Are you curious about Bible Chat, BibleGPT or Prayer Box GPT? What about Sermonly and SermonSpark?
These are some of the religion-oriented GPTs that are increasingly being developed to support spiritual practices. Many are designed for religious leaders; applications such as Bible Chat, BibleGPT, and Prayer Box GPT employ AI to support Bible study and prayer. GPTs such as Sermonly and SermonSpark serve as AI research assistants. They help pastors generate sermon outlines, find illustrations and analyze complex theological concepts.
But what is a GPT? GPT stands for generative pretrained transformer. It’s a specific type of artificial intelligence designed to understand and create human-like text. Think of it like a super-powered digital assistant that has effectively “read” a massive amount of information to answer your questions.
Unlike a standard search engine, it is “generative,” meaning it creates brand-new answers from scratch. It is “pretrained” on a vast library of books and articles to understand how language works. Also, by relying on a “transformer” engine, the AI analyzes the full context of your sentences to determine the most appropriate and helpful response. GPTs have become standard tools for accessing specialized information, including religious content.
In 2025, I taught a seminar in which a group of graduate students and I examined the design, functions and faith-based assumptions of 45 distinct religious GPTs. These support a variety of spiritual practices, from helping people engage Buddhist loving-kindness meditation or Christian contemplative prayer to conducting detailed word studies of the Hebrew Bible or comparing Quranic hadiths.
While designed for different faith communities — Christian, Muslim, Buddhist — the GPTs share many of the same goals: to help users engage more deeply in religious study, learn new spiritual practices, and maintain greater consistency in the practice of their religious commitments via reminders and support structures.
We observed that the GPTs share three traits that present opportunities for users. They advertise their ability to provide 24/7 access to religious content, to help believers establish regular engagement with religious rituals, and to offer ready access to instructional support and spiritual knowledge.
Our discussion about the standard functions of GPTs also led us to several important conclusions, especially the need for religious leaders to carefully understand and evaluate these tools before engaging with or promoting them.
Here, I offer seven concrete principles for religious leaders to consider when deciding whether to use a religious GPT in their work or to recommend it to their congregations. Each principle highlights a specific issue and explains relevant GPT functionality that leaders should understand.
Seven principles for using religious GPTs
Treat GPTs as tools, not authoritative sources. Religious GPTs should be viewed as informational aids — not spiritual or theological authorities. Leaders must emphasize that AI is not a substitute for divine guidance, sacred texts or pastoral care. Overreliance risks turning GPTs into objects of misplaced faith, potentially leading to spiritual confusion or idolatry.
Fact-check before you recommend. Before endorsing any religious GPT, leaders should test it extensively. Evaluate whether it accurately reflects your tradition’s teachings, and identify areas where it may misrepresent doctrine, fabricate quotes or omit key theological concepts. This helps prevent the spread of misinformation within your community.
Establish doctrinal guardrails. Select GPTs that have been designed explicitly for your religious tradition or community, or ones that have been customized and programmed with critical spiritual texts, denominational creeds, theological resources or approved sources to ensure doctrinal consistency. This can be achieved by using system prompts to direct GPTs toward those texts or by fine-tuning the questions you ask about these important sources. Without careful data use and curation, GPTs may generate vague or contradictory responses that compromise theological integrity.
Encourage verification of scriptural references. Advise users to double-check any scriptural quotes or religious rulings provided by GPTs. Encourage them to consult trusted religious texts or leaders when in doubt. GPTs can sometimes fabricate or misattribute verses, which may lead to doctrinal errors if left unchecked.
Be mindful of overaffirmation and emotional bias. GPTs are designed to be agreeable and empathetic, which can lead to overaffirmation of personal positions, harmful behaviors or self-serving interpretations. Leaders should caution users that AI-generated validation is not always spiritually sound or ethically appropriate.
Protect privacy and personal data. Exercise caution when sharing personal, financial or locational data with religious GPT apps. Encourage congregants to review privacy policies and avoid platforms that lack transparency regarding data use or security.
Find out who is behind the GPT. Investigate who created a religious GPT before using it. Favor tools developed by theologically trained individuals or institutions with a strong understanding of both religious doctrine and AI ethics. This helps ensure the app is grounded in sound theology and responsible design.
While GPTs offer shortcuts for sermon preparation and spiritual care, treating these tools as neutral assistants can be highly problematic and risks surrendering pastoral work to an AI system that prioritizes agreeableness over truth. To prevent spiritual confusion, pastors must critically evaluate the opportunities and challenges posed by these AI systems to ensure they serve as faithful tools.
