Artificial intelligence has moved quickly from novelty to an ordinary ministry tool.

New Barna research finds that only 13 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors say they do not use AI at all. Based on a survey of 442 U.S. Protestant pastors conducted in late 2025, the research found that half use AI for brainstorming, 36 percent use it for biblical or theological research, and 24 percent now use it to write or edit sermons. At the same time, 71 percent describe themselves as cautious about the technology.

That caution may be healthy. Daniel Copeland, Barna’s vice president of research, says pastors are “using it to prepare for ministry, not to replace what happens when they’re actually with people.”

For sermon preparation, the challenge is not simply learning how to write better prompts. It lies in keeping what we might call the human loop.

The human loop is not simply “one last look” after AI has done the work. It is a repeated return to scripture, prayer, theological tradition, trusted community, and the preacher’s own spiritually formed voice.

The work of preaching has always begun with hard formative work in the study and should end with meaningful formative results in the pews or among livestream viewers. The pastor must be “in the loop” before the first prompt, remain the critical thinker during every exchange, and fully assume responsibility for every word that reaches the pulpit.

AI can assist the work. Claude can’t be called, and ChatGPT won’t love the congregation. Only the preacher can bear witness from a life rooted and formed in Christ.

Good prompting can help preserve that distinction. The related article below, “Six Practical AI Prompts for Preachers,” offers guidance for this manner of AI usage.

Nick Skytland, vice president of Gloo Developers and AI Research, echoed that emphasis in a June 2026 Gloo article, saying it is encouraging to see pastors maintaining “a clear line between the technology and their calling.” The human loop is how pastors keep that line clear. Preachers do well to incorporate the human loop as deeply into their formed soul as the Greek subjunctive or the calling of God upon their lives.

The goal is not to make sermon preparation effortless. It is to remove some friction without removing the preacher.

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Six Practical AI Prompts for Preachers

Artificial intelligence can become either a shortcut or a faithful ministry tool. The difference often lies in the questions we ask of it. Used thoughtfully, AI can strengthen sermon preparation without replacing the preacher’s voice, theological judgment, or pastoral calling.

This resource offers guidance to help pastors who want to use AI as a research assistant, conversation partner, and editor—but never to substitute it for the hard work of studying scripture and preparing to proclaim it.

Begin with scripture and prayer—not at the prompt bar.

Read the passage slowly. Pray. Make your own observations before asking AI what it sees. Then prompt:

“I am beginning exegetical work on Luke 15:11–32. Serve as a research assistant, not a sermon writer. Identify the literary setting, historical and cultural context, key theological themes, important Greek terms, and major interpretive questions. Distinguish broad scholarly agreement from disputed interpretations. Cite sources I can verify, flag uncertainty, and do not draft sermon language.”

Ask AI to deepen your questions, not provide the answers.

Instead of asking AI to tell you what a passage means, ask it to help you read more carefully.

“Based on Luke 15:11–32, ask me 12 questions that require a closer reading of the text. Include questions about God, human desire, repentance, grace, power, family, and the original audience. Do not answer the questions until I respond.”

Then step away from the screen. Return to the biblical text, perhaps the printed version rather than another screen. Take a walk and pray over what unsettles or surprises you.

Invite disagreement.

AI tools tend to be agreeable. A sermon does not become more faithful because a chatbot says, “That’s a powerful insight.” It may, in fact, be very, very unfaithful.

“Here is my working claim: [insert thesis]. Test it against the biblical text. Identify exegetical leaps, missing context, theological assumptions, and credible alternative interpretations. Make the strongest case against my reading before suggesting how I might strengthen it.”

Afterward, consult your preferred commentaries, trusted scholars, and conversation partners. The bot can identify a concern; it cannot determine theological faithfulness for the church.

Name the pastoral problems but not the people.

“I am preaching to a multigenerational congregation experiencing [describe public, nonconfidential realities]. Suggest five pastoral questions this text may raise for this community. Do not invent stories, diagnose individuals, or assume facts not provided.”

Never enter counseling notes, private prayer requests, personnel matters, or identifiable congregational information into a public AI tool. The human loop necessarily includes pastoral confidentiality.

Ask for structures, not a sermon.

“Here are my exegetical notes, central claim, and pastoral purpose. Propose three possible sermon structures: one narrative, one inductive, and one traditional three-movement outline. For each, explain its strengths and risks. Preserve my ideas. Do not write the sermon.”

AI may help you stack the lumber and air up the nail gun, but the preacher still has to build the house so the sermon can become a Sunday morning “home” for the congregation.

Ask AI to edit only after you have written.

“Below is my sermon draft. Edit for clarity, format for oral delivery, create clear transitions, and identify sentences that may be awkward when read aloud. Preserve my theology, stories, humor, and voice. Do not add illustrations, quotations, or factual claims.”

Finally, print the sermon manuscript and close the laptop. Read the sermon aloud and ask yourself:

Is this true to the text?

Does it sound like me?

Does it love these people?

Have I prayed through what I am asking them to hear and do?

Is this sermon truly mine? Do I own it?

No prompt can replace prayer, study, or the work of the Holy Spirit. Used wisely, these prompts can help pastors keep technology in its proper place while remaining fully present to the calling of preaching.

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