While I am a self-proclaimed geek, I have not been one to jump on the AI bandwagon. It’s not that I’ve intentionally avoided using tools like ChatGPT, but I’ve just not seen much application in my day-to-day life. In case you don’t know, I’m a pastor. Thus, ChatGPT doesn’t offer a lot of application when it comes to making pastoral visits, planning outreach events, or writing sermons.

Or at least, that’s what I thought.

Then, I decided to explore a self-guided course by PublishingAltitude.com and I began to see how, for a pastor, speaker, or author, ChatGPT (and other similar tools) could really serve as a boon when it comes to brainstorming, idea development, and even research.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT encouraging anyone to use AI tools to fully create a speech, post, newsletter, or sermon. There are a myriad of issues that arise if you lean TOO heavily on something you did not invest in creating. HOWEVER, there are some creative ways to use a tool like ChatGPT that can help you out.

Like most people, when I heard about ChatGPT, I went to the site, popped in a couple of questions, and then went on my way. This is what I would term a basic usage of AI tools. To be clear, this can help you with brainstorming some ideas. For example, if you wanted to write about dog ownership, a question like, “What are the most common questions of new dog owners?” can provide you with some ideas for potential posts.

Let’s face it, the basic use cases can also be answered by a simple Google search. To begin really leveraging AI as a tool, you need to understand that the more you put into your query, the more you will receive as a result. In continuing with our dog-ownership example above, consider the following input:

"When individuals consider getting a dog for the first time, what are their most common hesitations? I would like you to respond from a position of someone who has two working adults in the household and three children. The children are actively campaigning for a dog, and there are no immediate medical considerations that would be prohibitive."

Try placing this question into ChatGPT and you will find that the responses are much more nuanced and thorough. You have provided more specific information that the AI can consider as it generates its output.

I want to be clear, I do NOT consider myself an expert on AI. However, the idea continues that the more you put into your query, the more you will receive as a result. For this example, I’ll step away from the dog-ownership example and instead, provide an example I used for my sermon this past Sunday.

You will find that, to make it easy on myself, I have separated the query into sections, even specifying how the information should be returned. My goal in this instance, was to be able to look for unique perspectives on the person of Jesus. So, instead of spending hours rifling through blog articles on Google, I allowed ChatGPT to come up with some examples for me that I did use in my message.

Essentially all I have done is use an AI tool to help me do some research. Just like Google took the process of searching down from hours spent at the library to a few minutes, ChatGPT allows me to have a conversational-type approach and drill down into what I am specifically looking for.

So that is what I am currently learning and working on. How have used ChatGPT for some projects of your own? Do you have any best practices to share with others of us who are still learning? I’d love to hear about it!