Outsourcing Sermons
Some pastors hire outsiders to study the Bible for them.
Oct 14th, 2009 | By Skye Jethani | Category: Church, Features, Preaching
Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?
I know what you may be thinking. But Skye, how is that any different than the pastor who pulls their exegetical insights from a commentary or theology book? Few people start from scratch. We all rely on the work of outsiders, whether theologians or Bible scholars, to write our sermons. These mega-pastors are simply making the process more efficient.
That is a valid point. Before I write a sermon I rely on many outsiders for help…a book by N.T. Wright, a commentary by John Stott, a 4th century sermon by John Chrysostom, or even a conversation with a colleague at work.
But here’s the difference…I’m wrestling with a text for days, and often weeks, before I preach a sermon. I’m thinking, praying, meditating, and often fighting with Scripture. It becomes part of me. So when I stand before the congregation and speak they aren’t just hearing useful truth from the Bible-they are hearing from someone who has marinated in that truth. And that’s something that cannot be outsourced. There is value in the sermon process, not just the preaching outcome.
Hope for Bible school and seminary graduates during the recession?
This revelation that some pastors are now outsourcing their study of the Bible only adds to my concerns about the state of preaching today. Many places, including secular newspapers, are reporting on the rise of plagiarism in the pulpit as increasing numbers of pastors are downloading sermons online. And the long-term impact of video preaching-where a single gifted orator is beamed to congregations in multiple locations thus eliminating the need to develop more Bible teachers-has yet to be seen.
For now many are tolerating these trends because the preaching is strong, the Bible is being taught, and the seats are filled. But at what cost? In time we may, like Dorothy, want to escape the fantasy world we’ve entered. The church of Oz appears powerful and might. It’s colossal and impressive-until we pull back the curtain.
Love the picture and the comments. The mega churches should hire a pastor just to teach, and let the “personality” or “diva” do his/her thing.
I’ve seen this from my Bible College days all the way up to today with some well known pastors who inspire insane fan adoration…
It’s always made me a bit uneasy- but one thing I will give these guys- most of them are open about it- they use staff people or at worst a service like Docent and basically pay someone to do research for them. And for some, it’s more background and statistics and the like- not the actual exegesis.
A related question in my mind is about ghost writers of Christian books… Is it different? (serious question!)
Ghost writers…I think it is different. First of all, a number of authors acknowledge their ghost writers. Francis Chan, for example, has Danae Yankoski listed right on the covers of his books. It seems obvious that the content of the books belongs to Chan, but the articulation and writing craft is probably handled by Yankoski. I do know that there are other pastor/authors who have ghost writers but you won’t see their names on the book. But in both cases the core ideas in the book come from the author, even if they are crafted by another hand.
The difference with outsourcing sermon prep is that the core ideas, the biblical truths, appear to be the work of the invisible “ghost writer” while the crafting of the delivery is done by the pastor. It’s all backwards.
Like you, Bob, I’m not against using a staff or research aid to look for background information and stats. I know a number of pastors who use a lay team of volunteers to assist them in sermon preparation and feedback. That’s just doing ministry in community. What worries me are the stories I’ve heard of truly outsourcing exegesis–the pastor’s personal Bible study being done by someone else and he/she is given the Cliff Notes.
So what’s the difference between paying a sem student $35 to write up the exegesis of 1 Corinthians 11, and buying John MacArthur’s Commentary on 1 Corinthians for $35 and leaning on that for your exegesis?
I’m assuming the sem student consults more than one source, but then, so do good commentaries.
C’mon guys. Exegesis isn’t exactly gourmet home cooking. I’m guessing 90 percent of preachers get their exegesis out of a box of some sort–commentary or docent.
(oops, I didn’t finish my comment when I hit “submit”)
The necessary steeping in the material doesn’t have to come in the technical exegesis process. It can come from meditating on the topic, the Scriptures, on the applications, not getting the technical linguistic and grammatical relationships,
Just my 2 drachmas worth …
Fair point, Jarrod. If these pastors are simply being aided by a summary of commentaries and exegesis, while still wrestling with the Scriptures on a personal level. But it sounds like in some cases the service goes beyond this. I’m hoping in the coming weeks we can hear from someone who actually provides this service to pastors and discuss it on Out or Ur.
I TOTALLY AGREE!!!!!!!
I actually experienced this first hand.
At my former church (which is a mega-church), I had become quite disillusioned with the state of preaching at the church. It seemed contrived, silly, light. It was the milk, not the solid food, Hebrews talks about. Somehow, I found out a sermon series that was recently done was stolen from another mega-church. So a friend of mine and myself did a little research. For every sermon series, save one, from January 2009 until July 2009, every single sermon series, including sermon titles, had been borrowed from other churches. It was at that point I knew I needed find another church, for the sake of my sanity and the spiritual health of my family.
What bothered me about this apparent out-sourcing of sermon prep was the lack of respect paid to the scriptures. If you’re going to preach from the Bible, take it seriously enough to stew in it and study it for yourself. Having a cliff notes version handed to you by someone else who did the work shows a lack of respect. To think we can take a summary without engaging the content ourselves.
Thanks for the post, Skye! You’re not the only one who finds the trend disturbing.
God Bless,
JC
Skye, I really connect with this post. The church I just left was notorious for using sermons and series wholesale and never crediting outside sourses. In college and seminary plagerism will get you kicked out, but when churches don’t encourage their people to study or think for themselves, who’s going to call them out on it? Jarrod’s point about leaning heavily on a commentary is well taken. If a pastor uses someone else’s material, I believe they should cite the sourse. I have done this myself and it has worked out fine. If pastors aren’t going to do their own sermon prep because they don’t have time to study the Bible for themselves, maybe they need to rethink their call in light of Paul’s 5 fold model: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Eph. 4:11)…or maybe they just need to go into entertainment.
it is the difference between a voice and an echo … there are some messages that so impact me that I echo them as I digest them, study, meditate and wrestle with parts until at some point it is a part of me and a springboard for deeper revelation and understanding and becomes a voice, a true conviction of my heart … but the echo doesn’t carry the same weight, anointing or conviction as the voice regardless of those with exception oratory skills … many listening can spiritually discern the difference, though sometimes not knowing why they just can’t put their finger on what is off. However, when a pastor gives credit to the voice they are echoing, it makes all the difference, at least to me.
Well… I happen to be one of the guys that does research for pastors.
Actually… my new company will be doing a great deal of research for pastors, authors and resource developers. The way it works… The pastor tells our research lead what an upcoming series will be on… we will do research and provide a list of sources with links in the follow categories…
1) Scriptural Sources and Perspective
2.) Theological Sources and Perspective
3.) Cultural Perspective and Evidence
4.) An Outsiders Perspective, to aid the pastor in framing the language so they can understand… not to add their view.
5.) An Insiders Perspective, to aid the pastor in being sure he is addressing questions and needs his congregation might have.
After spending 20+ years in full time “occupational” ministry, most of it on a secular university campus, on thing I know is that many of the sermons being preached today simply do not connect with the hearers. I believe this is one of the main reasons the church has lost its influence on culture. If we look at the model of Jesus… he was one of the most “culturally engaging” leaders ever. The problem we have is that many of our leaders today are trying to make what He did to engage His culture 2000+ yrs ago the “sacred” way to do it. And the truth is… if He were here today… he would likely look so much different and talk some much different than any of our pastors and leaders. Ohhh wait… He is here today… We are the Body of Christ, serving as his Re-Presenters - Representatives or as 2 Cor 5 puts it… Ambassadors. Ambassador is a skilled, messenger that engages the culture of the place they are sent so they can communicate effectively.
The pastors I work with… continue to put 15-20 hours into their messages and using our research feel that their content, delivery and presentation has increased. Also… it is amazing opportunity to train and mentor young future leaders, pastors and communicators.
If the church would spend less time picking and poking each other and more time touching and loving the outsiders… we would see so much more accomplished.
Blessings.
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