Messages

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Your Turn / Re: Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: Today at 01:20:48 PM »

The internet search engines you use are all examples of AI. They assess your search request and then prioritize the results based on what AI thinks you want. An AI program designed to support sermon preparation could be programed to display the sources of information. The newer feature of AI is the ability compose, as I understand it. If it composed a paragraph,  I suppose it is programmable to tell you the basis of its composition.

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Your Turn / Re: Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: Today at 09:58:05 AM »

I, too, heard the rule of "one hour for one minute".  Must have been the thing in our time.  I think it makes a point that adequate preparation is needed if the sermon is not going to sound 'off the cuff'.  That said, depending on the week and the needs/size of the parish, finding those 15-20 hours might be a challenge, to say the least. 

But it is true that sermon prep also takes place outside the study, as is noted.  The sermon must be contextualized for a given congregation, so the needs and struggles of the people of that place must be in the forefront of the preacher's mind. 

I also consult a variety of sources, sometimes including the sermons of others, such as Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaison to St. Louis (CPH 2004), mainly to see how they treated the text and what themes they may have discovered. Additionally I will consult my own sermons from three years prior when I last preached on the text. I do not always agree with how I did some things, or realize that circumstances have changed, and that launches me off into additional study to see if I possibly misunderstood parts of the text that I could understand better.  For that good commentaries are a must. 

This morning was an interesting day to revisit a prior sermon, as this Sunday, three years ago, was the first Sunday we were in 'lock down' mode in Wisconsin when our governor ordered public buildings to be at a 10 or less capacity. That Sunday was the first time the in-person 'congregation' consisted of only three people; a reality we lived with for two and a half months as I preached to a cell phone week after week.  Historically I had approached the text of the healing of the blind beggar from John 9 in the context of the beginning of a pandemic with all of the fears and questions attendant to that event.  Seeing a merciful God in the midst of suffering still seemed timely, and I revised that sermon with the added perspective of how God brought us through that difficult time. 

I don't think AI could have done all that.   

The question might be,  "What could AI do to help the preparation process?"

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Your Turn / Re: Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: Yesterday at 06:43:19 PM »

On the other hand, recently, I heard a sermon, and I’m sure I would’ve preferred something that artificial intelligence wrote to the one I actually heard.

Made me laugh outloud!

I learned the one hour preparation to one minute preaching ratio,  too. I think this is taught by homoletics professors who want to hear a decent sermon from students.

My preparation is not nearly so much per week but my preparation is long. I annually plan all my sermons for the entire year, choosing the text, theme, focus verse, doctrinal summary, and title in the summer for the coming church year. Alongside this, I choose the sermon hymn and bulletin cover. So I know all that before the week's preparation begins, which includes reviewing my prep, forcing an outline or two, and then taking notes as I go about visitation, etc. Reading Study Bible notes, news, and my people usually populates the notes, which I write into a sermon at week's end and too often at 5 AM on Sunday morning.

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Your Turn / Re: Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: Yesterday at 07:03:31 AM »

Ah, gentlemen, if you are using the internet for sermon research such as reading the news, you are already using artificial intelligence to prepare your sermons. It's here now, part of every search engine. It's in your hands. You've already embraced the technology.

This is the irony of technology, I think. We fear it while we use it and depend on it. That personal,  appropriate,  local application you are making is supported by algorithms.

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Your Turn / Re: Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: March 18, 2023, 05:03:32 PM »

If you are not willing to do the personal study, find the appropriate contemporary references (not hard if you are well-tuned in), and make the application local to your parish, why are you preaching at all? Nobody ever said this was supposed to be easy.

Hmm. The internet,  the personal computer,  the photocopier, the electric typewriter, the telephone: these have all made pastors jobs easier/more productive. Shall we stop using them, too?

Seems like a very Amish response.

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Your Turn / Re: Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: March 18, 2023, 03:11:21 PM »

Here are potential benefits I could imagine for such a tool:

-Aggregation and use of sound content (e.g., resources like Concordia Pulpit and Pulpit Resources could be used to train the generator; historical sermons by Luther and other Fathers, too).

-Auto-outlines of a text showing potential ways to preach it as expository, thematic, biographical/story approach,  etc.

-Cross application of illustrations to multiple texts and themes.

-If linked to the web, such a generator might automatically line up related news stories, historical examples, literary references, song lyrics relevant to the target listenership. Imagine telling it you want three illustrations, suggestions for which are best,  and a list of options.

-Potential reduction in time spent on creating content.

-Potentially greater style variation so sermons sounded fresher.

Instead of one pastor grinding out one outline/sermon,  what if that pastor was presented with a handful of approaches to the passage from which he could choose what he believed most suited to the congregation he serves?

These are some ways AI technology might serve sermon development.

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Your Turn / Re: Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: March 18, 2023, 07:59:53 AM »

Here is a helpful video for understanding more about machine learning that helps support AI.

https://youtu.be/5q87K1WaoFI

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Your Turn / Artificial Intelligence Sermon Generator

« on: March 17, 2023, 09:50:55 PM »

Artificial Intelligence text generators are now being described as a definite part of our future.  What if Lutheran publishing houses made available sermon generators? You add the text, target audience, length, etc. to the generator and allow it to create a sermon. Would you try/use such a product? What advantages might it provide? Would it be wrong for a pastor or congregation to use?

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Your Turn / Re: Valpo President/Board Decide to Sell Art Masterpieces to Pay for Dorm Renovation

« on: March 17, 2023, 08:40:14 PM »

Prisons, asylums, orphanages, reservations, internment camps, labor disputes,  slums, cults, etc. are others features of the American experience alongside the more significant issue of slavery. Who knows what we're doing right now that future generations will regard as unjust? Perhaps all this is worthy of its own thread.

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Your Turn / Re: Institutional Trust

« on: March 16, 2023, 07:47:42 AM »

Don, I disengaged yesterday around 3 pm and went about my business with family and congregation. I didn't see that you had messaged until later in the evening. Thanks for sharing with me the point you had in mind. Hope you have a great day.

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Your Turn / Re: Institutional Trust

« on: March 15, 2023, 03:07:17 PM »

Wouldn't a standard background check have revealed the issue of an offense? Were they not doing that?.

I think you're missing the point...

"a newspaper article detailing Mr. Schauer's 1983 conviction for similar crimes."

A proper background check should turn up convictions. If the district won't use them, that's poor practice. I would hope all our ministry training programs would run a background check for potential church workers.
[/quote

Again, I think you're missing the point.

As usual,  Don, trying to dialogue with you is pointless. Have a better day.

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Your Turn / Re: Institutional Trust

« on: March 15, 2023, 02:51:11 PM »

Wouldn't a standard background check have revealed the issue of an offense? Were they not doing that?.

I think you're missing the point...

"a newspaper article detailing Mr. Schauer's 1983 conviction for similar crimes."

A proper background check should turn up convictions. If the district won't use them, that's poor practice. I would hope all our ministry training programs would run a background check for potential church workers.

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Your Turn / Re: Institutional Trust

« on: March 15, 2023, 01:52:08 PM »

Wouldn't a standard background check have revealed the issue of an offense? Were they not doing that?

I'm enrolling to be a 4-H leader and had to be fingerprinted at the sheriff's office for their approval process. Background checks have become quite common.

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Your Turn / Re: Institutional Trust

« on: March 15, 2023, 07:21:38 AM »

Political machinations in the synod can be brutal as I have described in my cautionary tale about mobbing. Ironically, one of the demands I experienced was that my DP strongly recommended I go to private confession and absolution (veiled transparency?) because a politically motivated colleague was gossiping accusations against me. I then received a phone call from the DP strongly recommending that I go to a specific, named confessor. (This is an example of reserved confession, something Luther and the Reformers rejected.) When I chose to go to my own pastor and confessed nothing exceptional, the machinations went wild, including the accusation that I lacked transparency. All along the way, I followed the synodical approved process and found that process constantly misused against me. The long range outcomes have been terrible for the synod. What could have been handled in a single face-to-face meeting escalated into a broadly discussed issue.

The processes of the synod look fine on paper but they are only as good as the people managing them. I have no idea what happened in the most recent situation but, given my horrible experience over the last ten years, I think it reasonable for members of synod to ask questions.

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Your Turn / Re: Pope Francis says RCC banning priests from engaging in sex is temporary

« on: March 14, 2023, 05:54:03 PM »

It was interesting at Adult Catechism the other night. A student of Methodist background said he noticed in the assigned readings from the Small Catechism with Explanation that men rather than women are called to be pastors. He wondered if that was just at Emmanuel or generally in the Lutheran Church. I explained the history, referred to a few passages, told him about my sister who is in deaconess ministry, and discussed where we have boundaries at Emmanuel. The class didn't bat an eye.

The conservative pastor at the LCMS congregation in a town where I served; (he would not let women vote in his congregation;) explained the LCMS (and his position, which he believed were the same as the LCMS), in his new member classes. My predecessor called him, "My best evangelist." He, and I, had many new comers to our town transfer from LCMS congregations to our LCA/ELCA congregation because they wouldn't agree with what that pastor was trying to teach them. He also told that them if they didn't agree with everything he taught, they shouldn't join. I remember noting at one point that over half of my congregation council were formerly LCMS members.

Over the years I've received a number of new members from other churches, including ELCA, UMC, and TEC who came because of decisions made by the denomination that they could not stomach and were looking for a more traditionally minded church. It happens.


Pastoral incompetence, stridency, and obnoxiousness can happen anywhere on the theological of social spectrum. If our conservativeness in the LCMS are driving so many people from our pews to those of the ELCA, then you must be growing mightily, right?!? Or at least your membership/attendance must be declining much slower than the LCMS, right?!?

Ironically, my congregation chose not to join the ELCA merger in the 1980s. So the ELCA lost the entire congregation at that time. In the 1990s dozens of members left the ELCA congregation in Grove City and came to Emmanuel. (About 50 settled here.) Even more ironically, the Grove City congregation they left has now left the ELCA and joined the NALC! The more recent people coming to us are weary Methodists who can't stand the sexuality wars tearing apart their congregations. So people have come to Emmanuel seeking refuge for years and in large numbers.

Tragically, today I learned that the diocese is planning to close another Roman Catholic congregation in the South End by merging it with one north of us. Emmanuel is one of a few, surviving, active congregations in the South End. (There are no ELCA congregations here, only our independent congregation,
an LCMS congregation and---get this---a WELS congregation supporting a school.) So, the traditional and conservative message, kindly delivered, is well received even in urban ministry.