Thinking about the end of sermons as we know them

Some pastors use ChatGPT software. Is this just the new plagiarism?

Let’s say that you just returned from church or, depending on the time zone in which you live on planet Earth, you may even be sneaking a look at this post on your smartphone during church. Let’s hope not.

Anyway, I want to ask an edgy version of a question that more and more people have been asking in recent years: Did your pastor prepare the sermon that you heard during this morning’s service?

OK, what do I mean when I say “prepare”?

I am asking whether pastors are doing their own reading, from scriptures, commentaries and elsewhere, while preparing their own outlines and, in the end, writing the passages in which they challenge the faithful to do x, y or z. You know, things like “repent,” “love thy neighbor” or, at the moment, get ready for the Lenten disciplines that lead to the most important day in the year — Easter (Pascha in the Christian East).

What’s the option to doing this hard work? Actually, there are quite a few options. Some are old and some are new. A preacher can:

* Simply steal a sermon or whole passages from the work of a specific someone else. Hold that thought, because we will come back to old-school plagiarism.

* Purchase a published collection of sermons, classic and new, and adapt one to the present day.

* Subscribe to a website that is packed with sample sermons or highly developed sermon outlines that are for sale.

* Type a request into some form of AI software seeking — it’s unbelievable how many options these programs feature — a certain style of sermon based on a specific text or subject.

If you want to be depressed, explore this Google search for the terms “ChatGPT” and “sermons.” When I did this search a day or so ago, the first “non-sponsored” website that showed up was:

Sermon Generator — Step by Step

By biblelifehacks.com

Your preaching companion. Transform Your Message into Impactful Sermons. Just provide your topic, choose from three tailor-made outlines, and let's co-create a captivating sermon. Fully adaptable to your congregation's needs — denomination, duration, tone, and language.

I just love (we need an irony font there) the fact that it is programmed to prepare sermons for preachers in specific denominations.

OK, are we talking progressive American Catholicism or pro-Catechism Catholicism? Episcopalians or breakaway Anglicans?

Imagine the pull-down menu required to define “Baptist,” since that universe includes everything from self-defined fundamentalists all the way over to doctrinal progressives who are closeted liberal Protestants or, in a few cases, Unitarian wannabes. Can a preacher click a box and set the region in which the Baptist church is located, since California is not Texas (unless we are talking about Austin, Texas)? Is there a menu that allows tweaking for rural towns as opposed to college towns?

I could go on and on. For example: How do software programs of this kind handle the cultural and doctrinal gumbo that is nondenominational evangelicalism and Pentecostalism? What about the radically different styles of preaching in Black, white and Latino pulpits?