i’ve often lamented the current state of preaching in many of our churches today and how they are wrapped in slick little packages, etc. however, there’s one part of preaching that, although i’ve mentioned it before i’ve never really talked about it a whole lot… plagarizing sermons.Â
everywhere you look nowdays you can purchase bins and bins of sermons from the mega-churches stocked full of their media, etc so that you don’t have to lift a finger but read their sermons to your congregation. it’s a ridiculous notion. it’s seems as if we’re more inclined to equip our church leaders with laziness, than to equip them to actually do the work.
out of ur takles this issue in one of their most recent posts in which they reference a pastor/preacher (rev. jackson) that was outted as a plagarizer in a mega-church. the story of his plagarism and his acceptance into a new ministry was recently reported in the new york times.Â
the rev. jackson is quoted in the times as saying:
“It’s a pattern you get into,†he said, explaining he was struggling at the time with issues of self-esteem. “It happens bit by bit. You end up using more and more. You’re using a little material maybe initially, and then using more. It’s really not rational.â€
could it be that the celbrity status, as referred to in the out of ur post, that we give our preachers is one of the major causes of this? it seems only logical when you mixed in the components of instant gratification, instant results, excellent results that our culture seems to constantly tout (and even moreso in the church sometimes it seems).
Related posts:
- preaching Jesus.
- sermonic drivel… the underlying reason for my disdain.
- sex. the dirty word.
- individual responsibility vs. communal responsibility.
- father’s day sermon.
The main problem I have with all of this is where is the effort on the part of the “worker” “employeee” etc – ie the pastor? I visit several church sites every week to see what they preached on. Most often is a series, and when you Google it, about 100 churches come up with the same sermon. I blame things like sermoncentral.com etc for this. Years ago I remember when serving on a leadership committee it was determined that the sr pastor should get a month every year on paid sabatical leave to get sermons ready for the upcoming year. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But when he came back and basically preached “sermons in a box” for the next year I totally didnt get it? The Willow-Backs of this nation are making huge money off selling this ideology.
And not just sermons anymore either. How about VBS? I think a small fortune could be made in just coming up with a themed VBS. I saw no less than a dozen churches in my immediate area this summer all doing “Fiesta! VBS” – a pre-made, store bought solution to VBS. Heaven forbid someone come up with their own idea or thoughts anymore.
This has been a sore spot for me for many years and it’s getting worse.
This is no different than handing in a paper for school or college that you just copied off the internet or from an encyclopedia and change a handful of words to personalize it. You can get expelled in school for that, it should be no different in the church.
preach it!
(i too have seen many “Fiesta” VBS’ in our area as well….)
i prefer the southern baptist’s culturally sensitive rickshaw rally vbs myself.
a vbs teacher dressed like a geisha? now that’s a great idea!
how funny, a google search for ‘andy stanley sermons’ ended up at this site…
I’m not sure it’s the celebrity status of certain preachers. I think that with some guys it’s just laziness. With others it’s just fear of preaching a sub-par sermon, and with others it’s just flat being overworked. My dad spends about 30-40 hours per week just managing the staff of the church. That doesn’t leave much time for the in-depth study I know he wants and needs.
On the VBS thing, I’m not going to be too critical. Most churches have volunteers doing their VBS who have no business or time to produce their own material. I think there’s a big difference between using a VBS program and making it your own and using a sermon and making it your own. As a person who always hated working VBS’s, I’m just glad there are people in the church willing to do it.
This is an interesting ethical question about sermons–As a speech teacher I’ve struggled with this issue. Is it ethical to use a title, or maybe a basic outline, or perhaps an illustration without footnoting your entire sermon? I’ve always thought that one of the best ways to become a better speaking is by listening to those who do it well. One of the best ways to hurt yourself as a speaker is by trying to imitate someone else–whether it is by using their words or just trying to speak like them. How many guys have tried to speak like Rob Bell and have ended up looking ridiculous?
Anyway, I agree–using someone else’ sermon as your own–bad. But at what point does it become acceptable to use material gathered from listening (or reading) to the work of others?
i think that using illustrations is completely acceptable, provided that you do not use another preacher’s personal illustrations and try to pass them off as your own experience.
but from my perspective, aping entire series from other pastors is rather ignorant because it encourages you to forego the important work of audience analysis and often bypasses the revelatory work that the Spirit does throughout the work of exegesis. if the occasional nature of the new testament epistles teach us anything, it’s that the context of God’s community always effects the shape and content of God’s Word.
i’m also frustrated by the fact that we’ve turned the sermon into a mere set piece for the worship service, but i’ve got to get back to work.
“If you plagiarize enough…it becomes researchâ€.
These are my own words never spoken by anyone else before…and if they were I have to give credit to the Holy Spirit.
-PT
well, in china it’s considered a great honor to plagarize someone without giving them credit…
at what point do you no longer need to cite the things that you’ve learned? we’re all shaped and molded by a great many people in our lives and the chances of us remembering exactly who we learned what from is nearly impossible–unless we run around with a notepad writing everything everyone says down and recording their name. i think it’s important to cite things that have come in writing, but also cite sections of your sermon if need be… if you do it too often, it shows that you’re really not doing much work other than quoting things left and right. you can’t get an ‘A’ on a paper in school if all you do is quote and cite people without giving your own analysis… why should it be any different from the pulpit?
i think by not allowing the Holy Spirit into our midst while preparing sermons, which gentry pointed out, is a tragic, tragic sin against the congregation. i’m not saying that the HS won’t reside in what you speak from the pulpit, but i am suggesting that you’ve shortchanged the HS and the congregation.
i’ve only ever given 3 sermons that i did not write. one was mr. tim bycroft’s–i filled in for him when he was sick. and the other 2 were timely in the history of the student ministry (each time they were cited as not mine.)
it only makes sense to cite something that’s not yours so that other people can go to the source as another resource.