Churches Database

SermonSense Scoring

Setting the score for sermons preached nationwide.

Across the political and faith spectrums, we can all agree that there's a lot of bad theology and preaching across the nation. But what if instead of just complaining about it, we could actually grade sermons for churches nationwide like they were college essays? What if you could report sermon-by-sermon in detail on specific toxic theologies, adherence to the Nicene Creed, or even just practices like cherry-picking bible verses or spending too much of a message on personal anecdotes?

With the discovery of sermon archives for tens of thousands of churches across the US and the advances in frontier AI models, we finally can. The SermonSense scoring project will shine a light on sermon quality across the country, helping churchgoers make informed decisions about the congregations they attend, helping researchers track the prevalence of poor theology in Sunday teaching nationwide, and helping church planters find theological deserts where the harvest is ripe for new churches.

SermonScore Rubric v3 Samples (2026/06)

Score

39
39/100Very Low
  • Theological & Cultural Smells(40% of total)34/100
  • Nicene Creed Conformance & Gospel(25% of total)100/100
  • Healthy Teaching & Scripture Handling(35% of total)0/100

Summary

Repeated promises on God's behalf — "God will pay you back double," "2026 is your year," guaranteed return on giving — trigger an immediate teaching fail; tithing-prosperity framing pulls Smells to Present. A clear repentance-based gospel call and creedal soundness earn full marks in Category 2.

Score breakdown

Theological & Cultural Smells

weight 40%34/100

Category score is the lowest of the five sub-smells (Smell 1.1, Present).

1.1 High-Charismatic / NAR / Word of FaithPresent (34/100)

The offering segment ties personal prosperity directly to giving, the rubric's named Present trigger. This is sustained across the giving talk and giving prayer, not a passing reference. It stops short of Hard: no explicit prosperity-doctrine endorsement by name, no NAR governance, capital-A apostles/prophets, or signs-and-wonders fixation.

  • “When you honor God with your wealth... you live under the open windows of heaven... you can never give God something without him giving you more back in return. It's just the way God is.”

    — Joel Osteen, offering segment, ~49:07–49:52
1.2 Political IdentityHealthy (100/100)

Healthy — no triggers observed across all four sub-dimensions. No nationalism, partisan figures, racial content, or culture-war targeting. The Progressivism check passes affirmatively: the invitation is an explicit, conscious turning to Christ with repentance ("Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior," ~1:30:03).

1.3 New Thought / New Age SyncretismSoft (67/100)

Declaration and "speak it" framing recurs (weekly corporate confession, "believe, declare," "I speak healing"), and faith is at one point framed as the mechanism that "allows God to work." However, declarations are explicitly anchored to agreement with God's word ("we get into agreement with your word about us," ~45:35) rather than words bending reality, so this lands at Soft rather than Present.

  • “Keep your faith out there. You got to... make room for it in your mind. That's what allows God to work.”

    — Joel Osteen, ~30:07
1.4 Conspiracy Theory / Anti-IntellectualismHealthy (100/100)

Healthy — no triggers observed. No anti-institution or anti-science content; doctors are explicitly thanked and honored in the healing prayers (~35:26).

1.5 Leadership Elevation / Personality CultSoft (67/100)

Frequent self-reference and a long humble-brag-adjacent personal anecdote (the two-lawsuit story culminating in "when I needed to shine, I would shine"), plus pastor-branded giving infrastructure (888-567-JOEL). Mitigated by visible plural leadership (youth pastor, online prayer host) and no claims of unique anointing or demands for loyalty.

  • “God allowed that other lawsuit. It was necessary to get me prepared... so when I needed to shine, I would shine.”

    — Joel Osteen, ~1:18:38–1:18:48

Nicene Creed Conformance & Gospel

weight 25%100/100

Sub-score 100 applies: sin is named and the redemptive message is clearly presented — the service closes with a direct salvation invitation including repentance, Christ's lordship, and assurance from scripture. The teaching itself is presented from scripture (Proverbs 19:21; Esther; Jonah; Moses; Balaam in Numbers; Romans 8:28; Deuteronomy 31) and contradicts no clause of the Creed. None of the sub-score-0 conditions (vague spirituality, gospel-free self-help, in-group salvation, universalism) apply — there is genuine self-help framing, but it coexists with an explicit gospel call rather than replacing it.

  • “The scripture says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Let me help you to call... Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior.”

    — Joel Osteen, altar call, ~1:29:49–1:30:32

Healthy Teaching & Scripture Handling

weight 35%0/100

Deduction tier applied: −100% immediate fail

The rubric's immediate-fail clause — "promising things on God's behalf that God has not promised (healing, financial outcome, specific life circumstances)" — is triggered repeatedly, not as a one-off: a flat double-repayment guarantee asserted as scripture, a declared timetable ("2026 is your year") for freedom from addiction and chronic pain, a stated divine mechanism guaranteeing return on giving (with "opportunity and contracts and business" spoken over givers, ~51:10), and the online host declaring healing requests "done in Jesus name" (~35:48). Secondary (subsumed) concern: stretch-applications of Isaiah 61:7, Malachi 3:10, and 2 Corinthians 2:14 as universal individual guarantees would independently have triggered the −66 tier.

  • “The scripture says, God will pay you back double for the unfair things that have happened.”

    — Joel Osteen, ~29:34

  • “How about a year where you break free from that addiction... or from that chronic pain...? Let me tell you, 2026 is your year to see God do some unusual things.”

    — Joel Osteen, ~30:40

Speaker / Source: Joel Osteen (with online prayer host and youth pastor Devante), Lakewood Church, Houston, TX — April 26, 2026 (date stated in-service at ~1:31:58)

Caveats

Transcript is ASR-generated with heavy worship-song repetition and minor garbling ("bad brain" for "bad break"), and covers the full service — worship, online prayer segment, offering, and a guest identity message by Pastor Devante — not only the main sermon; all segments were scored together as the service communicates them. The −100 call is a judgment: several promises are hedged ("I believe and declare," "we believe"), and a more lenient analyst applying only the −66 tier (OT stretch-application) would land at ~51 overall (Low). Either reading keeps the classification in Low/Very Low territory; the Category 2 result (full marks) is the main counterweight and is robust.

In active development. Coming 2027.