“The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps” (Prov 14:15)—that’s my approach to using the artificial intelligence (AI) of large language models (LLMs) in ministry. As ministry practitioners, giving thought to our steps means seeing it as a research assistant not a creative substitute. God’s common grace allows fallen creatures to make tools for kingdom advantage. Many have addressed AI ethics, theology and careful use. But how might we use it responsibly with our differing contexts, personalities and strengths?
Basic Principles of Responsible Use
To protect privacy, you should anonymise anything you feed into a public AI tool. You should also verify output with trusted sources because of its tendency to produce hallucinations and reinforce echo chambers. More broadly, discern carefully the usefulness of responses; don’t just uncritically cut and paste. Use these tools to support your own creative work of pastoring; don’t replace Spirit-led discernment, prayerful wrestling and slow-burn Bible engagement. You should also proactively seek dialogue with others regarding emerging AI-in-ministry—this will help you to avoid knee-jerk criticism or blind adoption.
The bulk of this article, however, is devoted to practical examples of how AI can be fruitfully used in ministry. Prompts marked ⬆️ depend on uploaded files, links or audio. They’ve been tested on ChatGPT unless otherwise indicated. These examples model the characteristics of effective prompts: clarity, specificity, detail, contextualisation. Also, for best results, successful prompts and are often iterative.
Communication and Content Presentation
Try at ChatGPT:
Explain justification by faith to a 10-year-old.
Give NotebookLM a YouTube sermon link:
Summarise the sermon in 80 words for our church’s website in an engaging tone. Name preacher, key passages, ideas and applications. Then give 3 engaging short suggestions (including quote) for social media posts. ⬆️
At Gemini:
Create a humorous image: large piece of wood painfully protruding from a man’s eye; he desperately helps an incredulous woman with some dust in her eye.
At Meta AI:
Suggest 5 well-known hymns and 5 contemporary songs that support a sermon on Revelation 20:1-5, showing relevant lyrics or connections, author and year.
At Claude:
Transpose this PDF sheet music into G. ⬆️
Study and Teaching Tools
Parse then give meaning, etymology, and lexical nuance of μονογενής in John 1, and its difference to γεννηθέντα as used in the Nicene Creed? Reference BDAG.
How did the Ante-Nicene Fathers understand μονογενής in relation to the eternal generation of the Son? Explain their increased emphasis on “begotten.” Use specific quotes.
Summarise the relevant geopolitical and domestic context around Habakkuk. List specific people, issues and key texts.
Reformed Theology 5.5 GPT by Heath Goff, is a custom GPT trained on specific theological sources for more focused results. You could prompt it:
Using Reformed evangelical commentators from the last 50 years (e.g., Carson, Keener, Köstenberger) and Reformers, explain monogenēs in John 1. List relevant works, dates and quotes.
Create a 20-minute draft study guide on the Mark 1:1-13 for churched mid-teens. Use NIVUK 2011. Include questions for observation, “why” and inter-canonical connections, and application. Aim for Christ-centred application not moralising. Don’t give answers.
Ministry Planning and Admin Support
Given leadership transitions, pastoral challenges and the previous 18 months’ preaching, suggest an 8-week series on Philippians. ⬆️
Our church leadership retreat is focusing on the given values. Suggest 5 books printed in the last 5 years as gifts, and why. ⬆️
Use Wolfram GPT:
Use last year’s attendance, camp fees, previous & current quotes. Suggest 2025 church camp fee structure to break even. ⬆️
These are known costs for our 2-week Dec 2026 Philippines mission trip. Estimate missing items. Create a lead-in timeline (e.g., documentation, medical). ⬆️
Summarise these staff reports (sections and dot-points) for my AGM report. ⬆️
Research and verify key dates and people from the founding of St Mark’s East Brighton and Christ Church Ormond up to the present day in a report.
Get tech support with screen shots or ChatGPT’s real-time video. ⬆️
Upload a journal to NotebookLM and get it to produce an engaging podcast:
Focus on the articles and their relevance for para-church ministry. Don’t include the book reviews and editorial. For theologically-educated workers in university student ministry. ⬆️
Document and Policy Engagement
Using this governance act, under what conditions can a parish have its modified parish rules continue in force beyond the standard 10-year expiry? ⬆️
Describe anonymised situations or statements with text or voice:
From what I’ve described, how do the Safe Ministry documents guide me in what I should do? Point me to specific areas of relevant documents and explain why. ⬆️
Upload McCrindle’s An Undercurrent of Faith (2025):
How might we reinvigorate our youth and young adults’ congregation? Engage with report specifics. ⬆️
[Advanced] Create a custom GPT for efficient engagement with multiple documents. See, as an example, the GPT for the over 500 pages of Anglican Diocese of Melbourne guidelines and policies at ADOM GPT. ⬆️
Pastoral Reflection and Theological Discretion
From the described pastoral situation, list the main contributing factors, key points of tension, blind spots. And using Bowen’s Systems theory, describe what’s going on and some coaching questions to reduce my rescuer tendencies. ⬆️
How might the Gen Alphas in our church respond emotionally to the section on suffering in this sermon, mindful of recent news? Identify clunky transitions, emotional triggers, ambiguity or dense logic. ⬆️
How does my sermon agree/disagree with Reformed evangelical commentators? How would a non-Reformed view respond critically to the section on free will? ⬆️
Use conversational mode as an active listener to think through vision, strategy, exegetical issues, theology, church history and application (see here for an example). ⬆️
This guide has shown you how you might use AI practically in ministry—not to debate whether you should, nor to outsource your pastoral calling. I encourage you to have a go, be prudent, and see how AI can support you without replacing your ministry heart.
