How do you tell a pastor not to preach sermons he has taken off the internet as though they were his own?

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Question: How do you tell a pastor not to preach sermons he has taken off the internet as though they were his own? In other words, is it acceptable for a pastor to preach a sermon from the internet and pass it off as his own?

D.H.

ATP: “How do you tell” and “Is it acceptable”: two sides of the same coin.

If it is acceptable then “telling” isn’t needed, but if it isn’t acceptable then telling is required. And frankly it’s not acceptable, but let me explain what might be.

The word to describe the kind of behavior mentioned in your question is, plagiarism. The dictionary defines plagiarism as:

To take and use as one’s own the thoughts, writing, inventions etc., of another person; copy (literary work, ideas etc.) improperly or without acknowledgment; pass off the thoughts, work, etc. of (another person) as ones own...literary theft. (Oxford English Dictionary, p. 2226, Oxford University Press 2002)

Notice that plagiarism is not just the idea of taking some one’s written work and passing it off as one’s own, as, for example, some high school and college students have been known to do when writing an essay. Plagiarism includes taking some one’s thoughts or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

Take a look at the Oxford English Dictionary definition of plagiarism above in the bold type. I could have given you an off the cuff definition of the word and avoided all the publishing references to the Oxford English Dictionary. There are times when a less formal definition would be the preferred choice to the style of a document, or when footnoting would be better, so that such information doesn’t clutter up the page for the reader.

And notice the "...literary theft" part. Experienced writers will know that "..." part means I have left something out and am communicating that to them. Nothing secret. Nothing hidden in terms of content, nor where that content came from.

I chose to use the actual definition from the Oxford Dictionary to make a point. Had I used this same definition without attributing it to the Oxford Dictionary, it would have been plagiarism, perhaps with the motive of leaving the impression that I am very clever with the turn of a phrase or very intellectual to have come up with such a clear definition on my own.

Not properly attributing Oxford University Press might also have meant that I’m just sloppy and forgot. Whatever the reason, it would be wrong to lift the definition directly from the pages of the Oxford Dictionary and claim it as my own. That is plagiarism.

So, plagiarism is a form of theft; it is dishonest. As such it should not be done. Ever.

Notice, however, by simply and clearly attributing the material to Oxford, I have communicated the same definition honestly and you as a reader gain the intended benefit—learning the definition of the word plagiarism—without any misunderstanding about where the material came from.

If a pastor’s goal is to teach people, not make an impression, he shouldn’t have the slightest problem attributing the material he uses to the proper sources.

I don’t find it inappropriate to read other sermons and learn from them and even incorporate material into a sermon. We all learn from others, whether the source be a commentary, a Bible Dictionary, a tape, a conversation or from a published work on the Internet. All of our sermon pages would be blank if we couldn’t use things we have learned from others.

The rub here is in how we present that material. We must do it honestly. It matters in terms of credibility, but more important than credibility is actual integrity! We can be credible people--that is, people who have a public track record that is worthy of people’s trust--but at the same time be secretly acting without integrity. It ought not be so for anyone, let alone a pastor!

The argument that some pastors use for their plagiaristic behavior, and I have heard this argument, is often, “Well if it was good enough to preach once, it is good enough to preach again.” True. I have no problem with that, as long as proper attribution is given.

I am not an advocate of this kind of preaching and in 20 years as a pastor have never once preached such a sermon, but nevertheless the problem of plagiarism would be solved if a pastor at the beginning of such a “borrowed” sermon simply were to say,

“You know, I heard a sermon the other day from Pastor Jones that so impacted me and so fit what we are going to talk about today, that I felt I couldn’t possibly do a better job than he did in explaining this text. So with your permission, I am going to preach Pastor Jones’ sermon this morning. I think you are going to like what he had to say.”

Poof! No issue with theft or plagiarism, and the congregation is helped just the same. And isn’t helping the congregation the goal after all?

By the way, if you are a good listener, you hear good pastors carefully applying this integrity principle regarding such things at every point in their sermon, not just when the issue of plagiarism involves the entire sermon.

You have heard them begin a quote about some particular subject by saying, “Some one once said…..” Why do they say “some one” instead of naming the person? Because who said it isn’t important in every instance. What they are communicating is, “This didn’t come from me. I am not the world’s repository for all knowledge and cleverness. I got this from some one else.”

Honesty. Integrity. That is what they are communicating, and for the listener the communication is seamless and clear. More importantly such clear communication builds trust in the relationship between the speaker and the listener.

As pastors we are communicating most important message in the world: the Word of God. Doing so with complete integrity and clarity of integrity is an absolute that should never be violated.

The second part of your question is a bit complicated: How do you tell a pastor? Not all pastor's will "get it" unfortunately. But where there are problems, church boards should deal with this during review times and make it clear that such behavior is not acceptable.

If discovered or suspected by individual church members, I would recommend that the church member talk directly to the pastor first. There may be some simple misunderstanding that doesn't have to rise to the level of a Board discussion. Give the pastor the benefit of the doubt first before "calling out the dogs."