Questions for Teachers and Preachers

Nicholas,

Every preacher has used another preachers sermon outlines or certain phrases at one time or another.

The fact that one uses material that another labored over does not necessarily mean that one is wrong. Sometimes God puts that message out there for more than one congregation.

I occasionally will use another's sermon outlines or basic thoughts on a passage, but as I study and pray, God gives me words that the other minister did not use.

I have many sermons that I have drawn up and other ministers have taken notes from those sermons. I see nothing wrong with it.

I can say that in my 14 years of ministering, I have never fed the congregation stale bread. What I mean by that is I never use the same notes from a previous sermon I have preached at the same church.

 

Im not a preacher, , but I do alot of teaching. And Ive used many sources. Sometimes its a lesson God is teaching me right then, sometimes it's something that the pastor touched on in a sermon that got my mind to thinking about how that thought could apply to the children under my teaching. Sometimes its been a "set topic" that Ive been asked to teach on and had to work up a lesson from that.

You get message/lesson ideas from all sorts of places. There have been times when I knew there was an issue going on that had to be dealt with, and Ive done a lesson on that.

One word of advice Ive heard preachers give each other is to have a pen and paper handy all the time and jot down those ideas that come into your mind throughout the day......then review them later when you are working on a sermon or lesson plan.

 

1. My ministry is itnerent right now as I am a missionary on deputation, so I preach on things that are related to missions, unless I am asked to do otherwise. I pray about what God would have me to proclaim and it usually is somthing that He has used to minster to me recently.

2.Not typically, though I may read a book, or an article on the net that stimulates my thinking in a certain direction.

3.Not directly, but I have preached similar messages, because Scritpure is Scritpure and if one is true to it, the messages one preaches will be similar.

4.I am not sure I understand this question correctly.

 

My sermons come from my person study of scripture. As I study the Lord might put a particular passage on my heart and, after prayer and meditation, the sermon will grow from there.

I have never gotten an idea or been led to preach on anything from the internet, but I have used other pastor's sermon outlines when the Lord has moved me to do so - often times preaching a related yet different sermon.

The main thing with preaching is to let the Spirit lead. If you do that, regardless of your notes or outline, the Lord will bless it because you're following Him and not your own ideas of what people need.

 

As you study and do ministry you will have an endless supply of sermons accompanied with passion. It is the dead who have nothing to give.

 

Generally, I prepare my own. But, I have had a few instances in which I had heard a lesson in the past that was exactly (or almost exactly) what I was trying to teach, so I used another preacher's sermon. By the same token, others have used mine, for the same reasons, and that doesn't bother me at all.

 

As far as knowing it is the Spirit's leading, I really couldn't tell you. I just know, and that's the best way I can explain it.

I see no problem with looking at other sermons or articles on the scripture you will be using as long as you don't take an entire article or sermon and persent it as your own work.

 

As far as knowing it is the Spirit's leading, I really couldn't tell you. I just know, and that's the best way I can explain it.

I see no problem with looking at other sermons or articles on the scripture you will be using as long as you don't take an entire article or sermon and persent it as your own work. </font>[/QUOTE]When the scripture all start coming together and that little light in your head turns on, and you say, "Oh, I see", that's the Spirit.

There's only "one Bible" to preach from, the words may not be in the same order, but the message will be the same.

 

I teach a small group of couples with children. Since this is our focus group, we are doing the homebuilders studies dealing with marriage and parental relationships "in Christ", with "in Christ" being the "theme" of our group. I go around the group and ask what interests them, and what they would be interested in learning. I then pray that God shows me what it is He would have the group learn.

 

Here is an interesting side story on this subject. For five years I had a radio program. And on this program I would teach about different subjects. And of course these were tapes which were made as much of the month ahead of time, as I was working full-time at the time and would be away from home for as high as 30 days at a time. Now here is the interesting part. Some of the subjects I would be talking about, having made the tape a week to three weeks ahead of time would turn out to be the same subjects that local Pastors would be teaching on. My work took me as much as 1000 miles from home. And I was not friends with any of these pastors. Invariably a subject that I would be teaching on would be the same as other local pastors. Sometimes I would be in church and my pastor would be speaking on the same subject that my radio program was on that very day. The Holy Spirit does what he wants to, when he wants to, how he wants to.

 

I have had other preachers preach my exact sermons, and that doesn't bother me. I've had them rip into them, and that may bother me, depending upon the context, but I guess it's fair game.

 

Wow,
These are the same questions I had early one, very viable in context. I usually get my inspiration from daily Bible reading. My mentor always told me "Don't read for a sermon, read for the sake of reading" Seems to me that sermons come much easier when I am just reading along and the Holy Spirit stops me in a specific place that I probably would have never found if I were just skipping around looking for a sermon topic.

 

I would also say that the net, although almost always negatively used, is a wonderful resource for "sermon starters". The technology is there, why not use it. Don't, however, allow it to be your sermon builder and ultimately allow yourself to become lazy in study and preparation.

 

(Kids sunday school teacher, and other projects )

1. Same way as everyone else...I use Urim and Thummim... Welllll......ok, just pretty much every way except that one Most of the time I have been doing Sunday school with mum and/or others, so usually have discussion on topic.

2. I get ideas everywhere. Be it the net, or a song, or something someone says or does, or a line just pops into head and I work on expanding it. I wrote young peoples Bible studies at one of old Churches. A few times I would spend the week thinking about what I was going to have for the topic that day and the passages I would use. Then about 9-10pm on the Saturday I would sit at the computer to write it, spend a few hours looking at a blank screen, then 1-2am I'ld drop that old idea and write new one in hour or two. Who needs sleep anyway....

3. Wouldn't matter, because by the time I've attacked something no-one would recognise it anyway

4. What-ever source I do get a message, study, or lesson from, if I get them then it's what He did have for me

....However everything I have ever said and/or typed is copyright, and if anyone uses it even in BB quote I'll sue 'em....

....just kidding

 

Paying 4.00 to download a sermon transcript from somewhere like Rick Warren's website and then preach that sermon verbatim is disgusting.

There is a big difference between using a thought or illustration or a outline etc...and buying a sermon or series then preaching that series like it was your own and still allowing your church to pay you a salary.
If pastors on this board don't see the difference in those two then the american church is in worse shape than we thought.

Preaching another man's sermon verbatim is a great indicator in how much that particular pastor regards or disregards the power and illumination of the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God's Word to himself.

It also is a indication of the laziness of that particular pastor as well. If your visiting to much or nursemaiding your members to much then stop it and train them from the Bible on how to take care of themselves to a degree.

Hiding behind this "nothing is orginal" bologna is a cop out if I ever heard one. I'm glad some of the great men before our time didn't use that excuse or some fellows today wouldn't even have a sermon to copy.

Is there not any dignity left among some? Is not standing behind the sacred desk to be more respected than to just mimmick some other man's sermon?

I have been preaching 13 years. Yeah a few times when I first started I preached some other fellow's sermon.
I still feel like crap when I think about it too.
One of the joys of being a pastor or preacher is sharing with your people what God has burned upon your heart by studying His Word until that particular theme or point etc... was made real to you.
Sure it may not always be as eloquent as it will be at other times but at least when you get through preaching it you know you were true to yourself and you know that it was what God had you give your flock.
Again, preaching someone's outline using a quote etc... is one thing but preaching another man's sermon verbatim like more and more are doing today is cheap, counterfeit,lazy, undignified,
furthermore I think your a liar if you do that.

If it is not dishonest how come the guys that do it never,ever get up and tell you "Oh I paid 4.00 to download this from Saddleback. This whole series I'm doing is coming straight from the lips of Rick Warren. Really it is his sermon word for word". Nobody does that. You know why because they know in their hearts that it is wrong. it is deceitful towards the people they are ministering to. But hey if they "hit a homerun" then who cares huh. If they're church is growing it must be okay Huh? The end justifies the means I guess.

Not to pick on RW. Bill Hybels does this too. Ed Young Jr. does it. So do others. This is why some young pastors lose their churches in about the first or second year. They try to use some "formula" they got off a website to grow their church without ever thinking it through. Then they wonder why they got tossed out on their ear before they could even get going.

You may think I'm overboard but I'm telling you if your a pastor and you make it a habit of preaching other pastor's sermons maybe you need to think about selling insurance or cars. Your putting more trust in your own ability or another man's ability than the Holy Spirit. I don't care of what stripe you are IFB, SBC Reformed etc....

Personally I think it is testimony of the man himself who would even offer to sell his sermon manuscripts to another pastor. I don't know if that is arrogant or greedy or a little of both?

I would like to think that I was man enough to come up with my own message.

 

Wow! I just answered this question in the new poll and was surprised that I was the only one who answered that using someone else's sermon without saying so was plagiarism. Then I got to this thread and was thinking, "I certainly think about this a lot differently!" Then I got to your post and you stated what I was thinking except in even stronger language.

I don't see why pastors should follow different rules regarding plagiarism than everyone else. In the secular realm plagiarism is forbidden because it diminishes another person's achievements by stealing their intellectual property and makes a person seem to have higher stature or achievements than they really do. I can see that most pastors aren't interested in protecting copyright on their sermons and would love to have them used as sources by others, but the same concerns still remain. Even if a person does not mind you using their intellectual property without acknowledgment, doing so does rob them of due recognition. And when a pastor delivers someone else's sermon as his own because he feels he can't say it as well or because he doesn't have time to study to write his own, that inflates his apparent stature to the church. Even if the person who wrote the original sermon doesn't mind, it is still a dishonest practice to use someone else's sermon as one's own.

 

Petrel,

I think you hit upon a key point. When a fellow uses another man's sermon and it comes across as well done then that particular pastor's stature is being inflated by the congregation under false pretenses. That "ain't" right.

It is unethical to the core. The only thing worse than the practice of it is the belief that the practice is okay, that is sad.

 

I think the deeper question would be to ask preachers how intrical a part of the ministry the preaching of the Word is?
Evidently to some it does not have the preminent position that it should have or else all this copycat stuff wouldn't be rampant as it is.
Another great question would be to ask how some view the "call to preach" this would also shed a little light on the subject of copying sermons.
Some fellows can draw a crowd based on charisma and they aren't called a bit more than a man in the moon. To those kinds of preachers copying another man's sermon is not only no big deal it is essential if they are going to remain in the ministry because eventually those who minister in the flesh dry up and blow away like a disgarded newspaper on a windy street.