Pastor's Pastor

Pastor's Pastor: Non-investigative judgments

Pastor's Pastor: Non-investigative judgments

Full force vitriol came from the writer's suppositions that I had stolen a sermon outline from him which he had cited from another minister at a seminar he believed I had attended.

James A. Cress is the Ministerial Secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

One of those letters arrived last week. Full force vitriol came from the writer's suppositions that I had stolen a sermon outline from him which he had cited from another minister at a seminar he believed I had attended.

Had I actually stolen or not credited the original author, I might deserve the salvo. Evaluation is a fact of life and every preacher anticipates that the audience will evaluate what they preach. At this moment, you are evaluating the worth of your time to finish this article.

However, the facts may differ from our assumed conclusions. Since I reject plagiarism as well as often borrow from others (hopefully with appropriate source credit), I do not opine on the sin of thievery through uncredited source stealing. Rather, 1 write of rash assumptions about other's behavior.

About 15 years ago I purchased a series of sermon outlines on faith (the referenced outline among them) from Pastor Rick Warren, who had advertised them for sale as pastoral preaching resources. Note! I paid my own money to purchase what the author advertised. Since then I've ordered and advocated other of his materials and seminars.

Regarding the assumed purloined sermon, I bought it and I used it. No, I didn't preach it verbatim. I adapted the outline, contextualized it for my setting, and utilized it consistent with the reason for which I had purchased it. Perhaps my correspondent "borrowed," without paying royalty, the material he believed I had stolen from him. I had not heard his seminar, nor obtained the material I used from him. I presume he obtained it honorably because he wrote that he had acknowledged Warren's authorship and I believe him. I wish he had "heard" my favorable acknowledgment and promotion of Warren's current Purpose Driven titles. He sells excellent church growth resources.

But back to my sermon which I had been requested to present, with less than a week's notice, in order to pinch hit for our injured pastor who was still recuperating from a serious accident. I was also requested to adapt whatever I would preach to acknowledge America's Memorial Day. While neither short notice or need to acknowledge public holidays is a valid excuse for plagiarism had I actually stolen the materials, it was my reason for adapting an excellent outline for which the author had received royalty plus public acknowledgment.

I abhor plagiarism. I apologized in a recent article for not remembering the source of an idea I had jotted down years ago. If I can discover the author, I will acknowledge my benefactor. We each develop and utilize the ideas of others that we stir our thinking. If you advertise to sell architectural blueprints and I purchase them to construct a new house, who is the craftsman? All claims of total originality rarely persuade.

Many great preachers sell their sermons to assist other churches and to make money. Many of them hire full-time researchers to create the messages they preach and the products they sell.It is neither my intent nor practice to use the material of others without credit. And in this case, with cash to the author.

However, my guilt was judged with out seeking my input. The letter might have be accompanied by some research, if not on the facts, at least for the writer's own soul on topics of evil surmising, gos sip, prejudging without asking (we could easily have spoken at the church door), plus the futility for body building of jumping to conclusions.

Finally, the missive suggested the ultimate ethical test. Would I have been embarrassed had the original author been present to hear? Indeed, I would have been comfortable if Rick Warren had heard. I think he may have "borrowed back" some of the adaptations I made to his outline. I hope his organization benefited from my purchase or at least that he took his wife to lunch on the royalties. Later this year I expect to see Rick and discuss this with him, even though I already anticipate his response.

Likewise, I hope my correspondent will re-evaluate his complaints concerning a colleague's integrity. Outstanding talents for ministry, teaching, leadership, and organization would serve God's cause even better if they were tempered with consideration for people. Rather than assuming the worst of a person or situation, the writer could have chosen to assume the best. It really is a choice.

By the way, I expressed my gratitude to my correspondent because he gave me an excellent idea for this article on judging others. So I close this article with credit to him plus the same quote I shared in response: "Remember that you cannot read hearts. You do not know the motives which prompted the actions that to you look wrong."1

1 Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press® Pub. Assn., 1905), 494.


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James A. Cress is the Ministerial Secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

September 2004

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