week long.

5. A Study Partner Who Will Challenge You

This may be the most underused gift of all. You can ask AI to push back on you. Ask it what objections a skeptic would raise or where your argument is unclear. You can have it point out the places a new believer might get lost or check whether your application faithfully follows the text.

Every preacher has blind spots. A tool that helps you see them before Sunday morning is a tool worth having.

What AI Cannot Do

I would be failing you as a pastor if I did not say this clearly. AI cannot pray, and it cannot be anointed. It does not know that Sister Johnson just buried her husband or that the Williams family is quietly going through a crisis. It has no burden for souls. It cannot stand before God and give an account for the flock. Only you can do that.

So use the tool, but keep it a tool. Let it carry some of the heavy lifting, so you have more time for what only you can do: shepherd, preach, and love people.

Where to Begin

If you've never used AI for ministry, start small. I've put together free prompts that pastors can use this week, and you can get them here. Try them on your next message, check every result against Scripture, and see whether the Lord uses this tool to give you back time for what matters most.

Grace and peace,

Dr. Kenneth E. Brock

Senior Pastor, New Welcome Missionary Baptist Church
Founder, Global Iconic AI™