{"id":14432,"date":"2017-08-09T07:06:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T12:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=14432"},"modified":"2017-08-09T07:07:11","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T12:07:11","slug":"your-pastor-is-plagiarizing-his-sermons-what-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/your-pastor-is-plagiarizing-his-sermons-what-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Your pastor is plagiarizing his sermons; What to do."},"content":{"rendered":"

All preachers borrow ideas and illustrations from one another.\u00a0 I heard Adrian Rogers say, “I got this story from someone who got it from someone who got it from the Lord.”\u00a0 We all smiled and the purists among us were satisfied.\u00a0 He gave credit. <\/em><\/p>\n

But what about when a pastor lifts the sermon in toto<\/em>–lock, stock, and barrel–from another pastor’s book or website?\u00a0 Is that right?\u00a0 Is he guilty of something–possibly something\u00a0illegal? or at least unethical?\u00a0 Does he violate some unwritten law somewhere? Should a church be concerned?\u00a0 And what if you are a member of that pastor’s staff and you are the only one who has learned where he is stealing those sermons?<\/p>\n

A friend wrote to ask about this. He asked that we keep his identity anonymous, for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

His pastor is well-loved and highly respected.\u00a0 A father figure almost.\u00a0 Quite by accident the staff member discovered where the preacher was getting his sermons on the internet.\u00a0\u00a0The man\u00a0is preaching them verbatim.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite impressive, actually,” he told me. “That he can remember those sermons in such detail.”<\/p>\n

The pastor obviously\u00a0did not give credit to the source of those messages since as far as the congregation knows, the Lord was giving those messages to him directly from on high (as opposed to indirectly, by way of this other guy, the one who spends untold hours in his study, on his knees, working and hammering out those messages).<\/p>\n

The pastor is being dishonest, of course.\u00a0 I’ve known of pastors being fired for such.\u00a0 And he has lost the respect of his staff member who reported it to me.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Who’s going to bell the cat?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What should the staffer do?\u00a0 If the pastor is insecure or frightened or anything less than a mature believer, to confront him–even in love–with what he is doing could be scary for someone who works under him.<\/p>\n

My wife and I have discussed it at length. She’s been a pastor’s wife for over half a century and knows the calling as well as the heartaches and joys.\u00a0We agreed that for the staffer to go to the pastor with this–“I have found out where you get your sermons”–would be risking his job.<\/p>\n

I replied to the anonymous\u00a0friend that\u00a0I would reply on the website\u00a0since I\u00a0imagine he’s not alone having a pastor who is doing something unethical but wondering what to do about it.<\/p>\n

One<\/strong>.\u00a0 You’re right to be concerned.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Two.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>I know you’re praying.\u00a0The Lord who called this man into the ministry in the first place needs to do something.\u00a0\u00a0Clearly, He\u00a0already knows this guy has gotten off the track somewhere along the way, but it’s still the right thing to do to pray.<\/p>\n

Ask the Lord to handle this.\u00a0 To awaken the pastor’s heart to what he is doing.\u00a0 Ask God to give the pastor burdens for messages he should preach and insights from Scripture that cry to be proclaimed so he will not feel a need to lift someone else’s messages.<\/p>\n

Three.<\/strong>\u00a0 And let’s be clear on this up front:\u00a0 What the pastor is doing is unbiblical and unethical.\u00a0 “I am against the prophets who steal my words from each other” (Jeremiah 23:30).\u00a0 There is no justification for what the preacher is doing.<\/p>\n

While it’s true that preachers borrow from each other all the time, I give you the words of Warren Wiersbe: “I milk many cows, but make my own butter.”<\/p>\n

Four. <\/strong>This is an offence serious enough for him to be fired.\u00a0 I’ve known at least two ministers who were ousted for plagiarism.<\/p>\n

I’m remembering one pastor who was fired for lifting sermons from books published by other preachers.\u00a0 As the matter came to a head, the newspaper in his city printed the transcript of his sermon alongside the text of that book.\u00a0They were identical.\u00a0 The preacher even quoted the author’s personal story as having happened to him.\u00a0 Can you say ‘lying’? \u00a0The effect was to shame him.\u00a0 Interestingly, a few years later,\u00a0that same preacher\u00a0was in the news again, this time for embezzling money from the offerings.\u00a0 Once\u00a0we begin\u00a0to cut corners and rationalize our sins,\u00a0it becomes easier and\u00a0easier to go for bigger game.\u00a0 The little sins lead to the massive ones. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Five.<\/strong>\u00a0 Unless the Lord should tell you otherwise in no uncertain terms, a staff member is not the person to confront the pastor with such a matter.\u00a0 As my wife said this morning over breakfast, “He might find himself out of a job.”\u00a0 So, if someone deals with the matter, it should not be one of the pastor’s associates.<\/p>\n

Six.\u00a0<\/strong> Be alert for ideas from the Lord on positive things you can do for the pastor.\u00a0 Perhaps giving him a great book by some well known pastor or\u00a0teacher of preachers.\u00a0 Tim Keller’s stuff is great.\u00a0 Warren Wiersbe wrote several books on the primacy of preaching. Ask a preacher whom you hold in high esteem to recommend a good one (not too deep or the lazy preacher won’t read it; and not too good or he’ll preach it!!).<\/p>\n

Seven.<\/strong>\u00a0 Keep telling the Lord you are not going to handle this, that this is the Lord’s problem and not yours.\u00a0 And try to be sweet about it. (Smiling?)\u00a0 Seriously, keep it before the Lord.\u00a0 The effectiveness of the pulpit ministry is at stake, and possibly the future of the pastor’s service in that church.<\/p>\n

I’ll post a cartoon or two along the way.\u00a0 Perhaps the pastor will see one of them and get convicted.\u00a0 Or better yet, perhaps he will read this and think it’s about him.<\/p>\n

“You’re so vain. You probably think this song is about you.”\u00a0 –Carly Simon<\/em><\/p>\n

Okay, you’ve noticed something here…<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really haven’t told you anything you didn’t already know.\u00a0 All I’ve done is agree that this is unscriptural, unethical, and unwise.\u00a0 And to ease\u00a0the mind of the anonymous staffer\u00a0that this is not his problem to solve.<\/p>\n

Pastors guilty of this\u00a0unworthy practice\u00a0need to go back to the Lord who called\u00a0them in the first place. Ask Him to clarify a couple of things…<\/p>\n

–Did He think you and He were capable of coming up with sermons to fit the people to whom He would send you?<\/p>\n

–Does He intend to speak to you out of His word? or was it His intention that you copy from other people’s work?<\/p>\n

I would urge you to live in Jeremiah 23 a few days and take its message to heart.\u00a0 God said to the prophets who were stealing one another’s messages: “But who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear His word?\u00a0 Who has given heed to His word and listened?” (vs. 18)\u00a0<\/em> He added, “If they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds” (v.22).<\/p>\n

There is your solution.\u00a0 Get with the Lord.\u00a0 Read His word and listen.\u00a0 Stay there. Don’t be in a rush.\u00a0 Really hear His heart.<\/p>\n

And don’t come back without the sermon He wants you to preach to His people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All preachers borrow ideas and illustrations from one another.\u00a0 I heard Adrian Rogers say, “I got this story from someone who got it from someone who got it from the Lord.”\u00a0 We all smiled and the purists among us were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,21,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-leadership","category-church-staff-articles","category-pastors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14432"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14447,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions\/14447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}