Can a chatbot preach a good sermon? Hundreds attend experimental Lutheran church service to find out

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An AI chatbot, ChatGPT, urged believers to rise and glorify God at the crowded St. Paul’s church in Fuerth, Bavaria.

The chatbot, embodied as an avatar of a bearded Black man on a colossal screen above the altar, initiated its sermon to an audience of over 300 who had come for an experimental Lutheran service largely powered by AI on a Friday morning.

“As the first AI speaker at this year’s Protestant convention in Germany, I’m honored to address you, dear friends,” the avatar proclaimed in a static facial expression and tone.

The service, comprising the sermon, prayers, and hymnody, was a collaborative effort of ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher hailing from the University of Vienna.

Simmerlein, a 29-year-old academic, shared with The Big Big News, “Although I initiated this service, I see myself more as a guide since the machine took care of roughly 98% of it.”

The AI-orchestrated service was among countless events at the Protestant convention spanning the Bavarian towns of Nuremberg and Fuerth. It sparked immense interest, leading to a long line of attendees outside the 19th-century neo-Gothic building an hour before the commencement.

The Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag convention occurs biennially in Germany, attracting tens of thousands of believers to pray, sing, and contemplate their faith. Attendees also discuss global issues, including climate change, the Ukraine conflict, and AI in this year’s edition.

Operating under the slogan “Now is the time”, the convention saw Simmerlein employ ChatGPT to craft the sermon.

Simmerlein explained his request to the AI: “We are at the church congress, you are a preacher … what would a church service look like?” The request included psalms, prayers, and a closing blessing.

A seemingly surprised Simmerlein reported a successful outcome, “We ended up with a rather robust church service.”

Indeed, the attendees attentively listened to the AI’s discourse about transcending the past, tackling present challenges, confronting mortality, and sustaining faith in Jesus Christ.

Four avatars on the screen, two men and two women, “led” the service. The AI avatar unintentionally evoked laughter with clichéd expressions and impassive reminders of the importance of regular prayer and church attendance.

Attendees had mixed reactions; while some recorded the service on their phones, others showed critical attitudes and refrained from participating audibly in The Lord’s Prayer.

Heiderose Schmidt, an IT professional, initially expressed excitement but eventually found the service unsettling due to its lack of emotional warmth and the avatars’ fast, monotonous delivery.

Conversely, Marc Jansen, a young Lutheran pastor from near Cologne, brought his youth group and was pleasantly surprised by the AI-led service, despite its occasional linguistic hiccups. However, he did miss the emotional resonance inherent in human-delivered sermons.

Anna Puzio, a researcher on tech ethics, acknowledged the potential benefits of AI in religious services, like increased accessibility and inclusivity. However, she cautioned against the risks associated with AI in religion, including its deceptively human-like nature and its potential misuse in propagating a single religious perspective.

Simmerlein clarified his goal isn’t to substitute clergy with AI, but to employ AI as a tool to aid them with their regular duties, such as sermon preparation.

Simmerlein noted, “AI will progressively pervade all aspects of our lives, so it’s essential to become adept at handling it.”

Despite the experiment’s success, it revealed the limits of AI in religious settings, lacking real interaction and responsiveness to audience reactions, something a human pastor could offer.

“The pastor lives amongst the congregation, knows them intimately, and shares in their life events,” said Simmerlein. “AI cannot do that. It does not know the congregation.”

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This report on religion from Big Big News was made possible through a collaboration with The Conversation US, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP holds sole responsibility for this content.

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