The Rise of Christianity as "Content Creation"

Okay, I know that this is a little bit of inside baseball - it discusses preaching, plagiarism, and preaching philosophy. It is awkward sometimes to attribute in a sermon, but I have found there are simple and unobtrusive ways to tell the congregation that the idea you are about to give wasn't original to you. I often say, "as I was reading this week" or "as one writer says". Sometimes I give a name of the person I am quoting if I think it is helpful. Sometimes I don't because the person was right on that subject, but off in other areas and I don't want to fully commend them to you. This is probably more than you want to know about the sermon prep and delivery process.

BUT, I want you to read this article on pastoral plagiarism because it cuts to the heart of a church's philosophy on the gathering of the saints each week. Here are the money lines at the end:

"Further, the preacher who plagiarizes his sermons and otherwise treats his preaching and teaching as marketable products reflects a superficial understanding of the spiritual work of ministry, which is not a franchising of the faith but a contextual rootedness of a church nourished by the spiritual rootedness of her pastors.

The reframing of church resources as culturally relevant content creation is just another sign of evangelical superficiality, and it has made distressing inroads among a fractured gospel-centered movement whose individual organizations and networks are all vying for superior market share."