Scott Gibson: Should We Use Someone Else's Sermon?: Preaching in a Cut-and-Paste World

Dr. Scott M. Gibson is a preaching professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dr. Gibson has written a book called Should We Use Someone Else's Sermon?: Preaching in a Cut-and-Paste World.

Here is the description from the publisher:

With easy access to sermons on the Internet, plus pressure to deliver the next sermon with little time to prepare, no wonder some pastors have resorted to plagiarizing other people's sermons, passing them off as their own. 

This growing epidemic has received coverage in the Wall Street Journal, on National Public Radio, and elsewhere. Some pastors have been caught in the act and dismissed from their churches. Is this fair? Is this stealing? How can you recognize it? How can it be prevented?

This book not only helps explain the problem, but it also explores the ethical implications and gives advice on how to avoid it or deal with it if the problem surfaces in your church. It includes study questions at the end of chapters and a concluding case study.

The book is available from Zondervan.com or Amazon.com.

You can read the first chapter HERE.

South Florida Sun Sentinel on Pulpit Plagiarism

Internet Sermons Inspire Ministers To Be Creative

Some Clergy Members Even Make Website Words Their Own

September 20, 2009|By Lois K. Solomon Staff Writer

If you are giving a sermon any time soon, feel free to use one of the Rev. Harold White's.

The Baptist minister, who retired in 1999 after 47 years at the pulpit, has loaded 600 sermons he gave during his career on to his website, Angelfire.com/fl5/hleewhite/. He has 600 to go.

White, who lives in West Palm Beach but spent most of his career in McMinnville, Tenn., says his site has received more than 10 million hits. The most popular sermons are holiday-related, including those for Easter and Mother's Day.

White said he prefers that ministers not repeat the sermons verbatim, but he knows their use is out of his control once he posts them.

"It's between them and God what they preach," said White, 76. "Nobody wrote these for me. It took me a long time to realize they don't belong to me; they belong to God."

White's sermon project competes among an abundance of sermon websites that have been created in the past few years to assist ministers who need help brainstorming an eloquent Sunday message.

White's site is free, but many charge for access to their databases, including PreachingToday.com [$69.95 a year] and IFindSermons.com [$100 a year]. There also is SermonCentral.com - which sells access to 150,000 sermons, illustrations, videos and PowerPoint presentations for $119.50 a year - and specialized sites such as Sermons4Kids.com, BlackSermons.com and a site for sermons from the Episcopal church.

The Rev. Jeff Knight of First Baptist Church of Deerfield Beach subscribes to SermonCentral. He said he uses the site for help with funerals, when he must find something inspirational to say quickly.

"Funerals pop up all of a sudden, and the site gets my creative juices flowing," said Knight, 41, who has led the church for four years. "If it's on SermonCentral, you can use it as it is" and it is not considered plagiarism, he said.

Many pastors recite the online sermons word-for-word, a big mistake, said Scott Gibson, preaching professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and author of Should We Use Someone Else's Sermon? Few will admit to plagiarizing, he said, although it has become extremely common.

"Plagiarism isn't new. It's gone on for centuries," Gibson said. "The Internet makes sermons available in a different way. I want folks to use what they've been trained to do, to do their own work."

Responding to charges of plagiarism, more than 7,000 pastors have signed on to "The Preacher's Pledge," according to SermonCentral, promising to use the Bible as their main sermon source and not to copy others' work.

Gibson said the average pastor spends about 15 hours a week on sermons, seeking the perfect mix of direct message, smooth language, biblical references and reasonable length. But as many pastors have gained national reputations for their televised preaching, the pressure on the average pastor today to lead and entertain has magnified, Gibson said, leading some to depend on the words of others whose work they may consider more glib and powerful.

The Rev. Ray Henry, pastor of Belvedere Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, said he visits Harold White's site a few times a year for inspiration, usually around holidays. He said he spends about eight hours a week working on his sermons, which are about 12 pages long.

"You take the idea and try to build your thoughts from his," said Henry, who has been a pastor for 40 years. "Every pastor pulls something from somebody."

Henry said he never copies others' sermons. Besides the immorality of plagiarizing, he said, people can tell when the words are not your own. "Your personality comes out in your writing," Henry said. "It won't come out well if someone else wrote it. You've got to make it your own."

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The New York Times Covers Pulpit Plagiarism

Clergyman Is Accused of Plagiarism 

By DANNY HAKIM 

Published: March 13, 2002 

Journalists. Historians. Now the clergy?

The rector of Christ Church Cranbrook, a prominent church in this wealthy town near Detroit, has been suspended for 90 days while the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan investigates accusations that some of his sermons, as well as his writings in a church newsletter, were copied from Internet subscription services for clergymen and other sources on the Web.

The rector's defenders say that the use of such material is common among the clergy and that the accusations are merely a pretense by his opponents to oust him.

The rector, the Rev. Edward Mullins, declined to comment, as did his lawyer. Bishop Wendell N. Gibbs Jr., head of the diocese, has asked the rector and others involved not to discuss the situation.

Bloomfield Hills is a lush terrain of million-dollar homes. The church is an imposing Gothic structure with 1,100 member families and a parking lot that fills up with Lexuses, Mercedeses and Cadillacs.

In recent years, the church has had its share of trouble. In 1993, a rector was dismissed after he admitted to having affairs with parishioners. The church was without a permanent rector until Mr. Mullins took the job in 1996.

Last year, Mr. Mullins, who is 55, faced a revolt from about a dozen staff members. In a letter to him that found its way to the bishop, they accused Mr. Mullins of having a divisive management style, said he had mistreated the church's longtime verger and demanded that he seek counseling.

On Jan. 30, the problems escalated when a group of parishioners sent a letter to the diocese outlining 10 cases in which they said Mr. Mullins had committed plagiarism, including entire sermons and writings in the church's ''Good News'' bulletin, from several Web sites.

Some paid subscription services provide sermons, and Mr. Mullins used those services as well as other Internet sources, according to the letter, instead of writing his own.

''Along with other questionable actions he has taken during the past five years, the plagiarism of his spiritual messages causes us seriously to doubt his fitness for the ordained ministry,'' the letter said. ''How can a priest of the church lay claim to a defense of such dubious morality as 'everybody does it' and 'I paid to use those materials?' ''

Mr. Mullins appears to have strong support, both among parishioners and the vestry, a body akin to a board of directors.

''He's a great asset to Christ Church,'' said Dorothy Allhouse, a member of the church for six years. ''People come to church for his sermons, whether they're his, they're incorporated or however he does it. He puts the message forth that needs to be put forth.''

The Rev. Harry T. Cook, a friend of Mr. Mullins and the rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in nearby Clawson, said, ''He's had more than a year of unrelenting pressure, mostly generated, I'm told, by members of his staff and a very few members of the congregation who have made it a lifetime vocation to make his life miserable.''

''I don't hold any brief for Doris Kearns Goodwin, Joe Ellis or Stephen Ambrose,'' Mr. Cook added, referring to three prominent historians enmeshed in controversies about fabrications or plagiarism, ''but if plagiarism of the sort that Ed Mullins is accused of is punishable, there would be no one preaching on Sunday.''

In a letter to Mr. Mullins informing him of his suspension, Bishop Gibbs said he was investigating whether the rector had violated his ordination vows by plagiarizing. The bishop also wrote that he was investigating whether Mr. Mullins breached confidences during counseling sessions and refused to give communion to a parishioner. The suspension was first reported by The Detroit Free Press.

The Rev. Clayton Morris, liturgical officer of the Episcopal Church, said, ''I don't know of any policy in print'' against plagiarism. But Mr. Morris added, ''If you use somebody else's prose, you cite the source.''

There is ample leeway for borrowing in Christianity, considering that preachers have been returning to the same subjects for two millennia, said David Hein, a professor of religion and philosophy at Hood College in Frederick, Md. But citations would be expected in written material, Mr. Hein said, and some amount of original thought is a crucial part of a clergyman's role.

Indeed, churches have taken punitive action on plagiarism. In October, the pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton, Mo., was forced to resign after being accused of appropriating sermons by the Rev. Tim Keller, a Presbyterian pastor. Several years ago, an Episcopal clergyman was dismissed from a cathedral in San Francisco for plagiarism.

Phil Ware, a Texas preacher who co-edits Heartlight, an Internet magazine (www.heartlight.org), was among the sources Mr. Mullins is accused of using. Mr. Ware said he thought that his writings should be properly cited but that he did not want Mr. Mullins to lose his job.

''The joke used to be,'' Mr. Ware said, ''that 90 percent of all church bulletin articles used to be written by A. N. Onymous.''

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Charlotte, N.C. Pastor Resigns Over Plagiarism

Pastor admits to stealing sermons

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The senior pastor at one of Charlotte's best-known churches admitted that parts of some of his sermons, broadcast on Christian radio programs, were stolen from others.

The Rev. E. Glenn Wagner of Calvary Church resigned, admitted that depression led him to plagiarize sermons the past two years, and asked for forgiveness in a letter read Sunday in his absence at four worship services.

"On a number of occasions, when I felt literally empty and devoid of any creative ability, I used material from the sermons of some of my brother preachers," Wagner's letter said.

Gary Hubler, clerk of the lay leaders who oversee the church, said Wagner's plagiarism was first detected two weeks ago. That's when a church elder heard a radio sermon that sounded like something he had heard Wagner preach.

In his letter, Wagner, 51, cited "a downward spiral, emotionally and mentally, which left me very tired and discouraged and fighting a losing battle with depression."

Billy Graham's father, Frank, was one of the church's founders, which began in 1939 as Bible Presbyterian.

Calvary has become an independent, evangelical congregation known for its $39 million pink complex and 6,000-seat sanctuary in south Charlotte. The church draws an average of 3,000 people to all of its Sunday services. Wagner was credited with increasing weekly worship attendance by 1,000.

Wagner came to Calvary in 1997 from suburban Denver, where he had worked as a vice president and minister-at-large with the Promise Keepers, a Christian men's movement. He was accustomed to preaching to thousands at Promise Keepers events in stadiums and arenas.

At Calvary, his job was to help energize a church dealing with paying its bills and filling the three-tiered sanctuary.

Church leaders have not said how many of Wagner's sermons used unattributed material from other pastors, or which ones. They are studying the text of Wagner's sermons going back two years.

The church has suspended the distribution of tapes with Wagner's sermons from that period. None of Wagner's sermons from the past two years will be used on his show broadcast on Christian radio stations.

In his letter, Wagner said he had tried to resign two years ago, but that church elders wouldn't accept it. Instead, they gave him time to rest.


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Pastor Resigns After Admitting Plagiarism: The Southwest Missourian - November 12, 2001

Pastor admits he plagiarized sermons

Monday, November 12, 2001

The Associated Press

 

CLAYTON, Mo. -- A Presbyterian church that lost a senior pastor to suicide about six years ago is digesting news that another one has left the pulpit, this time by resigning after admitting he plagiarized sermons. 

The Rev. W. Barnwell "Barney" Heyward Jr. made the confession in late October in a statement he read to his 1,800-member Central Presbyterian Church of Clayton congregation, said Eric Schmidt, the church's executive administrator.

The church's governing board of elders received Heyward's resignation in the week before he told the congregation at the church in this St. Louis suburb, Schmidt said.

Schmidt said Heyward initially was confronted after preaching an Easter sermon that others recognized as the words of the Rev. Tim Keller, a nationally renowned Presbyterian pastor in New York City. Heyward recently was confronted again for other plagiarism incidents, Schmidt said.

Schmidt then resigned and "did the honorable thing," Schmidt said. "Members of staff and the congregation realized he had preached sermons of other people."

This week, Heyward told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he wouldn't publicly discuss his actions.

"The church has my love and the session has my support," he said.

Central Presbyterian has suffered from a series of pastoral troubles, including the July 1995 suicide of the Rev. Timothy Brewer, the church's senior pastor. The church, which belongs to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, spent three years searching for Brewer's successor.

In 1998, the church hired Heyward, a Greenville, S.C., native who received his master's degree in divinity at Covenant Seminary in Creve Coeur, another St. Louis suburb. When hired, Heyward told the Post-Dispatch he considered himself an "average" preacher in a church that prided itself on strong preaching.

Not shaken by resignation 

Bob Busse, a church elder, said Central Presbyterian members were "not shaken" that Heyward resigned, though "they were shaken when the discovery came out that he had done this."

Preacher plagiarism problems are not new -- or on the wane. In a profession known for its high attrition rates and tough time demands, online sermon archives and Web sites such as desperatepreacher.com make it easy for pastors to cut corners on originality.

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"The Article That Started It All"

Today I want to point out a trend I noticed after doing some research. The number of online articles on pastoral plagiarism seemed to balloon around the year 2006.

That's because in March of 2006, Steve Sjogren wrote an article on Rick Warren's website, Pastors.com, entitled "Don’t Be Original – Be Effective!" where Mr. Sjogren argues that it's completely acceptable for pastors to plagiarize their sermons.

 Of course, as you can see HERE, the article was removed during the dust-up that followed. But thanks to the miracle of modern technoloty, you may read an archive of the article HERE.

Ironically, you may not plagiarize Mr. Sjogren himself without written permission, or at least acknowledgment of him as the source! (See HERE.)

Since so much of the material found on this website refers to this article, it would be a good idea to check out "the article that started it all."

Also,this article and some other similar issues led to a feature on Pulpit Plagiarism in the Wall Street Journal later that year on November 16, 2006. See HERE.