There’s a story that a bishop slipped into a back pew to hear a young man preach. After the service, listeners gathered to thank the preacher warmly. Then the bishop approached and asked, “How long did it take you to prepare that sermon?”

“Only a few hours,” the young man replied.

“It took me 20 years,” responded the bishop. He had published the fruit of years of study in a book of sermons, and the young man had lifted one and preached it as if he himself had created it.

It’s called plagiarism. In Latin, a plagiary is one who abducts the child or slave of another, thus, a kidnapper or seducer. Passing into the intellectual realm, to plagiarize, says the Oxford English Dictionary, is “to take and use as one’s own the thoughts, writings, or inventions of others.” It is a very real kind of theft.

In the church, plagiarism is an issue for both preachers and laypeople because both should have a passion for the integrity of the pulpit. A congregation doesn’t need a detective committee, and preachers do not need to sign a pledge on this issue, but both should be aware that an effective pulpit is an honest pulpit, and honesty in the pulpit should engage the concerns of all who honor the Word of God preached.

Apparently, both pulpit and pew are showing concern about this issue. An Episcopal rector in a suburb of Detroit was given a 90-day suspension while reports of his plagiarizing were being investigated. He later apologized to his congregation and was returned to his pulpit. Earlier, a Presbyterian minister in Clayton, MO, resigned after admitting his sermons had been plagiarized.

Recently, a layman told me he had gone home from church, entered the title of the morning’s sermon on the Internet and up popped in fine detail what he had just heard. What bothered him most was that the Internet
preacher had given an illustration about his young son, and the layman’s preacher had told it as though it was his son. Credibility was seriously wounded. Both laymen and clergy should remember that credibility must be a watchword of their pulpits.

Plagiarism is epidemic at the university these days. One estimate is that 30 percent of college students plagiarize, passing off the work of others as their own. Other estimates place the figure much higher. The Internet is seen as the main but not the only source of this kidnapped material. Universities are trying to deal severely with the problem. In 1982, a graduate student at New Mexico State University was awarded a Ph.D. in psychology. In 1987 the school received an anonymous tip that the student’s dissertation contained plagiarized material. The university checked, and consequently rescinded his degree.

Should this kind of dishonesty not matter even more in the church? A sermon is supposed to be a message from God received by a speaker through diligent study and prayer. To be sure, we seek legitimate background help from all imaginable sources, but if we pull sermons from books of sermons or the Internet and pass them off as our own work, this will register as deceptive.

To such, the Apostle Paul might advise, “For yourself, concentrate on winning God’s approval, on being a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, and who knows how to use the word of truth to the best advantage” (2 Timothy 2:15, Phillips).

So, what questions can preachers ask as integrity checks before preaching? For one thing, we can ask, does what we give people from the pulpit have on it the marks of our own hard work? For example, even if we have read the likes of Charles Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones, there still ought to be evidence that we have ruminated on what we got from them. That is, we have made it our own by hard work and prayer.

Second, we can ask if what we give our people has traces of originality. Our sermons should have on them a freshness, a note of creativity, an element of personal burden. When William Shakespeare wrote his Romeo and Juliet, the story already existed in several versions. Some believe that he had one written version at hand while he did his work. But the end result shows a combination of originality and hard work that makes the play Shakespeare’s work and his alone.

Third, if we are using another preacher’s outline, or illustrations, or unusual insights, we should ask, am I presenting this in such a way as to acknowledge the hard work of a fellow craftsman?

All this does not mean that preachers are barred from getting help from the work of others. There are ways to do this with integrity. A preacher may tell his congregation that the sermon about to be preached is one from a favorite preacher that has been an inspiration to him. If the sermon is then preached with appropriate unction it will bless, and the preacher will be respected because of his honesty.

So, how can the integrity of preaching be guaranteed, or if need be, restored? How can both pulpit and pew join forces in making sure that the Word of God is expounded with integrity?

The laity has more part in this than might appear. They can provide a proper space for study, help the preacher get the resources needed, commend him when he delivers well, and in doing so let their preacher know that preaching is very important to their congregation. If verifiable cases of plagiarism surface, they can report them to the board.

And, the starting place for the preacher is a renewed vision of what preaching really is: the delivery of a message from God to a gathering of His people, forged out of hard study and prayer, and confirmed in its delivery by the Holy Spirit. With that renewed vision both pulpit and pew will have joy in work well done. In turn, this will put plagiarism forever in its place as a sham and a cheap substitute for real preaching.