I was a pastor for five years. I loved (almost) every minute of it. Many days, I still miss it …
One of the things I enjoyed most was studying and preparing for my Sunday sermon. I tried as hard as I could every single week to prepare something fresh, insightful, and helpful for the people who attended on Sunday morning.
On average, it took me about 10 hours to prepare a 40 minute sermon. I would usually begin by translating from the Greek, outlining from my translation, then analyzing each word and phrase in the text, all the while praying for insight and help from the Holy Spirit to illuminate my mind and provide ways to explain the text and apply it to the lives of those who listened. My very last step was to read all the commentaries I had on that particular passage. There were numerous times where this final step forced me to madly rewrite my entire sermon from scratch …
Anyway, I have noticed an interesting trend on my blog during the last year. I always get a spike in traffic on Saturdays. For most of the time, I thought, “Well, it’s just because it’s the weekend, and people are surfing the internet more.” Also, Saturday is the day I send out my weekly blog digest to newsletter subscribers. So I thought that maybe I get some subscribers clicking over to my blog to read some of the posts they had missed during the week.
But then a few weeks ago I decided to dig a little deeper to find out why my traffic spiked on Saturdays.
You want to know why?
It’s my “Sermon” pages. On Saturdays, my sermon pages gets hundreds and hundreds of hits. A few weeks ago, for example, my sermon on James 2 got nearly 600 pageviews. There are a variety of possibilities for why my sermon pages are so hot on Saturdays, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the traffic comes from pastors around the world who are looking for a sermon to preach on Sunday. Who knows … maybe Mark Driscoll has preached one of my sermons? Ha!
If pastors are preaching my sermons, I don’t really care … I am glad to help out. I do wish, however, that once or twice a pastor who lifts a sermon from someone else would give credit to that “someone else.” Or leave a comment saying, “Thanks for the great sermon! I’m going to preach it in my church tomorrow!”
I do, by the way, get several emails a week from authors who want to quote something I have written in one of their books. I always tells them “Yes!” and thank them for asking. They also, of course, state that they will include my name and details in a footnote. Great! That’s how it should be done.
Or course, I will admit it. I confess. I have lifted sermons from other pastors. Two or three of them, I think. One from John MacArthur. One from Jon Courson. I don’t remember the other. But I always, always, always, made sure to make a disclaimer at the beginning of my message that the sermon they were about to hear was from another pastor, and the reason I am sharing it from the pulpit is because I thought the message was so good.
On a related note, I recently listened to a pastor preach a sermon on “The Widow’s Mite.” I cannot prove it, but what he said sounded eerily similar to what I wrote here about the Widow’s Mite. I used a source to get my ideas for that post (and that source is referenced in the post), so it is quite possible that this pastor never read my post and simply preached a similar idea, or maybe he read the same book I did … but regardless, the pastor never once gave credit to the books or blogs where he obtained his ideas. Of course, you cannot really include footnotes in a spoken sermon, so maybe the references were in the sermon notes?
I don’t know why I’m posting this …
Here’s my point, I suppose. If you “borrow” someone else’s sermon from online to preach on Sunday morning, at least leave a “thank you” comment on the website or give the person some credit in your sermon.
Do I sound bitter? I hope not. I really don’t care too much if another pastor preaches my sermons. I study hard and try to explain Scripture as best I know how, so if others preach my sermons, that’s okay with me. It’s just that a little thanks every now and then would be nice.
No, you don’t sound bitter. I don’t understand why someone would not give credit to his sources. In the end how much of what we come up with is original anyway? Does it diminish the speaker in the eyes of the audience if he gives credit to the source of his material?
I try to give credit to those who have influenced me, but sometimes I remember a phrase or quote and cannot remember the source. But even then, how difficult is it to say, “I can’t remember where I heard this . . .”
Right. We can never give all the credit all the time (as some other comments have pointed out), but if we are going to lift a whole sermon, a little notice in the bulletin or at the beginning of the message is probably in order … not because that person will ever hear what you did, but just for the sake of honesty and integrity.
Give credit where credit is due. No brainer to me.
Right. As much as we are able, anyway.
What a stirring article, Jeremy!
No, you don’t sound bitter at all. But you are right that at least a “thank you” or another kind of appreciation toward you who did all the hard work alone would be more than appropriate, especially in those circles of these people who call themselves Christians.
Since this is a topic that still touches me deeply because I have detected more and more ‘data thefts’ regarding my comments on the internet, I would like to offer a link to a comment the Lord urged me to publish shortly before Christmas. Honestly, I didn’t like writing about plagiarism, particularly because it had – and still has – to do with my own writing. I would have rather connived at those wrongdoings.
Well, if you’re interested, here’s the link.
http://blogforthelordjesus.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/the-rights-of-a-creator/
Susanne,
Thanks for the link, I will come check it out.
Again, it is impossible to give full credit all the time to everybody who has influenced us, but if we write a blog post or preach a sermon that is pretty much lifted word for word from someone else, we should reference them somehow, even if they never hear about it. This is just living with honesty and integrity.
http://fullcontactchristianity.org/2014/01/13/swimming-in-cap-and-gown/
Yep. I love your final comment there about discipleship being the most important thing.
I am not a pastor but… I do talk to people a lot you know, and all I do all day long is plagiarize. If I had to send thank you notes I’d be sending them all day. I spoke a few words to some women at a Holy Spirit conference once and one of the ladies really appreciated what I was saying, it was really reaching her, and she asked, where do you get all this stuff? I told her… I plagiarize. I just listen to everyone and use their material.
Frankly, I think they ought to shorten up the laws on the number of years of protection for copy right and loosen the limits a little on patents too. Of course I want to protect ordinary people but…
We have so many big bands and people don’t sing any more. We have so many big teams and people don’t play ball in the street any more. Maybe I’m off track, just exploring with my heart a bit here.
BobS,
Yes, I do that too. It is impossible to give everyone credit all the time for everything you say. It would make for very dull conversation. I was primarily thinking of when people copy whole paragraphs or pages of text and paste it into their book or on there blog to give the impression that it is theirs, when it is not.
Anyway, as to copyright protection, I probably agree that it needs to be loosed up a bit…
I rarely comment on anything online. However, I feel compelled now because of all the blog posts I have read of yours, this one does not become you Jeremy. From the moment I began reading your writings I have sensed God working through you. This one seems different though. I sense angst, and self seeking gratification that I haven’t before. Are we not to give ALL the glory to God in everything we do? And as true as it may be that others are using your writings and studies, does the credit they do or don’t give you have anything to do with your salvation? If you are writing with a pure heart because God has called you do so, then it should never matter if you get credit at all. That would be an earthly goal and aren’t we to set our sights solely on treasures in heaven? Please know that I am writing not to sound judgmental nor do I believe I have all the answers. I am a simple housewife who loves the Lord with all my heart, mind and soul. I am grateful He has put your teachings in my path, and I am very thankful for your words of wisdom. Continue to walk in love, with Christ our King! Thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing so many to share in your insights!
Thanks for being honest, Angela.
It was probably not my best blog post, and I sensed that near the end when I said, “Why am I writing this?”
I wasn’t fully sure I should write it or post it. But I went ahead with it anyway.
Oh well. Every once in a while, you get some self-centered posts from me.
Thank you for your kind words of correction. I take them to heart.
This petty rant is a fine example why the paid profession of, and man made position of “The Speaker-Pastor” in institutional church is not a position seen modeled in scripture.
Yes, it is a petty rant. Oh well.
Of course, I am not a speaker-pastor in the institutional church any longer.
Well Jeremy, your showing your human side bro… Is it not the spirit of Christ you want to have the credit? Is not our reward in heaven? Credit due you? really? Are you not greatly blessed? Don’t bellittle the majesty of heaven by glory-ing in ‘credit due bro. You couldn’t be more beloved, or more appreciated than you are!
Lions and Lambs
Yep, that is true! My fleshly side showed itself here. Oh well.
I am not really concerned about the credit due to me, though. That wasn’t exactly the point. I think it is an issue of honesty and integrity. If a person copies entire paragraphs or pages from someone’s blog or book and then passes it off as their own verbatim, that is dishonest. If they read it and are influenced by it, and then later write or say something similar, but in their own words, that is simply learning from others, and a footnote or reference may not be necessary (unless you want to give credit and you remember where it came from).
So when I referred to giving credit, it was not so much for my sake, but for the sake of the person writing the book/blog post or the pastor preaching the sermon. For the sake of honesty, it might be wise for them to say, “I borrowed much of this sermon from Chuck Swindoll. But I enjoyed it, and I think you will too.” That was all I was trying (but failing?) to say.
I look forward to reading your blog posts. I have found many of them to be both helpful an insightful. I, personally, did not find bitterness or a desire for recognition in your post. What I did see was a desire to see honesty in what is presented. Now, we don’t know if those pastors credited you when preaching their sermon or if they just looked at what you said and either integrated parts into the sermon or did not find it useful.
What is useful to me (a non pastor) is that acknowledgement is encouraging. I don’t usually reply to blog posts that I read. But, I will try, more often, to +1 or retweet your posts. (Sorry, I don’t do FaceBook).
I wonder if a short note of encouragement or comment – not for public consumption – would be permissible in the “Ask a Bible or Theology Question” section. If not, is there a better way to encourage not only you, but other bloggers.
When I was working as a pediatrician, before I retired, I encountered many more complaints (Staff rude, waited too long, misunderstood instructions, personality clashes, etc) than I heard compliments and thanks. The occasional note was particularly encouraging.
Thank you. I am constantly challenged to think when I read your posts.
Jack,
You have no idea how much a share on Twitter or Google+ means to me.
Really. Thank you very much for doing that.
As for contacting me, yes, feel free to use the Bible and Theology question section, or the “Contact Me” section on my About page. I think it is still there… let me go check… Yep! Go here: https://redeeminggod.com/about/
Hmmm! When I read this post yesterday the thought that it might be a petty rant or seeking self-gratification never came to mind. What came to mind are the high school teachers and college professors I know who tell me how many of their students turn in term papers and other major papers that are copied word-for-word from somewhere else.
I’ve asked the teachers “Don’t your students know that you can run these through a program that checks for this?” They tell me that most do, but try it anyway, hoping that the paper they copied from never made it into the system. Of course, if they found the material on the internet it’s probably available to the copying checker.
Undoubtedly some of the Saturday sermon readers are reading what Jeremy’s sermons say on a topic or passage they will be preaching on the next day (much as Jeremy said he wrote his sermon, then read every commentary he had on the passage). Then there may be those who need a sermon in whole for the next day. I know and have known many pastors, and most of them have told me they have done such a thing, some of them many times.
The real problem is that almost everyone expects the pastor to do almost everything, including spending hours upon hours every week preparing a sermon. Not all, but many pastors put in far, far more than forty hours every week. When push comes to shove, preaching a sermon they found on the internet may be the only way they can come up with one that week.
I don’t remember the numbers that I have read and heard, but I do remember that huge numbers of pastors in the USA are leaving the pastorate every year. A few years ago I spent a weekend at a pastor’s conference that was all pastors and me, their invited guest. This was the topic for the weekend. Oh the stories, the pain, the angst that I heard!
I asked a friend in his fifties who attended seminary as a young man if he still keeps in contact with his graduating class. He said he does. I asked him how many are still pastoring. He said “Out of the entire class, one, and he has had his fill and plans to quit in a few months.”
My conclusion: the job of “pastor” destroys many people, most of them men. The role of “pastor” as we now see it is a far cry from anything we find in the Bible, as are many other things we find in many churches. We have huge, unrealistic expectations of “pastors”. All this has destroyed thousands upon thousands (more like ten thousands upon ten thousands) of pastors, their marriages, their families and their sanity.
We want to pretend this isn’t happening, but it is. Lifting sermons is only one symptom. Failed marriages another. Addiction to internet pornography another. All caused by our “addiction” to the idea that we m-u-s-t have pastors as we define them.
Thanks, Sam. Rereading the post, it did come across as a little self-centered to me. It wasn’t my intent, but I can see how it came across that way to some.
You are absolutely right, of course, about the demands put on pastors to do so much during the week for all the people, AND preach a sermon on Sunday.
I honestly don’t mind that people preach my sermons. I am glad to be able to provide such help where I can.
And you know what? For all I know, these pastors do mention briefly where their sermon came from. Just because I don’t hear it doesn’t mean they don’t. But whatever … I am glad to help out.
Bottom line is what you have pointed out, I think. This is just another point which shows how damaged and broken the whole pastor-church relationship is.
Has someone measured the possibilities and impact of sermons on passive listeners?
What you describe, Jeremy, i.e. plagiarism, is the direct consequence of the tremendous importance given to the sermon in the congregations of passive listeners. Yes, sermons have already led to repentance, others to conversion. Yes, the sermon has somewhat helped to push the Gate. But how useful is it to take us along the Path?
The sermon is a product, a consumption product. From Chrysostom to Luther, from Irenaeus to Bonhoeffer. It’s sometimes repackaged, through a plagiarism or even paraphrasing; but is it helpful to the transformation of the listeners? I’m less sure. As a matter of fact, the sermon is good for the ears. But Joshua 1:8 speaks of the mouth and not the ears. To the wise, hello! In French, we say: à bon entendeur, salut!
Hmm. Excellent points. Yes, there have been studies that the monologue sermon is quite inefficient for teaching the Bible or training disciples. It makes people feel good, and helps them think they are learning, but usually, learning is best accomplished by teaching and doing. You are absolutely right.