Sermons and Their Delivery #4: Plagiarizing Sermons (continued)

Having discussed plagiarized sermons with some who have done such plagiarizing, I know what one of the follow up issues will be: “What’s wrong with preaching someone else’s message if that individual has given us the permission to do so?”

My last post concluded that plagiarizing a sermon is stealing. Plagiarizing is stealing the structure, thoughts, and words from the individual who did the original work. But what if that author has told others they could preach his message with his blessing? Doesn’t that eliminate the “theft” aspect of plagiarizing?

It amazes me that any preacher would encourage another servant of God to preach his message. Maybe that’s because I don’t consider any of my messages worthy of repetition! Yet, some preachers have done just that. For example, Dr. James Merritt, a popular Southern Baptist pastor and past President of the convention, has a web site in which he sells sermons. Furthermore, at the Pastor’s Conference of the 2007 Southern Baptist Convention, he encouraged fellow pastors to obtain his Father’s Day message and preach it to their churches, noting it was not plagiarism since he gave them permission to use it. Oh, really?

I will admit a sermon is not plagiarized if (1) the author has given permission for its use and (2) the user informs his audience that the message is not his. Receiving the author’s permission does eliminate the “stealing” aspect of plagiarism. But what about the deceit of the speaker when he preaches this message to a congregation who believes the message is his? The violation of the 9th commandment is still there. If you intend to preach a message that is not yours, my fellow minister of Christ, then tell your congregation at the outset what you are doing.

Even if a man of God had the permission of the sermon’s author to preach it and informed his congregation what he was doing, there are several reasons for not using such a sermon. Allow me briefly to return to my earlier definition of a sermon:

… an exposition and application of God’s Word which has been internalized by God’s messenger and then delivered by that messenger to the people for whom it was intended.

First, is such a message really intended for the audience to whom it is to be given? Has God truly convicted His messenger to preach another’s message on that day to his flock? Certainly He could do this. In fact, maybe there are times when He does do this. But I am sure such a situation would be the exception, not the norm.

Second, has such a message truly been internalized by the messenger? He hasn’t done any work in preparing it (other than, perhaps, changing some illustrations, etc.) so how can it be a part of him? When he delivers it will the passion of the message be evident or will it be a fake passion he must add in order to get a response from his audience?

Third, how much praying has the messenger done over the message? Since the message is not a “part of him”, it would seem any prayers offered to God over it would be of the form “Help me to deliver this message in a convincing way” or “Help me to read this message clearly”. Is that how we pray over messages? I hope we go beyond praying just for the delivery and include praying for the message, its content, and its structure. Of course, with a “borrowed” message, who needs to pray for those things?

Could there ever be a situation where a pastor is forced to borrow a sermon and deliver it? I suspect there are times like that in the lives of some. If the preacher MUST proclaim another’s message then he should be certain he has permission and make it clear to his congregation what he is doing. But, as I said above, such situations should be few and far between.

For preachers who plagiarize sermons on a regular basis, I can see only two reasons why they do so. First, they have no idea how to construct an expository sermon. If that is the case then they should seek the necessary training. All of our seminaries have courses on this subject. Some local Baptist schools offer such training as well. And I’m sure there are area pastors who have this skill and would gladly guide another servant of God who asked them for help. Preachers, if you can’t put together your own message then seek training or get out of the pulpit!

The second reason for plagiarizing sermons is laziness. If you know how to build an expository message but simply don’t do so then you are lazy. Be honest. You will find time for everything else in life except the time (and labor) necessary to prepare the meal for your sheep. Maybe you stay in bed most mornings. Maybe you spend most of your time in the office involved in counseling sessions. Maybe you spend your Fridays on the golf course. If you are willing to put your energies into these aspects of your life but not into your sermon then get out of the pulpit!

I close this post once again appealing to those pastors who plagiarize sermons. Stop it, men! You are to be examples of integrity to your flock and the overwhelming majority of that flock understands that plagiarism is wrong. That’s why you try to hide what you do in the pulpit each week. It’s time to repent to God and to your people. Then you can return to the Lord’s Word with a pure heart and prepare the spiritual bread your flock needs for spiritual nourishment.

Sermons and Their Delivery #3: Plagiarizing Sermons

The preacher was expounding Philippians 2:5-8 for his congregation. He proclaimed:

The fourth thing He set aside were His eternal riches. It would be impossible for me to explain how rich He was but I know what 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, it says He was rich but for your sakes He became … what? … poor. He was so poor, He said the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. I always think about John’s gospel where it says, "And every man went to his own house and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives." Why? He had no house. Poor.

What a great exposition! Maybe you are thinking, “I wish my preacher could preach like that!” Unfortunately, the man who proclaimed these words was not the author of them. With only minor modifications, these are the words of Dr. John MacArthur . My best estimate would be the sermon that morning was 80% of MacArthur’s sermon verbatim.

I regret to say this is not the only incident of its type I have personally heard. One year I heard an Easter Sunday morning sermon from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 which described six gifts of the resurrection. The sermon was well delivered. However, the preacher was not speaking his own words. For the most part, the message was one delivered by Dr. John Piper on March 31, 1991 to his church.

Fellow ministers of the Gospel, this is plagiarizing pure and simple. Piper’s organization says:

The essence of plagiarism is to give the impression that the ideas or words of another person are actually your own. This can be done intentionally (in which case it is outright theft) or unintentionally but either way it is wrong.

One minister I confronted on this matter said he didn’t see anything wrong with it. He was simply borrowing from another’s work. To quote a sentence or two from another servant of the Lord in your message may be borrowing. To quote their message almost verbatim without noting your source is plagiarizing. I tried to convince him of this fact pointing out that any student of mine who submitted a paper which used the material of another author to the degree his sermon did would receive a zero for their paper because it was plagiarized. He was not convinced. Years have passed but I have since heard him plagiarize other messages.

Another “preacher” I once heard not only quoted the text of another minister but also used that minister’s personal illustrations as his own. He passed off the words and the experiences of another man as his! Yet, when I accused him of this, he did not deny it but neither did he admit to any wrong doing other than saying, “I no doubt could have done a better job of putting it in my own words.” Using your own words, doesn’t eliminate the plagiarism, brother!

One preacher to whom I pointed out his plagiarism noted, “As many pastors, finding enough time in a week is certainly a difficult thing.” Good grief, man, are you God’s servant or not? As a pastor there is nothing more important in your ministry than preparing and proclaiming the Word of God. If you can’t find the time to do so then you need to eliminate some of the other things in your life (e.g., your golf game).

Certainly there will be weeks when ministering to your congregation will reduce your sermon preparation time. But even then you are God’s chosen servant. You know His Word. Seek Him in prayer and trust His Spirit to use you despite your lack of preparation.

The first time I discovered a preacher plagiarizing another’s message, I was shocked. However, if you do an internet search today, you will discover many men are plagiarizing messages. Even “The Wall Street Journal” contained an article on this subject in 2006.

Plagiarizing is theft pure and simple. Those who commit this act are violating the 8th commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”). Furthermore, they are also violating the 9th commandment (“Thou shalt not bear false witness”) because they are deceiving their congregation by giving them the impression the words, the thoughts, the structure of the message they are hearing is that of the preacher when, in fact, they are those of another.

Having confronted some who are guilty of this sin, I know many of them will disagree with my last paragraph. They do not believe they are stealing or deceiving anyone. If you truly believe that, fellow preacher, then I challenge you to stand before your people with your plagiarized sermon this Sunday and tell them upfront what they are about to hear are the words of so-and-so. You won’t do it, will you? Why? You won’t do so because you do not want them to know the truth. Your conscience tells you what you are doing is sinful.

Brothers and fellow ministers in Christ who are guilty of plagiarizing your sermons: PLEASE CEASE THIS PRACTICE! I call on you to confess to the Lord your sin, ask for forgiveness, ask Him to help you prepare your own expositions, and then confess your faults to your people. If you cannot do so then you should step down from your pulpit. If your church confronts you on this matter and you will not repent then you should be removed on the grounds you are not proclaiming the Word of God. Rather, you are preaching the word of MacArthur or Piper or some other Christian leader.

Let us be true to God’s calling and preach His Word, not the words others preach about Christ. Let’s not be one of the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-16).