Occasionally people ask my opinion on various personal or church issues. I recently received the following question which I have reprinted below, followed by my response.

QUESTION

Bob,

I’ve struggled for about a year and a half with this question:  at what point does a preacher’s use of other preachers’ sermons become plagiarism?  A year and a half ago I became aware that the senior pastor of my church was not writing his own sermons, but copying sermons from online videos and preaching them as his own, sometimes word for word.  Mostly he uses Max Lucado’s material, but at Christmas, he preached a sermon series from Southeast Christian Church, and at Easter, he preached, again mostly word for word, a sermon you preached at Easter at Southeast in 2017.  

At one point, he actually told a blatant lie from the pulpit to cover up what he was doing.  I spoke to an elder about this, but I assume nothing has been done since he is continuing the practice.  If a sermon is posted online, is the expectation that other preachers will use it as their own?  In that case, plagiarism doesn’t really apply.  Or are they simply posted for Christians to hear and learn from, not for preachers to use in their own churches?

I would appreciate any insight you can give on this question.

MY ANSWER

When preachers ask me whether it’s okay to use someone else’s sermons I often use the analogy of a birthday cake.  Which would you prefer, a cake baked completely from scratch, a cake made from a mix bought off the grocery shelf or a cake purchased from a bakery?

Usually, the first answer is, “One baked completely from scratch.”  I respond that it depends on who is baking the cake.  If a person has little or no cooking skills, I’d prefer they buy one from a bakery.

I know plagiarism is a hot-button issue in today’s culture, but I’m more sympathetic with preachers than most.  Ministry is a wonderful calling, but it’s a difficult, time-consuming, pressure-packed job.  Imagine having a term paper due every week and having to deliver it in front of hundreds of critics. And that’s only 25% of your weekly responsibilities!

There are a lot of different talents needed to make a good preacher …some are better pastors, evangelists, administrators or public speakers than they are sermon-writers.  My friend, the late Wayne Smith, admitted he “borrowed” from a lot of different sources. He would say, “God gave some of us the talent to write sermons and others the talent to preach them.”  We desperately want to help people understand and apply God’s Word to their lives, and most of us struggle to come up with fresh, creative ways to do that week after week.

While I don’t think it’s wrong for preachers to use others outlines and ideas, I encourage preachers to do two things.  First, make the sermon your own.  It’s okay to start with someone else’s basic premise but develop your own phrases, ideas, and examples.  Imitation is always second-best. When you copy someone else entirely, it’s not going to be the best that you can do. Don’t be lazy and preach someone else’s sermon verbatim.  Preaching has been defined as, “truth through personality,” so make sure it’s an expression of your own beliefs and personality or it’s not going to come across as authentic.

Secondly, be honest.  Don’t leave the impression something happened to you if it actually happened to someone else; and if you’re using someone else’s idea admit it.  Don’t pretend it’s your own.  You can begin a sermon saying, “I read a chapter in Charles Swindoll’s latest book that inspired me and it became the basis for my thoughts today,” and the congregation will understand and be supportive.

Oft-quoted preacher, Vance Havner, used to tell about the young preacher who was determined that he was going to be totally original or he was going to be nothing — and he soon discovered he was both! You want your preacher to read and listen to sermons and continue to grow.

When a preacher tells me that he used a sermon idea of mine I am flattered that he considered it helpful. A young preacher once heard Olin Hay preach in his prime and came up to him afterward and said, “Brother, Hay, I really liked that sermon.  I’m going to take it and make something of it!”  That’s the spirit we prefer.

I think if I were you I would go to your preacher personally as Matthew 18:15 instructs us to do, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.”

You have legitimate concerns.  So, go to him in love and express your concerns gently (Galatians 6: 1).  Maybe your conversation will inspire him to be more transparent in the future.  Or, better still, perhaps you will motivate him to attempt to be more original.  If he makes an effort to write more of his own material he may discover he is more gifted to write sermons than he thought and he will have you to thank for it.

– Bob

.

Follow BobRussellKY on Twitter and LIKE the Bob Russell page on Facebook