‘If You Love ChatGPT So Much . . . why don’t you marry it?’

By Eric Swanson

You didn’t see that question coming, did you? It’s a nod to Chris Farley and Pee-wee Herman, but we’ll circle back to it by the end of this article. First, let’s chat about this digital phenomenon that’s taking over screens—and sermon prep sessions—everywhere. I’ll admit it: I’m a little infatuated with ChatGPT. But I have good reasons, and by the time we’re done, you might be too. So, what is ChatGPT, anyway?

• Chat: It mimics human conversation, responding in eerily lifelike ways.
• Generative: It creates original content—articles, summaries, charts and even the occasional clever joke.
• Pre-trained: It’s been stuffed with more knowledge than a seminary library.
• Transformer: The brainy architecture that allows it to handle sentences, paragraphs and entire sermon series with ease.

No technology has hit the scene with the velocity of ChatGPT. Within five days of launching in November 2022, it acquired 1 million users. By ten weeks, it had 100 million. For context, Facebook took 4.5 years to reach that milestone, and Instagram took 2.5 years. As of late 2024, ChatGPT had more than 180 million users.

Where does it get its smarts? Good question. I asked ChatGPT directly, and it rattled off sources ranging from “billions of web pages” to Wikipedia and MIT OpenCourseWare. Basically, it’s like the world’s most well-read intern who never takes a coffee break.

Just how smart is ChatGPT? Brace yourself. ChatGPT has aced the SATs, MCATs, MBA exam, the Uniform Bar Exam and the U.S. Medical License Exam. Consider ChatGPT to be the Swiss Army knife of all AI tools. ChatGPT is “the whole package.” If there was just one AI tool to master to get 90% of what all AI can do, it is ChatGPT! It can easily:

• Compose essays and sermons
• Read your sermons and create application questions from your sermons
• Summarize research reports
• Write complex code
• Create graphs,
• Read and respond to emails
• Craft poetry
• Record and summarize meetings
• Create and edit images
• Create PowerPoint presentations
• Provide real-time information. (You can ask for its sources.)
• Act as a personal tutor or trainer
• Translate multiple languages
• Generate product ideas that outshine those of Ivy League grads
• Refine business plans
• Assist in research, theological and otherwise
• Offer personalized recommendations on anything
• Simulate historical conversations. “How might Einstein go about solving declining church attendance?”
• Facilitate brainstorming sessions
• Conduct legal and policy analysis
• Read and interpret your blood tests and other medical reports
• Design the perfect date night

I know. It’s almost enough to make you pop the question.

The ultimate sermon sidekick. ChatGPT isn’t here to replace your prayer time or your careful exegetical work—it knows its place. But it can speed up your research, generate discussion questions and even rephrase your points for clarity. In its own words, “While ChatGPT can be a valuable tool, it should complement a pastor’s own study, prayer, and discernment, as it is not a substitute for the spiritual guidance required in sermon preparation.” Good save, ChatGPT.

AI is coming to the church—ready or not. In June 2023, the first AI-generated sermon was delivered to 300 people in Fürth, Germany. Two weeks later, in Morrison, Colorado, an AI officiant married a couple who met online. In late 2024, a church in Switzerland allowed more than 900 people to interact with an AI-generated Jesus avatar in a confessional booth. Technology moves fast, folks.

The multiplier effect of AI. AI is the ultimate “elegant solution”—maximum value, minimum effort. Imagine cutting your sermon prep time from 20 hours a week to 15. What would you do with five extra hours? Meet with someone in your church? Disciple a leader? Take a nap? (Hey, even pastors need naps.) Now imagine your team each saving eight hours a week. What could they do with that reclaimed time? ChatGPT isn’t just a tool; it’s a force multiplier for ministry.

Making the willing able. ChatGPT doesn’t make the unwilling willing, but it does make the willing able. Think of those volunteers in your church who want to disciple others but don’t feel equipped. “I wouldn’t know what to say,” they confess. Enter ChatGPT: the tool that equips every laborer with words, ideas and direction. It’s a Matthew 20 parable moment—willing workers, finally empowered to step into the harvest.

Don’t be purposefully stupid. Jesus said, “Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor” (John 4:38). Don’t reinvent the wheel when ChatGPT can roll it downhill for you. Luther called the printing press “the ultimate gift of God.” Billy Graham said television was “the most powerful medium we’ve ever known” for spreading the gospel. ChatGPT might just be our generation’s Gutenberg moment.

So, should you marry ChatGPT? Back to our original question. There are four ways pastors are responding to ChatGPT:

1. The “bachelor ’til the rapture” approach. Stay far away. Preach against her as if she were the wayward woman of Proverbs 5. Draw your illustrations only from biblical characters. Follow in the footsteps of Trithemius who rejected the printing press because he believed the work of transcribing sacred texts by hand was essential to the spiritual formation of monks. With more than a touch of irony, he had to use the printing press to publish his tome, In Praise of Scribes, to get his message out.
2. Have a teenage crush on, and hold hands with, ChatGPT, but maybe with the hesitant caution of a youth group side hug. Use it as you might use a search engine to give you ideas you can personally build on and make your own or as a shortcut to having to pull out your Strong’s concordance or Matthew Henry’s commentaries. But don’t get too close.
3. Go steady with ChatGPT. Where you go, she’s there by your side—sort of like Barney Fife’s perpetual girlfriend, Thelma Lou on The Andy Griffith Show. They never tied the knot, but she was always available to see a movie at the Mayberry Theater or go to a community dance. There was rarely a moment when Barney and Thelma Lou were not chatting back and forth. Chat GPT is your true friend with benefits.
4. Dating is nice . . . having a steady is even better, but should you marry ChatGPT? I asked ChatGPT and here’s the answer I got. “No, Eric, a person cannot marry ChatGPT or any other artificial intelligence. Marriage is a legally and socially recognized union between human beings. ChatGPT is just a computer program without emotions, consciousness or legal standing, so it can’t participate in such human institutions.” So, in short, it’s a no-go, and the human race is safe. For now.

Final Thought

Whether you’re cautiously intrigued, steadily committed, or still sitting on the fence, one thing’s clear: ChatGPT isn’t going anywhere. And for those willing to explore its potential, the opportunities for ministry—and impact—are endless.