Eugene Peterson on “Successful Ministry”

Justin Taylor cited this passage from Eugene Peterson’s Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity (pp. 7-8). Peterson is really good on pastoral ministry and this quote resonates with much discussed here so I wanted to pass it along.

For a long time, I have been convinced that I could take a person with a high school education, give him or her a six-month trade school training, and provide a pastor who would be satisfactory to any discriminating American congregation. The curriculum would consist of four courses.

Course
I: Creative Plagiarism.
I would put you in touch with a wide range of excellent and inspirational talks, show you how to alter them just enough to obscure their origins, and get you a reputation for wit and wisdom.

Course
II: Voice Control for Prayer and Counseling.
We would develop your own distinct style of Holy Joe intonation, acquiring the skill in resonance and modulation that conveys and unmistakable aura of sanctity.

Course
III: Efficient Office Management.
There is nothing that parishioners admire more in their pastors than the capacity to run a tight ship administratively. If we return all phone calls within twenty-four hours, answer all the letters within a week, distributing enough carbons to key people so that they know we are on top of things, and have just the right amount of clutter on our desk—not too much, or we appear
inefficient, not too little or we appear underemployed—we quickly get the reputation for efficiency that is far more important than anything that we actually do.

Course
IV: Image Projection.
Here we would master the half-dozen well-known and easily implemented devices that that create the impression that we are terrifically busy and widely sought after for counsel by influential people in the community. A one-week refresher course each year would introduce new phrases that would convince our parishioners that we are bold innovators on the cutting edge of the megatrends and at the same time solidly rooted in all the traditional values of our sainted ancestors.

(I have been laughing for several years over this trade school training with which I plan to make my fortune. Recently, though, the joke has backfired on me. I keep seeing advertisements for institutes and workshops all over the country that invite pastors to sign up for this exact curriculum. The advertised course offerings are not quite as honestly labeled as mine, but the content appears to be identical—a curriculum that trains pastors to satisfy the current consumer
tastes in religion. I’m not laughing anymore.)

Pulpit Plagiarism Illustrated

It has been sometime since I commented on this, though I continue to get emails from church members who have discovered that this is what their pastors are doing.
I was just informed of this amazing video (from this post and my friend Jrazz) illustrating two speakers who are telling the same story as personal experience. This sort of example comes down to a simple issue of integrity.

Groothuis on Techno Temptation

Doug Groothuis has posted at his blog a column he wrote for the Denver Seminary Magazine. It is well worth the read. He addresses the problem of plagiarizing sermons and the problem of relying on the ease of technology to look up verses rather than really learning the Bible for ourselves. The first issue has been discussed here before. The second has not. But every time I read great preachers of old or open A. T. Robertson’s big grammar I am reminded that the references these men made to other scriptures were not culled from a quick computer search but flowed out of their deep awareness of Scripture. Technology has benefits, but as all things has its limitations. Let us beware the temptation of the appearance of biblical awareness with out the reality which is what shapes the soul and leads us in Christ-likeness. I encourage you to read Groothuis’ article.

HT: JT

Thomas Long on Plagiarizing Sermons

Thomas Long, Professor of Preaching at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, has written an excellent article entitled, “Stolen Goods: Tempted to Plagiarize.” I encourage you to read it. It is well balanced and considers the common rationales given for preaching the sermons of others. He argues the point I have sought to make in the past that the key issue is integrity. Long writes:

Perhaps as much or more than any other form of communication, preaching depends upon a cord of trust binding together the speaker and the listener, the preacher and hearer. A good sermon consists not primarily in flawless logic, soaring poetry or airtight arguments, but in passionately held truth proclaimed with conviction. To compromise the truth in ways that hearers would consider deceptive makes them reluctant to extend this necessary trust and damages the witness. For evidence, we can point to the hard disillusionment and sense of betrayal experienced by many in congregations where pastors have been caught plagiarizing sermons.

He also makes the key point that what people need is not a good performance but the Word of God applied to their specific situation by one who knows and loves them.

The preacher comes from the pews to stand in the pulpit. Only preachers who deliver their own sermons stand with one foot in the life of the people and one foot in the biblical text. No Internet preacher stands in this same place. No borrowed sermon, however fine, can answer the question that cries out from every congregation, "Is there a word today, a word for us, from the Lord?"

This is a great article. May it be of much help to the church.

Pastoral Plagiarism Update

I have been meaning for months now to post an update on this topic. After the WSJ article came out in the Fall, Steve Sjogren responded on his blog. He basically said that those who take issue with his suggestion of using others sermons are not really interested in evangelism. The language in his blog post is now significantly changed from its original. In response to criticism, he softened that statement while keeping his basic position. Tim Ellsworth covered the story very well in this post.

Since that time Dr. Mohler of Southern Seminary devoted his radio show one day to this topic. He and guest, Dr. Hershael York, did a great job covering the topic.

Various newspapers around the country continue to pick up the story- apparently from the WSJ story- and comment on it. Typically the reporters see the problem clearly in spite of the spin given by proponents of the practice. However, The Christian Index, paper of the Georgia Baptist Convention, ran a story which in essence defends the practice of sermon ‘borrowing.’ The story was entitled, “Plagiarism: Whose Message is it?” It seems to have generated some response. This response is particularly well worth reading. Here are some excerpts from this layman’s response:

The College Dictionary defines plagiarism as “to use and pass off as one’s own writing or ideas from another.” Of course we know this meaning, but reading the article in your publication it seems as though this must not apply to pastors. Over a dozen pastors hopped, skipped, and jumped around the facts like a grasshopper on a hot grill. The answer is simple; anyone using another’s writings or ideas is a cheat! It seems simple enough to me
…
If pastors spent more time in the Greek and Hebrew to exegete the scriptures they wouldn’t need to plagiarize others works.
Just about every pastor I have been under has spoken of Zacchaeus up a sycamore tree at least two or three times a year. Hey, we know that story. How about some meat of the doctrine? We have had an over abundance of milk.

One of the ridiculous statements in your article read something like this: “pastors who document the origin of their sources into fine detail usually deliver cold and impersonal messages.” This is a smokescreen to cover-up the fact that they wish credit for something they did not originate
…
In closing, just get into the Word and forget about making impressions on the congregation. We have minds of our own and can think without fancy utterances

Well said!

Pastoral Plagiarism in the WSJ

Today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal ran a front page story by Suzanne Sataline on the issue of pastors preaching others’ sermons. The story is titled, “That Sermon You Heard on Sunday May Be From the Web” (you have to subscribe to read articles online, though they appear to offer a free trial). Mrs. Sataline interacts with this blog and conversations we had by phone. She also talked to Steve Sjogren, Ed Young Jr. and Thomas Long, preaching professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University (who opposed the practice).

I am glad to see the topic continuing to get attention because I think it is a problem that needs to be addressed. The posts on this blog on the topic have also been commented on in two German news sources. Here is one. Society sees that this is a problem. Sadly too many church leaders do not.

Pastoral Plagiarism Revisited

Those who have been reading this blog for sometime may remember the interchange that took place here last March on Pastoral Plagiarism (post 1, post 2, post 3). These posts brought a bit of traffic and some strong debate. An edited version of the original post has this week been published in the “Baptist and Reflector”, the TN Baptist state paper, under the title Pastors must be messengers of God, not ‘talking heads’. I hope to raise this issue in local church life because this seems to be a rising problem. I continue to receive email from people who have discovered that their pastors are preaching sermons taken directly from other men or lifted directly from a book. These people are shocked and feel betrayed. Whatever sort of rationalizing a pastor might do, the fact is that the pastor’s integrity is seriously blemished by this. This issue needs to be raised and addressed for the good of the church.

Joe Thorn is also discussing this here.