Whose message are you preaching?

Today I was reading one of Joel Byer's blogs (how many do you have already? :-) and he posted about Pastoral Plagiarism where he provided a link to an article dealing with this issue and how Steve Sjogren, a pastor of a Vineyard church in Cincinnati, wrote on pastors.com about how that he never prepares a sermon, he just repreaches someone else's. Here is a link to that article on pastors.com.

My thoughts on this issue is that I am appalled at the idea of just repreaching someone else's messages week after week. Yes, this would make sermon preparation much easier...however, I do believe that not only is that a lazy approach, but what about God's leading?

Now, I do use other people's material. In fact, I post some of my sermons for others to use. I use other's outlines, illustrations, and on rare occasions I have used large portions of someone else's sermon. Now, I don't believe that there is anything wrong with doing this, preachers have been doing this forever. However, I never want to be guilty of being lazy and just using someone else's material because I'm too lazy to prepare. I constantly badger myself if I feel like I'm getting in the habit of using other's material rather than my own.

This article on pastors.com is there I suppose to reassure those who are paying $60 a month for their subscription to the service. Besides, everyone needs to repreach the messages of the new pope of Christianity - Rick Warren. (I say this with tongue in cheek - I must admit that my opinion of RW is not all that high.)

Now, I realize how difficult it is to always be original when you preach 2-3 messages every week - I make no claim to do so. I suppose if I was like some preachers it would not be too difficult if I just preached with 3 lines on a notecard (I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this method). Unfortunately, I have to use full manuscript.

I had one preacher preach on a Sunday night. Our services began at 6 and when he was still in bed at 5:30 I began to get worried. He finally woke up and came in the kitchen and began flipping through his Bible saying "I guess I better find something to preach tonight. I went over to the church and began praying...to top it all off, he came over to the church and told me that he could stay all week if revival broke out. I knew we were in trouble, so I got him up to preach at about 20 after 6. It was close to 9 that evening before we got out of church. He had preached from Genesis to Revelation and back again (a couple of times!) Needless to say, revival did not break out that night!!

So, do I think it's wrong to use someone else's material? No. However, if that's all I would ever do, I think there would be a problem. It also bothers me when I go on sermoncentral and find two identical messages by two different preachers - give credit where credit is due!

So, what's your opinion?