Pastors plagiarizing?

[Paul Whitaker]

I found this item rather interesting.


http://www.outofur.com/archives/2006...or_word_w.html

[Shea Zellweger]

I've heard anecdotal reports of this- often it's a funny story, someone found a sermon online, decided to use it, and the author ended up being in the congregation, usually quite congenially saying something like "that was even better than when I preached it 30 years ago!"
There are certain websites (sermoncentral.com, ie) that exist for preachers to put their sermon manuscripts online. I think they're designed to give other pastors a reference point from which to start, but that certainly lend themselves to plagiarism. I would be willing to suggest that any pastor who gets in the habit of citing her or his sources will be able to avoid plagiarizing . I give reference to anything that I know I got from elsewhere, and it really keeps my use of external material down. There have been a couple times where my SS teacher called on a Saturday evening and asked me to teach, so I went online and got a lesson, but I announced at the beginning who wrote it and where I found it. Now the teacher and I have an agreement that she'll prepare her lesson, and if she can't make it, she'll email me a copy of it, so we don't have that problem any longer .

[Craig Laughlin]

I know of at least one pastor that lost his/her job because of this issue. The topic came up at NNU's conference. I think especially for bi-vocational pastor we need to give some grace on sermon prep. That being said I also think they need to tell people if they are using someone else's sermon. - Another practice that can help is if a pastor will prepare a sermon or two and file them away. Then on the Sunday when the roof falls in, there is a back up plan.

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

As I've said many times, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

--

Actually, I hesitate to say that I got an outline from another preacher because I mess it up so bad as I preach it that I'm afraid they'll sue me for defamation.

[Dale Cozby]

The World worries about plagarism for pride and money's sake.

If a preacher sued another one over plagerism I would never want to listen to that preacher again(the one who sued), nor would I have respect for someone that full of himself.
If a pastor lost a job over it, then I would be more concerned about those who place value on such things and have power to fire him. That church would certainly be in trouble.

Preaching isn't writing a college/seminary/research paper nor a political speech and shouldn't be lumped in with them.

[Rich Schmidt]

For me, the main reason this is an issue is revealed in the final paragraph of the article linked to in the original post:

There is no excuse for deceitfully accepting credit for what is not your own.

It's been quite a while since I borrowed enough to feel like I have to "give credit" to the originating pastor. And I know I haven't always adequately given that credit. But I try to. It's not that hard to say, "I was checking out how other pastors have dealt with this passage/theme/question, and I came across one that really nailed it. He put it like this..."

[Gene Tatsch]

Thanks!
We once had a Nazarene pastor who we could increasingly link his sermons to on-line sources ... even Googled early one service and followed along as he "preached" it. We could generally tell - the plagarized sermons notably had more careful preparation.
When confronted with one sermon lifted word for word from a book by famous author (we checked the audio tape against the printed text), he said they were told in school that no-one preached a really original sermon! And asked if we had a subscription to sermons.com!
We perceive this specific behavior as one symptom of a deceiver.

In "technical" (scientific) fields, such behavior is considered unacceptable, even by sinners. So I was apalled that someone claiming to be Spirit-filled finds it a non-issue.

I much appreciate your comments - I feared it was a widespread sickness.
gene --

[Gene Tatsch]

I know of at least one pastor that lost his/her job because of this issue...

... as s/he should. How can one trust a deceiver in spiritual matters?!

... I think especially for bi-vocational pastor we need to give some grace on sermon prep...

How? Shouldn't they speak God's word to their hearers? And if that word originates with others, honesty demands attribution. We must be people of the truth, else we are not people of the Truth.
gene --

[Hal Paul]

I've assumed for years this was an accepted, if not common, practice. I recall seeing copies of Preachers Magazine with full sermon and sermon series outlines in them, and have actually heard most of a series when visiting different churches while traveling.

[Shea Zellweger]

How? Shouldn't they speak God's word to their hearers? And if that word originates with others, honesty demands attribution. We must be people of the truth, else we are not people of the Truth.
gene --

I think Craig was saying bi-vo pastors should be given more grace in using the sermons of others, not in not citing them.

I've assumed for years this was an accepted, if not common, practice. I recall seeing copies of Preachers Magazine with full sermon and sermon series outlines in them, and have actually heard most of a series when visiting different churches while traveling.

Sure. One of our GS's has a year's worth of sermons (104) in book form that you can find and buy on www.cbd.com. But if I preached through all 104 of those sermons without once mentioning that he wrote them, or putting it in the bulletin, or whatever, that's dishonest of me, as people will assume I'm taking credit for the writing of the sermon.

I think another benefit is that I've never encountered someone with whom I agreed 100% theologically. By saying "this comes from ____," I preclude myself from having to defend statements with which I may not even degree- after all, it's church, not NazNet