Beta Sermon Assistant evaluation

Okay, I played with the Sermon Assistant, both Illustrations and Questions, and couldn't force it into any silly responses but only into vapid responses. The responses always reflected the options selected to a reasonable extent. My only problem was I couldn't come up with any reason I would ever use the tool - the results were never better than I would have created myself nor taking things in a direction I hadn't thought of.

But I did come up with a related tool that would be useful - an assistant that would look for the connections between the homily and the liturgical year and the liturgical texts of the day to which the sermon is assigned. Unfortunately, that is not a tool we are offered.

I would like to hear from some beta testers who are more enthusiastic about the tool.

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Comments

Morgan

As someone who is generally cautions in adopting AI tools to do work for me, I appreciate its limited capabilities while still being useful. The discussion questions were surprisingly relevant so it does a good job of reading my sermon manuscripts. All it takes is a little tweaking and now what was once a chore is done in a few minutes.

The illustrations are less helpful, especially the "personal" ones. The last thing I want to do is make something up and present it as a real life example. But others are nice prompts that get me thinking in the right direction. As someone who writes a sermon every week (sometimes two) and bible class material, writers block is real. I'm hopeful to see if the Sermon Assistant will help get over those hurdles sooner.

Matt Doebler

I opened two sermons (bible study lessons) that I had already put together. I used the smart AI to generate discussion questions for both. But in both instances, the majority of the "AI-generated" questions I'm getting are duplicates of the questions that I had already written into the lesson. The AI is not generating new questions, it's just reproducing the existing questions.

Veli Voipio

I tried "prophet swimming". It gave me four examples, this is the first one:

"When Jonah tried to escape from God's command by boarding a ship, he found himself in a big fish of trouble. It's like trying to play hooky from God - it just doesn't end well! But God's mercy is deeper than any sea, and even in the belly of the fish, Jonah's prayers reached the heavens. Just like Jonah, trying to swim away from God's calling will leave us feeling like fish out of water - it’s better to just dive in and follow where He leads!"

I feel this response makes some sense, but does it sound silly for a native English speaker?

GaoLu

Like so many AI responses, they are seldom finished products. They jolt us over a lag-bump on the cognitive agility road. Other times they set us up at a starting point. Or they offer a line or two of refinement which may or may not fit the tone and voice of the context.

Yes, the language typically sounds a bit overblown, English 301-esque, and smacks of AI; but with minor refinement, it can be quite good.

Or so I have found.

I like The Sermons Assistant Results--not to do my work for me (I am a dedicated skeptic), but to prompt me with surprisingly clever ideas.

scooter

I tried "prophet swimming". It gave me four examples, this is the first one:

"When Jonah tried to escape from God's command by boarding a ship, he found himself in a big fish of trouble. It's like trying to play hooky from God - it just doesn't end well! But God's mercy is deeper than any sea, and even in the belly of the fish, Jonah's prayers reached the heavens. Just like Jonah, trying to swim away from God's calling will leave us feeling like fish out of water - it’s better to just dive in and follow where He leads!"

I feel this response makes some sense, but does it sound silly for a native English speaker?

'...big fish of trouble.' Sounds silly.

'...feeling like a fish out of water.' I'd never use this for Jonah, as he is in the water 3 days in the whale.

Ai is trying to be cute. Uh-uh I say to these 2 attempts.

I am a native English user.

MJ. Smith

I feel this response makes some sense, but does it sound silly for a native English speaker?

Let's say it is unlike anything I've ever heard in a sermon ... perhaps even condescending ... it certainly wouldn't call it being fed at the table of the Word.