AI in the Pulpit: What You Don't Delegate
Mike Bullmore, pastor and preacher trainer, argues the tool takes away what is only gained on your knees.
In an article for The Gospel Coalition, Mike Bullmore warns that AI in the pulpit seems to make sermon prep easier, but it takes something essential from the preacher. His argument deserves more attention than it's getting.
The work that shapes the preacher
Bullmore was lead pastor for twenty-five years at Crossway Community Church in Bristol, Wisconsin, and today he trains preachers. He is a founding member of The Gospel Coalition.
He recounts that when a company wrote to him offering an AI sermon assistant, he asked them to shut down their business: what they were offering cut out the very heart of preaching.
«The problem isn't the effort; it's the dependence.»
He argues that AI replaces two non-negotiables: sustained thinking and extended prayer. By erasing that work, it also erases the process by which God shapes the character and credibility of the one who preaches.
And he admits to a "very sparing and brief" use, maybe for a small bit of research. It's not a crusade against technology; it's a warning about what gets lost.
On the essentials, I think he's right. Paul wasn't subtle: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV). Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord and to teach it (see Ezra 7:10). Neither of them was thinking about efficiency.
The problem isn't the effort
I wonder if Bullmore stops one station too early. He describes well what AI eliminates: the struggle, the late nights, the hours. But the deeper problem isn't the effort. It's the dependence.
Someone can spend hours on a single text and walk away satisfied with themselves. Another can prepare between two work shifts and reach the pulpit broken, with nothing to offer but the passage.
God is sovereign and free; he doesn't pay us by the hour. But he usually works through means, and one of those means is a person who prays before opening their mouth.
Here's my nuance: study is extremely important, but it's not what produces the fruit. The Spirit does, blowing where he wishes, and he almost always uses someone who has been with him.
The shortcut didn't start with AI either. There were already sermons stitched together from bits of the internet, books, and other people's transcripts. What's new is the speed, and how convincing the result sounds.
Bullmore writes for pastors, but his warning reaches even sooner a young person leading a small group or someone asked to preach for the first time. The temptation hits harder when time is short, and the tool lives in your pocket.
What the machine doesn't do
AI summarizes, organizes, suggests an outline, locates the historical context of a passage. For a leader who works and studies, that can be a real help.
What it doesn't do is something else: it doesn't pray, it doesn't know by name the people you shepherd, it doesn't give an account for them (see Hebrews 13:17). It doesn't fear God.
And the congregation, even if they don't say it, hears the difference between someone who wrestled with the text and someone who just managed it.
What part of your preparation wouldn't you hand over to a machine? Start with what you don't delegate: pray before opening any tool, and ask yourself about the people you're going to shepherd this week.
If you're running out of time, take minutes away from the screen and give them to the text and to God. Remember that preaching feeds God's people; it's not a stage to show off. The problem isn't the effort; it's the dependence.
