Click Here AI’s divine intervention
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Mar 3, 2026 Joe Se, a longtime Silicon Valley churchgoer and technologist who built AI tools to repurpose sermons. He shares how he used large language models to recreate a pastor’s voice and how that led to tools for churches. Conversations cover pastoral-feeling chatbots, safeguarding sources to prevent hallucinations, ethical worries about sermon reuse, and privacy risks when tracking outreach.
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Creating A Virtual Pastor From Sermons
- Joe Se created a personalized AI version of Pastor John Ortberg by feeding years of the pastor's sermons into an LLM.
- He used it to ask private theological questions he felt embarrassed to ask in person, and the bot responded without judgment.
Religions Rapidly Adopt New Media
- Religion has historically adopted new media quickly, from printing presses to radio, TV, and the internet.
- Megachurches already broadcast charismatic pastors across campuses, so AI is a logical next step for scaling religious reach.
Pastor's Real Life Reaction Validated The Bot
- Joe showed the AI pastor to John Ortberg in a diner and the real pastor was impressed, saying it sounded like something he would say.
- That approval prompted Joe to consider productizing the idea for other churches.