ChatGPT Prompts for Sermons: 12 for Study and Outlines

The best ChatGPT prompts for sermons do not write the sermon. They coach your preparation: they question the passage with you, test your main idea against the text, shape your study notes into a timed outline, and turn the message into small group questions. Paste your own passage, translation, and notes, and check every background fact in your commentaries, because ChatGPT can state history and word meanings with false confidence. Below are 12 copy-paste prompts grouped by stage of sermon prep, plus a flagship outline prompt.

A note on use: keep your own voice and convictions at the center, and never paste confidential pastoral care details. These prompts are study and planning aids, not a replacement for prayer, study, or your tradition's guidance on preaching.

Prompts for studying the passage

1. Observation questions

I am preaching on [book chapter:verses] from the [translation]. Ask me 12 observation questions about the text itself: who, what, where, repeated words, contrasts, and commands. Do not answer them and do not add background facts.

2. Structure of the passage

Here is the passage: [paste text]. Show its structure as a simple outline with verse ranges. Mark where the scene, speaker, or argument shifts, and quote the exact words that signal each shift.

3. Questions for my commentaries

From my notes, [notes], list the background questions I still need to check in my commentaries before I preach, such as customs, places, or word meanings. Do not answer them; I will look them up.

Prompts for the big idea and outline

4. Big idea test

My main idea is: [one sentence]. The passage is [reference]. Tell me which verses support it, which verses it ignores, and give two tighter versions of 15 words or fewer that stay inside the text.

5. Outline from my notes

Turn these study notes, [notes], into a 3 or 4 point outline. For each point give the verse range, a one-sentence claim, and the note it comes from. Do not add points my notes do not support.

6. Timed outline

My sermon is [minutes] minutes long. Split the time across the introduction, these points, [points], and the close. Show the minutes for each part and confirm they add up.

7. Transitions between points

Write one plain transition sentence between each pair of points in this outline: [outline]. Each transition should name what we just saw in the text and what question the next verses answer.

Prompts for illustrations and application

8. Illustration slots without invented stories

For each point in [outline], describe the kind of story that would help, then match one from my own list, [my stories]. If none fits, write YOUR STORY HERE. Never make up a personal story.

9. Application for different listeners

My congregation includes [groups, such as students, young parents, retirees]. For the point "[point]", write one concrete next step for each group that they could do this week.

10. Hard questions listeners may have

List five honest objections or questions someone might have after hearing a sermon on [reference] with the main idea "[big idea]". For each, point to the verse in the passage that speaks to it, or say the passage does not address it.

Prompts for after Sunday

11. Small group discussion guide

Write a small group guide on [reference] for a group of [size and ages]: one icebreaker, two observation, two interpretation, and two application questions, plus a closing prayer prompt. Keep it to one page.

12. Sermon recap for the newsletter

From my outline, [outline], write a 120-word recap for the church newsletter: the passage, the main idea, and one question to think about this week. Use only what is in my outline.

Build a timed outline with the flagship prompt

The Sermon Prep Outline from Your Passage and Study Notes prompt combines prompts 4, 5, 6, 8, and 11. You paste the passage, your study notes, your rough main idea, your sermon length, and a few stories you are willing to tell. In its Luke 10 example, it tightens the main idea to 10 words, builds four movements tied to verses, splits 28 minutes so the parts add up, leaves YOUR STORY HERE where the pastor has no story, and flags two background claims to check before Sunday.

Related prompts

Preaching shares skills with other timed speaking. For funerals, see the timed eulogy writer, and for weddings, the timed wedding toast writer. For outreach, giving, and volunteer work, see ChatGPT Prompts for Nonprofits.

Find more prompts in the Other category, look through Browse, or post your own on Share.