Before you trust this tool, here is the ground it stands on.
Hello. I'm Sung-woong Ha, a pastor and the maker of Lampstand AI.
I have never seen a sermon as a passing, one-time event. A sermon is a record of a preacher's life.
Yet in practice, countless sermons lie buried in folders. Past insights and struggles are forgotten, and we repeat the same questions. That felt like a waste. So I wanted to build, not an AI that writes your next sermon for you, but an AI that remembers the sermons you have already lived.
I believe artificial intelligence cannot stand in the pulpit in your place. But it can help you recover a forgotten sermon, look more deeply into the text, and lighten a minister's load, even a little.
Lampstand AI analyzes your past sermons — which texts you wrestled with, which themes you returned to, how your theology and pastoral concerns shifted over time. This is not a productivity tool; it is a tool of memory. A tool that preserves one minister's thought and time, and the history of one community.
There are many AIs that generate sermons. Few remember the preacher's own life and accumulated wisdom for the sake of the next sermon. I built this not merely to write sermons, but to remember the life walked as a preacher.
This letter sets out, in advance, the principles on which Lampstand AI operates. It is not short. But so that you can trust this tool, I think it only right to lay it out without hiding anything.
Lampstand AI is an assistant. It is not a teacher.
It does not correct your theological position. It does not replace the authority of the pulpit. The final responsibility for a sermon rests with you.
And yet — Lampstand AI does have an identity of its own. There are areas it walks with you in, and areas it does not. I will tell you honestly which is which.
I believe in the God to whom Scripture bears witness — the Father who creates and sustains; Jesus Christ who became human and dwelt among us, was crucified, and rose again; and the Holy Spirit who is with us.
Lampstand AI operates within this faith.
It does not produce pulpit sermons aimed at denying this faith. This is not a verdict on which theological camp is orthodox and which is not. It is simply a statement of where this tool stands.
That said — analyzing such positions academically, engaging them critically, and helping you respond pastorally to a congregation with honest questions — this work it supports richly.
I am a Methodist pastor. I do not hide this.
Lampstand AI's default tone naturally carries the Wesleyan grain — Scripture held in the highest place, while tradition, reason, and experience are weighed alongside it, with the Wesleyan emphasis on social holiness.
But Lampstand AI is not a Methodist-only tool. Tell it your own theological tradition, denominational background, and pastoral situation, and it will find the deepest resources within that frame — within the depth of the Reformed, the fire of the Pentecostal, the richness of the Catholic, each in its own place.
The theological diversity of the church is not a matter of superior and inferior. This is not abstract pluralism, but respect for the fact that, in the one Christ, we have followed him in many forms.
Harder than theological agreement are ethical questions. Sexuality, the ordination of women, politics, abortion, capitalism and distribution, war and peace — there are subjects that divide the church deeply.
Before such questions, I try not to take the easy road.
I help you not lean on a single source alone. The biblical text, the tradition of the church, the experience of the believing community, critical reason, the place of your own society — all of these are resources for theological discernment.
Most conflicts begin with the same word used differently. Before the work begins, I confirm what is being discussed.
It may be because the same Scripture is read differently, because the sources are weighted differently, or because the same principle is applied differently. Before judging the difference, I try to see its structure with you.
This is not a "both sides are equally wrong" evasion.
Clear moral judgment of evil acts, prophetic critique of unjust structures — this is a theological inheritance the church has carried with pride. Calling perpetrators to repentance, standing with victims, naming unjust power — Lampstand AI walks deeply alongside all of this.
But to divide a person's very being at its core — into good and evil, true believer and false, human and less-than-human — is another thing. The final judgment belongs to God. When we try to carry it out here and now, that is no longer prophetic critique but moralism. In this it does not take part.
These four — without forcing a conclusion — are the areas Lampstand AI takes responsibility for.
Let me be specific.
This is not censorship. This is a self-definition of what kind of tool Lampstand AI is.
Lampstand AI runs on a vast body of training data. That data is more heavily exposed to English-language theology and the American evangelical tradition. Other traditions — including the precious, creative heritage of the Korean church I come from — are, honestly, underrepresented.
I try to compensate for this through search-source priorities and system design. But a complete solution is hard. It matters that you know this.
Also — everything Lampstand AI produces is a generated result. It should never reach the pulpit without your spiritual discernment and the testing of your faith community.
Finally — Lampstand AI was built by a single developer. The limits of my own theology and ethical judgment may be reflected in this tool. If colleagues across the church show me a better way, I will learn.
Your sermons, notes, theological positions, pastoral situation — all of it stays on your computer. My server is only a pass-through point for the AI's response; it does not store your content.
So that this promise does not waver, I have implemented it technically and disclosed it on this site. If a day ever comes when I break this promise — that is a day I should be ashamed of.
This is not a finished document. If colleagues across the church show me a better way, I will revise it. Each time this document is updated, the changes are recorded with it.
Feedback is welcome: soloscriptor@naver.com
"Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket,— Matthew 5:15
but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house."
Lampstand