{"id":11193,"date":"2024-07-17T11:01:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=11193"},"modified":"2024-07-17T11:01:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:01:43","slug":"pulpit-ai-hopes-to-help-pastors-use-ai-to-preach-beyond-sunday-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/07\/pulpit-ai-hopes-to-help-pastors-use-ai-to-preach-beyond-sunday-services.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Pulpit AI’ Hopes to Help Pastors Use AI to Preach Beyond Sunday Services"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new AI platform aimed at helping pastors preach their sermons more effectively is set to launch later this month. Pulpit AI, created by Jake Sweetman and Michael Whittle, will be released on July 22 and will include both paid and free versions, according to both men. Whittle is based in Nashville, while Sweetman is senior pastor of Cathedral Church in Los Angeles, which he and Whittle started. According to Whittle, the two have been friends for over 10 years.<\/p>\n

Whittle said, \u201cPulpit AI is a generative AI app that allows churches and pastors, church leaders, to upload any version of their sermons,\u201d Whittle said. That includes audio, video, a manuscript or an outline. Then our app automatically turns [the sermon] into all kinds of associated content that a pastor or a church could need, based on that sermon.\u201d This includes but is not limited to \u201cdevotionals, discussion questions and guides for small groups, newsletters,\u00a0social media content\u00a0\u2013 really anything that a church would need to communicate with its congregation,\u201d Whittle said.\u00a0The idea for Pulpit AI came from a desire to communicate a sermon to the congregation more effectively while at the same time creating less work for the church\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

Whittle recounted, \u201cI kind of ran into [Sweetman] one day, and I said, \u2018Hey, what if we could build a tool that lets you just upload your sermon to an app and what if it could turn it into just\u00a0a devotional\u00a0that our congregation could read every day of the week based on the sermon?\u2019\u201d The two then asked a team member at Cathedral Church what she thought of the idea. Whittle said, \u201cShe was like, \u2018Yeah, this would save hours of my week if we could do this.\u2019 So that was kind of the genesis.” \u201cThe reality is that pastors put lots of hours into the preparation of a sermon,\u201d Sweetman told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview.\u00a0Sweetman said he spends \u201canywhere from 10 to 15 hours a week writing a sermon.\u201d<\/p>\n