Pastors and churches tend to do better when they connect with their congregations at some point during the work week. Social media posts, daily devotions, or podcasts generally work well, but pastors of smaller churches do not tend to have the time, the staff, or the technical know-how to implement a communications strategy.
With that in mind, Pulpit AI is designed to use artificial intelligence to take a pastor's Sunday sermon and repurpose it into blog posts, sermon notes, reading guides, and the like.
"Turn one sermon into unlimited content," the website advertises. "Deepen engagement and resource your church with AI-generated content taken from a single sermon."
Dr. Alex McFarland is cautiously optimistic about it.
"To the degree that they help a person, in this case a pastor, be more productive and ultimately manage his time better and reach a larger audience, I have no problem whatsoever with technology as a tool," he tells AFN.
Pulpit AI does not add content to a sermon or help a pastor prepare and deliver his sermon.
"It does sound like this is the positive side of AI -- that AI, and AI within some specific boundaries, is a servant," McFarland reiterates. "What's a little unsettling [is] if AI becomes not a servant, but a master."
The technology does not check for accurate theology, which means if a sermon is heretical, the social media posts Pulpit AI creates will be, too. Still, if it works as advertised, the program could be a great help to pastors.
"Enabling people to maximize their own original content, and in this case pastors preaching the Word of God -- that's a blessing, not a burden," McFarland concludes.
