Last post, I talked a bit about sermon plagiarism and what it is. I also offered a couple of suggestions about avoiding it. I’ve done a bit more digging on a couple of the accusations that are gloating around right now and think we can clarify some of the problem.
First, one of big traps appears to be pastors over-quoting the unique language of commentaries. This especially shows up when it’s the same commentary series or commentary author over and over again. For example, you might be a huge fan of N.T. Wright (he’s a New Testament scholar at Oxford) and so you read everything Wright writes about a given subject.
If you then put yourself in an echo chamber and do not read any other points of view, only reading Wright and people who think like him, you are more likely to unintentionally parrot, thinking you’re sharing your own thoughts. The same thing can happen if your theological hero is John MacArthur or John Calvin or John Wesley.
It’s not a bad thing to have your theological preferences. Logic would suggest that a Baptist would tend to read commentaries mainly from a Baptist perspective, Methodists from a Methodist, and so forth…although probably you’re going to see more of a “conservative evangelicals” in one stack and “liberal Protestants” in another, with “liturgical Protestants” in yet another.
Where this becomes a problem is that many of us read not to expand our horizons but to confirm our preconceptions. The result is an echo chamber, where the preacher hears things in repetition and then repeats them. If that’s what your study time is doing, then either shorten your study time (and do other stuff, I guarantee there’s something else the church needs) or make sure you’re broadening your reading. If you are a firmly-convinced reader of Calvinist Presbyterians, then add in some other people.
I see this danger in my own reading and study. My favorite commentary on 1 Corinthians, for example, is Preben Vang’s volume in the Teach the Text series. I had Dr. Vang years ago, and not only do I sometimes quote him from memory, I unintentionally do my best Danish impression. (I have permanently been banned from Denmark for offending everyone, even the Lego Bricks.) But you have to spread out what you’re reading or else you’ll slip into this accidentally.
The second danger is hastiness in sermon preparation. There is a temptation to determine that your sermons have to have a high degree of zap and pizzazz. Strangely, preaching has endured as one of the primary parts of Christian communication for 2,000 years or so, most of that without movie clips, tweetable lines, or snazzy slides.
But in the haste to match up with others who use such things, it’s very easy to buy a “sermon kit” from an online source and then just use it without paying attention. Or to hire out the bulk of the work—the study, etc— and assume it will come back different enough to not be close to other people’s work. The problem here is that, ultimately, you are responsible for what you preach. Don’t just hand off the work. Help with prep? Fine. You still need to do the bulk of the work yourself. Even if that means fewer bells and whistles.
Again, preacher, as a reminder: your integrity cannot be bought back. Don’t give it away taking shortcuts. And it’s better to push that possibility of an accusation away from you by being over-cautious than to have to defend yourself. Defenses always end up ringing hollow.