Our church’s lead pastor recently asked me midweek to preach the next Sunday service. I was happy to help, but as I dug into the Scriptures for that week, I felt lost. How could I adequately address these important passages with so little preparation time?

I turned to several popular expository resources, hoping to find a ready-made outline. After all, these writers were theologians and respected voices in the Church. Perhaps I could borrow their anointing this once. But a check in my conscience kept me from it. I knew I needed to slow down, do the work, and trust the Spirit with the results.

We live in an age of unprecedented access to information. With a few clicks, preachers can find online commentaries, sermon illustrations, graphics, and even complete sermons. The challenge is knowing what belongs to whom — and how to use it ethically.

When ministries post content online in an open source, the line between our message and theirs can grow even fuzzier. The temptation to take it and run with it is real. The pandemic further drained the already limited pools of time and energy from which preachers draw. This can lead to sloppy preparation — or even a slide into plagiarism.

However, freely using someone else’s work without attribution comes at a cost. Rather than improving the sermon, it taints both the message and the messenger.

The philosopher Aristotle identified three elements of persuasion: pathos (appeals to emotion), logos (appeals to logic), and ethos. The third element refers to the credibility of a communicator. Ethos considers the speaker’s reputation, trustworthiness, and position, as well as the believability of the content.

This ancient principle resonates even today. During a sermon, listeners consider the message and either accept or reject it. The Holy Spirit is the One who draws people to Christ, but the preacher has a responsibility to serve as a faithful gospel witness. Our desire is for the congregation to respond to God with repentance, worship and obedience. We certainly don’t want to create barriers that might get in the way of that process.

People are wary of manipulation. They don’t want to hear a slick sales pitch in church. They want a message that comes from the lived experience, spiritual insight, and extensive Bible study of someone who walks daily with God.

We put our credibility on the line if our message does not come from these places. When we lose credibility, people will be hesitant to believe what we say. They may even interpret our words as manipulation rather than persuasion. Lost ethos is hard to regain.

Borrowing heavily from another person without giving proper credit can damage credibility. Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone’s words or ideas and passing them off as our own. It happens too often in churches.

I recently had a conversation about this with a group of pastors. One of the leaders said, “We are not academics. Who cares if I use someone else’s ideas? It is not like anyone is going to be checking my work!”

Freely using someone else’s work without attribution comes at
a cost. Rather than improving the sermon, it taints both the message and the messenger.

My reply was this: “Two of the Ten Commandments address theft and deception. Plagiarism amounts to stealing and then lying about it.”

Even when an author makes his or her material available for use, it is disingenuous to represent that person’s sermon as our own. What does it say about our ethics and credibility if we brush off honesty as though it doesn’t matter?

There are simple solutions to the ethical challenges of building ethos and avoiding plagiarism. Here are four best practices to keep in mind:

First, budget enough time for prayerful study and sermon development. The necessary preparation time will vary from one person to the next. It often changes as a preacher becomes more comfortable with the research and preparation process. However long it takes, don’t begrudge sermon preparation. Instead, embrace it as a sacred opportunity to meet with the Lord and hear from Him.

Second, read well across a broad range of topics. Keep a running list of quotations, stories and illustrations with citations. Also consider how conversations, meetings and other elements of your schedule may provide insight into the message God is stirring in your heart.

Third, avoid taking an entire message from outside sources. Listen to other preachers. Learn from books and commentaries. But don’t overlook the importance of asking the Lord what your congregation needs to hear.

It can be tempting simply to copy the sermon of a well-known preacher with a successful ministry. But repeating someone else’s message or making wholesale use of another ministry’s resources will not make you just like them. In fact, this practice frequently produces the opposite result. It can create laziness, risk comparison from listeners who realize they have heard or seen this message before, and diminish your believability.

Fourth, cite your sources. It really is that simple. If you come across a brilliant commentary that provided the framework for your sermon, say so. If you use a slide from a prepared series, tell your congregation. I am not suggesting you should produce a complete bibliography. However, if you quote something or build upon a unique idea from someone’s book, acknowledge the source and name the author.

Sermon preparation and delivery requires a lot of us. There is nothing wrong with responsibly using the tools that are available. With so many resources for preachers today, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every week. Our congregations can benefit from information we glean from a variety of sources. However, it is vital for us to do work that is worthy of our calling. That includes being open and honest about where we find our ideas and what goes into our sermons.

Doing so does not compromise our credibility. On the contrary, it reveals an attitude of humility and transparency. It also serves as an invitation for people to join us in the work of learning from the entire body of Christ.

Paul told Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

There will be times when adequate preparation time is just not available, envy gets the best of us, or we feel insecure about who we are as preachers. However, we cannot allow those things to become the norm. We must take the time to prepare, trusting our calling and the One who called us, and acknowledging those who help us with the task of preaching. This creates an environment for greater acceptance of the message and brings honor to God.

This article appears in the Fall 2021 edition of Influence magazine.