Pastor who used AI for church service says it was a 'one-time deal': ‘Let’s never do that again’

After using AI software ChatGPT to compose an entire service at his Methodist church, Pastor Jay Cooper says he will not be doing that again.

The pastor of Violet Crown City Church in Austin, Texas told Fox News Digital this week he found himself uncomfortable with how AI presented Sacred Scripture during the service last month, claiming it was not "spirit empowered" and did not have the "human element" through which God communicates to his congregation.

"It can get relative real quickly. But then, you know, some of it was just goofy. It would make these odd jokes, these kinds of metaphors or things they would try to tie in just did not make any sense," Pastor Cooper told the outlet about the AI-generated service he held September 17.

The minister indicated that intentions for the service were less about finding a new, more convenient way to have worship services done, and more of a one-time experiment to see if AI technology had any relevance in a church setting. He also noted he wanted a way to teach his congregation about this new technology many predict will change society as we know it. 

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Cooper said, "it was kind of twofold. One, I mean, I really believe that if it's happening in the world, our people need to be very aware of it and not just have a loose understanding, but to have seen it in action, be able to speak intelligently about it, because a lot of ethical concerns are going to be coming up here soon. And so to address these things head on. Okay. So does this have any role in the church at all?"

He stressed that this wasn’t about going on a lark, but about seriously seeing if AI could add anything to the spiritual dimension of a worship service, which he now believes it can’t.

He said, "This is not like a Sunday off for God. We're not doing this is kind of like a, you know, a bizarro stunt or something. It's actually like a learning opportunity."

"And, you know, how do we experience the sacred? So, is there any sacred at all in artificial intelligence? And that's yet to be seen. Or is it possible that in some way, as believers, we can use this as a tool for the betterment of the world?" the pastor added. 

Cooper’s experimental service included letting ChatGPT compose all its elements, from Cooper’s main sermon to the children’s message.

Cooper posted a video of the AI service to his Violet Crown City Church website. Along with the link, he wrote, "In an effort to understand and explore AI with a sense of curiosity instead of fear, Violet Crown experienced an entire worship service generated by ChatGPT. As you watch the service, consider what it means to find the sacred and receive truth in the midst of a time when most of us assume we will find neither."

He described the prompt he gave to the AI, so it could generate the sermon, saying, "the prompt we provided was how do Christians discern truth in a world where AI blurs truth? And so we kind of had AI do a self-critique."

He admitted it "really did some interesting things," noting it "did identify for Christians, truth is not an opinion. It is a person. So, Jesus is the truth."

Despite the software acknowledging this focal point of Christianity, Cooper noted its weak points. He said he’s aware that ChatGPT "can’t cite it sources," and that it "can hallucinate," which can lead to blurring the truth.

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He also described how he noticed the AI sermon was missing an essential element. He said, "As I was preaching, I became less and less comfortable as I was going along. Although he was making some interesting points, it did not have the human element. I knew that it was not from my own mind or heart."

Cooper added, "You know, it's scraping, I guess you could say, from humanity and Scripture. But is it spirit empowered? Can people still hear it in the same way?"

He concluded, "And I think the answer to that was, no, they cannot."

On top of that, Cooper noted the AI-generated sermon was just "boring."

After conducting the sermon, the pastor said he would not do another AI service: "This was a one-time deal. We will not be doing this again. The general take home from our people was, ‘I'm glad we did it and let's never do that again.’"

He added, "You know, it was a good exercise. We learned a lot. And we'll try to discern how can this be used in ministry."

Cooper stressed that he took the experiment seriously and did much discerning over how to employ AI so as to avoid making the sacred profane. 

He said, "There has to be a certain respect for Scripture. A sacred set apart time for worship. And so in some way, are we disrespecting that? And that's trying to have the careful discernment that we did leading up to this. We made sure everyone was aware this was a one-time thing."

"You know, we didn't enter into it lightly. You know, some people said the Holy Spirit cannot be present in a service like that, that Scripture cannot be, you know, spirit-led. And so, this was an unorthodox service, to say the least. It was not our intention in any way to disrespect the Holy Spirit."

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