"Canned" Sermons

If church members would spend more time in the word and digging into the scriptures after the sermon to see what it all means they wouldn't need a well-prepared sermon every week. I'm not saying that pastors are excused from quality, but too many members only crack open their Bible during Sunday sermons and I say this as one who was very much guilty of this at one time.

When I decided to actually dig into the Word to see what it said I went from a lifelong Pentecostal to someone who leans very much Baptist.

 

A Pastor is called to do three things.

1. Preach
2. Pray
3. Pastor

A Pastor should give solid meat during a sermon or he is not fulfilling his call.

If more Pastors preached deep sermons then more people would go home and study. People don't study because after a while in a church they get the same old stuff. It is easy to think you know it all when your sermons are too light.

Canned sermons show that a Pastor is not studying. If he is not studying, he is not showing himself to be a true Pastor.

 

Very good point. One thing I really love about my pastor. Every week, his sermons motivate me to get into the Bible and find more of what the Bible says about the issues in the sermon.

 

Sadly thousands of pastors use Warrens sermons to make little Saddlebacks all over the country. I wouldn't be as worried if it were pastors copying Adrian Rogers or John MacArthur. The more I know about Warren the more he fits the mold of anti-christ--you can start throwing stuff at me now.

 

I am sorry to have to disagree. People don't study on their own because they are lazy. I don't know how many times I hear things like, "I don't have to study, that's what we pay the preacher for." or "I would but I just don't have the time." That last one can be translated to, I am to lazy to take my responsibility seriously and make the Word a priority in my life.

For nearly 20 years I have been seeing churches host Bible study workshops. These are designed to teach people how to study using the inductive method. Typically they are attended by an average of 10 people. We're on our 3rd year teaching a weekly study (now on John) that includes teaching people how to study. We average 12 people on a good week. The people that come are committed and growing. It's awesome to see God work in their lives.

My church is hosting one in March, which I will be teaching. I hope the trend changes. I am not optimistic though. We know that more and more people will be turning away from sound doctrine and prefer to have their ears tickled. Perhaps this is the famine of the Word that was talked about in Amos 8?

 

A couple of thoughts on this issue... (And I am not "for" canned sermons.)

First, who is preaching to the preacher? It is important that the preacher also be challeneged by someone else who preaches the word to him.

Second, which preacher in today's church has the time (as Jim has so elequently written) to do all the messages and lessons that any given church demands of him? Not that they do not try.

Third, some sermons are worth re-preaching because they are so well done that God uses them over and again. In this sense, EVERY preacher who follows the Word carefully will preach at least a few "canned" sermons in his career, for he will ultimately preach a sermon recorded in the Word, one of those "so well done that they bear repeating" sort of texts.

And, fourth, it is good to introduce new styles and material into the pulpit ministry to keep the preacher fresh. As he reads or hears others preach he gains insight that helps his own preaching ministry.

To wrap up my thoughts, one thing that I've seen over my years, both as a preacher and as one listening to preaching is that most preachers don't REALLY write a new sermon for every preaching event. Hardly... What they do is "fill in the blank" of an existing sermon format that they repeat over and over again until the church finally sickens of hearing the same expressions, the same illustrations (which are also canned, and about which a lot of preachers become disingenuous -- who has had THAT many evangelistic incidents while flying on an airplane?).

I've been able to set my watch by what some preachers say at this time or that in any given sermon. They are predictable, and just preach the same thing with different names or context. That is all they seem to know. And, most don't really have the luxury of gaining new insights, for either time sake (golf is important, you know) or because they don't really care to stretch theologically.

It is not that difficult to set apart the ones that do the repeat thing... Just ask them what they've been reading lately and look for the blank stare before they spit out the approved Sunday school answer, "Well, a, duh, the Bible. It is ME AND JESUS all the way!" Except that they haven't "grown" in their exegesis or understanding in decades.

Now, on to me... Wish I could set myself apart from the crowd, but I am under the same time constraints as everyone else. I get 24/7 and no more, and I am a bi-vocational pastor who has to balance 60 hours a week on a secular job with church life and preaching.

I do not use "canned" sermons. I write each one, and lessons for the church as well, but I certainly do not either take 20+ hours a week to do so. Is my work "shallow" or non-biblical? Nope. I study while I work. I study while I'm here answering posts and challenging my theological thinking. I study every time I crack open the Word to deal with a good defense, or just to read my daily reading. I look while I work to find the good examples I need to illustrate my sermons (never use those books of illustrations!). I change up the sermons, styles, series, etc. And, I do that all in under 10 hours a week with modern computer study aids that allow me to do a background investigation of my preaching text that most would never begin to dig out if they had to consult book upon book to do so.

I generally read at least 3 major commentaries on the passage, I read it in the original language, diagram it in the original languge, then parse it, looking for the keys that make this exegetical effort fresh and applicable to our culture and needs (which are mostly similar to ALL cultures and needs, as we all struggle with the same sins, etc.). I begin fleshing out the text by mid-week, and manuscript it on Friday or Saturday, then read through it making subtle changes and notes, inspirations, etc., before final reading Sunday morning before church. Then, I stand up and preach -- I reference my notes for quotes only -- and what I say may or may not be precisely what I wrote earlier, but it edifies the body, it is fresh and new, and it challenges as I deal with "so what" questions.

I am preaching 1 Pet 2:1-8 this Sunday. Fresh and newly written sermon. I'm also looking forward to Black Heritage service that we have in mid-February (can find it in the text that comes next!) and a sermon that ties in Valenties Day (can also find that in the text!) after that.

I will teach a series based on membership lessons from Mark Dever's church (Capital Hill Baptist) on Wednesday nights when I start that in February. The teaching series IS canned, sort of, in that I am using another congregation's outlines, but filling in and re-arranging the details to suit our own needs as we begin building the basis for a covenantal congregational membership instead of a "take the preacher's hand" membership. Dever's congregational tools are good work and worthy of re-teaching, but they are not "sermons." They are "teachings." We all gain our teaching tools somewhere, and I'm sharing where I am gaining mine for this series. Can't do more with my schedule and I'm not even sweating it. Church will eat it up. Most solid teaching they've had in decades!

 

I'm a layman, but have preached on Baptist Men's day at my church, and occasionally am invited to sing and speak outside of my church. Preparing messages has caused me to have a new respect for my pastor, and all pastors, who preach twice on Sunday and do a Wednesday Bible study. I don't know how they do it.

It's obvious the Lord never called me to preach because I could never come up with two sermons a week and a Bible study.

When our new pastor arrived (several years ago), he distributed a survey designed to find out what the congregation expected of him.

So he asked, how many hours do you expect me to spend each week in
Sermon Preparation
Personal Witnessing
Outreach visitation
Personal devotion time
Hospital visits
Denominational activities
Counseling members.

He tabulated the responses and revealed them to the church.

"You want me to spend 122 hours a week doing all those things. That's 17 hours a day, seven days a week. I can't do that.

That means a couple of things. One, I'm going do those things that a pastor ought to be doing, and you're going to be doing things the members ought to be doing."

And if you don't do them, they won't get done. I won't do your jobs for you."

Obviously, the expectations of the church of its pastor, and the expectations of the pastor of the church need to be understood from the get-go. Most members probably have no clue what a pastor does outside the pulpit or hospital visits.

 

They won't allow me to simply say, "Amen," but that is what I am saying! :thumbs:

 

I have no issue with a Pastor occasionally using someone elses sermons materials etc... I do understand "life" happens , Pastors get sick, family issues, funeral. weddings etc... I get that.
(Even though at our Church we have at least 6 Pastors, plus Elders, and deacons. Most of the comments I've read are assuming just one Pastor? )
What I do have an issue with is not giving credit to who wrote or where the inspiration or idea's came from. I feel not doing so is somewhat dishonest . People assume your something your not otherwise?

 

As someone who can personally speak on this, I agree. Almost everyone has more time than they realize. When I decided to finally sit down and read the Word my faith grew and God revealed all kinds of personal things to me. I didn't have a method. I just started in on the New Testament from the beginning of it and decided to pick apart every verse, what it says, what it means, what it speaks to me.

 

Mont,

I don't disagree with you that some don't study the Bible out of laziness, my comments were directed mainly to the topic present. In essence, do lighter sermons encourage or discourage more in-depth study of God's Word? I believe they discourage people from studying God's Word by giving them a false sense of knowledge. In my experience, expository preaching that digs deep into God's Word is more likely to encourage more in-depth study than light sermons.

Laziness was not the issue nor the topic. However, the depth of preaching was the topic.

 

I apologize if you thought I was going off topic. While our preaching does set an example I am not so sure there is a real correlation here. Which is why I expressed my thoughts on what I see as the real issue. People tend to do what they want. The overall spirit of the people is laziness, or spiritual apathy. They won't really change until the Holy Spirit gets hold of them and convicts them.

My part is to faithfully preach and teach the Word while setting the good example. This is done while understanding that God alone causes the growth and I am merely a vessel for His use.

 

In reality, we minister as if it all depended on us, therefore, we do the best we can at all times, still, knowing it all hinges on the work of the Holy Spirit.

Cheers,

Jim

 

You're exactly right, Tom. Thank you for sharing that here. It really blessed me. We are struggling with this very issue in our church right now.

 

That is the ideal. It is important when taking a pastorate that everyone knows who is responsible for what. Sadly, though, that does not always matter. We regularly remind our people that they need to be in prayer and in the Word themselves. The majority simply do not take their responsibility seriously. The few that do, though, make it all worth while! We started 2011 with a few baptisms and on Christmas Sunday we got to end the end with one too.

 

Are you all participating in a church wide effort say like the 40 Days of _______? If so, those efforts come with sermon outlines to enhance the overall effectiveness of the effort. Helps fit together the entire package, sermon with small group, etc. Don't see the harm in that, especially if attributed to author.

Also, it's an outline, someone has to put the meat on the bone, hopefully that is the pastor and he isn't downloading Rick's sermon and preaching what Rick had to say.

 

I have known pastor who used canned sermons for awhile to see the response of the people. Those I have known said it helped them to preach better when they used the canned sermons to help them prepare differently than they had.

Anytime I see a video, sermon series I often wonder about where the material came from.

A few years ago I preached four to five times each week. One sermon would be preached twice Sunday morning. I got much faster at putting together sermons when I preached that much.

 

Several years ago I went to one of the most prestigious furniture making schools in the world. At the school the master always told us to make something that has already been made because we will not spend the time on design but the mechanics of making furniture. When we master the mechanics then we can work on design.

In preaching I often spent so much time on the text that I did not spend enough time on the sermon for the listeners in mind. Eventually I learned to balance the two better.

 

I think pastors should at least acknowledge the source of the canned sermon or the canned part of the sermon. Some do give credit for the author, but not all.

I was surprised and a little disappointed when I heard a sermon on the radio from a well known DFW pastor which was almost word for word what I had heard at my Church several weeks earlier. This happened in the past year and I suspect they were both using someone else's material.

I don't object to using canned sermons at times but I think a disclaimer or proper credit is in order for the sake of honestly and to avoid the appearance of plagiarism.

 

I went to a church that while on the way you could listen on the radio to the sermon of W.A. Criswell that Sunday and then one week later hear the same sermon from the local pastor.

I know a pastor that was using parts of a very good book in his sermons and gave credit to the author every week. He told me that there were some who got angry at him and did not come until he was done with the book. His story reminds me of the child who puts his fingers in his ears in an effort to not hear.