Posted by Todd Rhoades in Leadership
on Feb 12th, 2013 | 4 comments
Ray Pritchard has some advice for pastors that steal sermons:
- The nature of the Internet makes it easy to steal someone else’s work and make it your own.
- But the Internet also makes it very easy to find out when a pastor has been using someone else’s work.
- What about using an outline verbatim? From my point of view, that’s fine because an outline is not a sermon. I don’t think you need to give credit for an outline unless it is amazingly unique. The same holds true for ideas and thoughts that you may find here and there. No one wants to hear a sermon that sounds like a pastiche of quotes: “As John Piper pointed out . . . John MacArthur suggested this application . . . Spurgeon used this illustration . . . To borrow a thought from Geoff Thomas . . .” Some of this is just a matter of common sense. When you borrow a big section or a very unique idea and certainly when there is a significant quote, give the attribution. But don’t go overboard either.
- What about the pastor who allegedly is using my sermons verbatim? Let me say again what I’ve said before. That’s just plan dumb.
- In earlier years I used to say that people could use my sermons any way they like, and I still mean that. But I never meant, “Use them word for word.” It never occurred to me that someone would do that.
- You’re bound to get caught sooner or later.
- So this is what I say nowadays: You are welcome to use my sermons in your own message preparation. Use them, amend them, revise them, by all means improve them, and make them your own.
- Don’t preach anyone else’s sermons verbatim.
You can read more from Ray here…
Thoughts?
Have a friend who’s been outlining this happening near them – apparently some church has been copying Perry Noble’s messages almost verbatim, but also copy the promo material that goes with it. I don’t think that they license out their sermon series stuff, but I guess it’s possible. I don’t know much more than that, but can hope that the church has permission to use the material in that manner. If not, it’s pretty sad.
We get quotes from great preachers or writers in our sermons, but they are there to enhance the message or clarify something. As far as I know we’ve never had a whole sermon taken from someone else’s work.
One has to wonder why the sermon was preached in the first place. That goes for the original or the copy. Does it matter if they are down the street or in another country?
Should the copier quit? Is there someone better to fill that position if they did? Is there a glut of pastors?
Do you put the “(c)” on your sermon (not needed of course)?
Does anyone do anything without an incentive (being paid)? Putting a price on them makes them more desirable.
Anyway. just muttering.
I’ve been preaching for almost 40 years. When I started “learning” we were directed to commentaries. Most of them were just other preachers “preaching”. Many even had outlines. I am not advocating preaching verbatim other’s sermons, but just making a comparison. Sermons are simply another commentary on the Scripture. Sermoncentral becomes a searchable commentary. We shouldn’t feel guilty for considering other’s thoughts on a Scripture or Topic, but as Dr. David Dykes says, “It’s okay for you to use my ingredients. Just make your own chili.”
Todd, thanks for the link and for your summary of my comments. As I have continued to ponder this, my chief thought is how much the world has changed since I started in the ministry in the 1970s. Back then almost the only way to use someone else’s sermon was to copy something from a book (a laborious process) or sit and listen to a cassette tape (also time-consuming). Today there are millions of sermons online so it is easy to find sermons and sermon outlines on the Internet. And it’s extremely easy to “copy and paste” a sermon someone else wrote.
After I wrote that blog entry, someone I don’t know wrote me reproachfully for trying to protect my material. Well, that’s hardly true because our whole ministry is built on the concept of giving away free biblical resources on the Internet.
I’m all in favor of borrowing ideas, outlines and illustrations in the course of putting a sermon together. I’m glad if anything I say or write is useful to someone else.
But it’s just plain dumb to borrow a sermon and preach it as if it were your own. Forget the moral implications for a moment. In today’s world, if you do that, someone will catch you because it’s all on the Internet.
I am saddened when I hear about pastors getting in trouble over this (and sometimes losing their jobs) because it is totally unnecessary.
As Erwin Lutzer said, Milk many cows but make your own butter. That works for me.
All the best,
Ray