By Mark A. Taylor
After weighing what our writers this week have said about stolen sermons, I’ve decided something: Originality can be overrated. Am I the only one who feels this way?
Give me a stem winder by Bob Russell or a tearjerker by Max Lucado any day before making me sit through a ho hum homily whose main virtue is that it wasn’t copied. Of course, the preacher shouldn’t pass off someone else’s sermon as his own. But why should we church members care if the man in the pulpit has memorized and delivered well the skillfully crafted words of a true master? Can’t we allow for that? Indeed, shouldn’t we even encourage it? Why are preachers afraid to give us the excellent words of someone else and say so?
Maybe it’s because too many in the pew still believe the preacher’s job is only to preach. We feed that falsehood by judging his whole ministry on the basis of 25 minutes a week. The church needs a leader, an evangelist, a counselor, a servant, and a manager every bit as much as it needs a public speaker. If a minister can do well at even two or three of the first five, can’t we cut him some slack on number six?
Or maybe the problem is that too many preachers have too many messages to prepare each week. Especially in smaller churches, the minister may be called to lead a Sunday school class, teach a midweek lesson, and preach two new sermons each Sunday (morning and evening). Adequate preparation for such a load could reasonably fill 30 hours. Do we really believe our ministers can meet our expectations and fulfill their calling in the remaining 20 or so hours in their work week?
One solution would be to rethink the Sunday evening service. Who attends it? What needs does a second preaching service every week really meet? Could the time our minister spends to prepare that message accomplish more given to something else?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not against Sunday evening church if it can accomplish something significant, and I know some places it does. And I hear a good sermon an original sermon! every week I attend my home church. There’s lots of good preaching across the country.
But the pressure to produce a biblically accurate message that motivates and challenges a diverse audience with high expectations week after week after week that’s a heavier load than most laymen understand. It’s no wonder to me that some preachers buckle under the weight of it.
Maybe it’s time to find some creative and ethical alternatives.
Tell us what you think about original sermons, Sunday evening worship services, or anything else! Send your Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE.
Dear Mr. Taylor: I understand all that you have stated above and do agree that it is very difficult to come up with 2, 3 or even 4 original sermons each week. My father-in-law preached for nearly 50 years in small churches.
But what would you say if a minister has only ONE sermon per week and, at least 80% of the time reads – not preaches – his sermon. What if it could be proven that some (possibly many) of the sermons were read almost verbatim without any acknowledgement of its source? What if he even used some illustrations from those sermons and added a line or two that made the congregation believe that it happened to him – when it was just a part of the sermon he copied?
I would appreciate your thoughts on this one.
Thank you.