More than 1,500 pastors across the country and around the globe have pledged not to short circuit their sermons with someone else's.
In a new campaign aimed at putting the centrality of the Bible back into a preacher's message, "The Preacher's Pledge," introduced by SermonCentral.com, has been signed by pastors from over 50 nations so far.
"We introduced The Pledge because we think preachers must engage the Bible in their sermon preparation and not simply short circuit the process with someone else's study," says Ron Forseth, general editor for SermonCentral.com. "Our site is a valuable supplement but not the primary source for a sermon. God's Word is."
SermonCentral.com provides visitors access to over 120,000 sermons and illustrations and claims to be the most highly trafficked sermon website in the world.
At a time when more pastors are uploading sermons online as a free resource for both church leaders and lay people who missed a service or want to listen to it again, some are concerned that pastors are putting little study into their weekly messages or even plagiarizing others' work.
"We want to strengthen the quality of preaching in pulpits around the world," said Scott Evans, president of Outreach, Inc., which owns SermonCentral.com. "The Preacher's Pledge is helping do that. That's why, with every sermon on our site, we encourage pastors to affirm The Pledge."
Preachers who take the pledge make a commitment to the following:
• I will make the Bible my primary resource in sermon preparation and preaching.
• I may use other resources such as commentaries and web sites to enhance, not replace, my personal interaction with Scripture.
• As I study I will strive to accurately understand and honestly apply God's Word, allowing Him to uniquely proclaim His truth in a relevant way through me.
Individual names of those who have already pledged are listed on the website (www.sermoncentral.com/pledge) along with their organization and location. According to a statement, many names are added every day.
"This is what The Preacher’s Pledge is about," reads the website. "It’s a commitment you can make before God, yourself, and your congregation to keep the Word of God preeminent in your preaching."
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Oh, I agree with you jc4me. I understand how easy it is to be enticed to compromise your morals when the money starts rolling in. That's why I don't want to be wealthy like that. Where God has put me financially fits me like a glove. We have a decent house, nothing showy, a couple decent cars, and food on our table. After payng tithes and offerings, mortgage and car payments, and miscellaneous...whe have enough left over to put some away for retirement, or for when we need it, or for when God needs it. I have chosen to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness...and He will take care of the rest. And if He were to ask me to give it all up, I would in a heartbeat.
What's that saying? "Everything in moderation." Just because you make $1million a year, doesnt mean you have to dress like you do. Humility, servitude, love.
Continued -
In addition, with all due respect, if they're that sold out to Christ, then why don't they have independent auditting firms verifying where the money is going? What are they scarred of? Why don't they have a board to set a decent salary that doesn't give the appearance of austentasciousness, and lastly, why don't they teach the Word expositorily? I don't see a godly man such as Billy Graham that has a ministry that probably takes in multi millions of dollars a year driving a Rolls and taking lavish vacations and buying expensive homes and jewlery; i believe it is because he is a man of God with integrity, as well as one who takes the Truth of God very seriously; he is one to uphold the Word of Truth with no compromises. He would never want to be a stumbling block to those who are weak in the faith. Another example of a true man of God is Pastor Chuck Smith SR. founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement and the Word for Today Radio Program. i don't see him driving in a Rolls Royce or a Lincoln Towncar Limousine and I'm sure with all the ministry and teaching that goes on, there are multi millions going into Calvary Costa Mesa, but he lives a humble Christ-Like life, and so do many of the Calvary Chapel Pastors. They try to live lives of integrity and transparency; I don't believe they are in the ministry to profit from it financially.
For the prosperity teachers on the other hand, the reason they don't show their figures and show where the dollars are going is clear, and it's because they don't want to be held accountable, and they feel God has given them that money, and they don't need to answer to anyone. This only shows their peddling of God's Word and their pride holding on to the wealth. As an example, of these "seed faith" preachers look at Robert Tilton, and the fraud that occurred. I never see one of these guys preach the True unadulterated Gospel; furthermore, I never see tham teach without them wanting some sort of gain from it. They're always asking for money, and I've got really strong issues with that.
The Apostle Paul said he had learned to be content in every situation. When these men and women teach from a pulpit that you can "speak" things into existence, they are totally distorting the Word of God. Then one may beg to ask, what about the Christians in third world countries? Are they not blessed by God because they don't have material wealth?
I must encourage you as a fellow worker for the Lord that we must seriously think about these issues, and we must stick to sound doctrine, and teaching the whole counsel of God in context.
Prophet, i respect your humble sincerity, and i highly respect you as an individual on this site. You have stated many things on past threads where I was in almost total or total agreement biblically with you. I think I know where your coming from. I agree wholeheartedly to let God be the one to administer His provision upon His people, and i is up to Him if He wants to bless someone with earthly riches.
However, I do have issue with televangelists who not only preach a feel good covetous message that appeals to our flesh, but they publicly tell people from the pulpit that if they're not experiencing health, wealth, and a good life along with financial prosperity, then there is somekind of sin in their lives, they're not experiencing God's best, or they just don't have faith, as if we as the created beings could somehow strong arm the Creator into doing what we want in our own flesh.
I ask the question: what does this world offer to entice our flesh? Health, wealth and prosperity, and who doesn't want health wealth and prosperity; especially in our culture where sucess and blessings are meassured by our net worth, etc.? Simply stated, even though there are men and women in the Body of Christ who God has chosen to be wealthy, and to support His work, I don't believe that if you're a pastor, you should be lavishing it upon yourself. One thing is for you to be a Christian businessman and make that kind of money, another is to be a prosperity teacher that only takes Scripture out of context to fleece the flock of God.
How many different sermons can you give on salvation, or faith, or love, or anything...before you start using other peoples materials? There has been a number of times that i've been studying for a sermon and be almost complete....and i hear a preacher on the radio preaching almost the exact same thing! does that mean i should just crumple up my sermon and throw away all that studying? after all...someone may say that i've plagarized the othr persons sermon.
Off the topic of prosperity preachers and onto the topic of using others' sermons as their own... I certainly agree that a pastor should get his principal material from the Bible, and as wbmoore commented about a pastor he knows, "when he felt the least prepared but had been in prayer and reading the word is when his sermons were the best." However, as long as a pastor clearly understands the concept of plagiarism and crediting his work, I personally think it is good for small-time pastors to get inspiration and ideas from other pastors. I don’t think we should expect every little pastor to be able to preach really great and inspiring sermons all on their own all the time, and if people want to hear a great sermon, they shouldn’t have to go to a bigger church where the pastor is a more compelling preacher and that’s why he’s got a bigger church. The choice shouldn’t have to be “better sermon, but bigger, less personal church” versus “warm, cozy little church, but not so great preaching”. I think that if we’ve got the technology, we should use it. I think God has permitted the advancements in technology for Christians to use to be more effective in the world, and I think this kind of situation would be included in that…unless we all want to stay frozen in the past like the Amish. They felt that certain technological advances were going to take them away from God, so they just stayed the way they were, though I don't get how slaving away churning their own butter makes them any closer to God. (OK, well, maybe I do: hard, mindless work gives you lots of time to think about Him, and they don’t have much else to think about, but I digress.) I DO think it’s a great idea for pastors to sign an agreement and for the website to put admonitions up concerning plagiarism and presumably “spiritual plagiarism” (which might not be against man’s laws but would be against God’s laws). The job of a pastor is an extremely difficult one, and I think we expect our “little” pastors to be everything when maybe they’re not particularly gifted every way, and they shouldn’t just NOT be in the ministry if they’re not a particularly good preacher. I don’t think that should be the defining quality of a pastor. However, I do like to hear a good sermon, and I don’t care where the pastor gets his inspiration, as long as he credits it properly.
jc4me--
i agree to a certain point. But if God chooses to bless one of His own with millions of dollars, that's His perogative. And what do you consider the "acceptable" level of prosperity? If you ask someone who makes $25G a year, they will say that it's good, but if you make more than $50G than you're greedy. You ask the man making $50G a year what the acceptable level is and they will say anything up to like $80G. Anything more than that is too much.
I understand and agree with your comment on fleecing the flock. It's not a matter of how much a person makes....its what they do with it. I personally know a man that just paid $28million in cash to custom build his house. Is that excessive? You be the judge. He's a Christian business man. He lives on 10% of his income and gives the rest to church, missions (he even does missions work in his free time), and all sorts of other charitable institutions. And because of his faithfulness in giving, he has proven himself trustworthy. And God chose to bless him so much that he can pay that kind of money for a house on only 10% of his income. But my whole belief in properity is summed up in this: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. then all these things will be added unto you." In my life I choose to seek God wholy and completely...and let Him decide how much He wants to bless me. Whether it's making 25G or 250G. He knows how much i can handle.
I will agree that just because one is born again and has money does not make one a false profit, but when televangelist run multimillion dollar machines on TV while fleecing the flock of God with this name it and claim it, and blab it and grab it false gospel; they don't provide financial earnings reports to the public to keep themselves accountable, they give a bad name to the Bride of Christ. The Son of Man (Jesus Christ) our Savior left His heavenly dwelling to show us an example of sacrifice, and dying to self. The Scriptures teach us that He (God in the flesh) didn't even have a place to lay his head. The Apostle Paul, and many of the other Apostles who were dedicated followers of Jesus, and whom brought us the writings of the New Testament did not peddle the Word to gain financially. God will judge the hearts and motives of men who choose to use the pulpit to gain financially. I say, people who preach the Word should teach it expositorily, so that all these false teachings will be rooted out of the Church. If people would read their Bibles line by line and precept upon precept over and over again, and the Bible teachers would be teaching it the same way as a norm, and not as an exception, then the people of God could learn to discern for themselves, and no leaven would come into the Church.
servent,
Why should one Christian label what another Christian preaches from the Bible as heresy? It is the word of God right? The problem is the same people do not believe and obey what the truths that we find in the Bible. It seems that when a lot of people hear that God want to improve their lives physically or financially they immediately dismiss it without actually testing or proving the principles they hear. But as it says in the book of James, it is the doers of the word who are actually blessed.
We should only label those depart from the word of God as heretics; those who say that the Bible is not the word of God, who say that Jesus is not the Son of God, who say that salvation is not by faith through grace; who say there is no eternal judgment; those who say it alright to practice sin, etc… Those Christians who are labeled as false teachers that zendaddy mentioned do not advocate doctrines that depart from the Christian faith. They insist just like you that everything be backup by God’s word. If you disagree with their teaching, that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. But to label such individuals as false teachers goes against Jesus’ command to love each other.
by the way, servant...just like the tribulation question, whether you believe in the trinity or not has no affect on a person's salvation either.
servant--
I appreciate the info. That old saying "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". "Good intentions, if misled, can cause an even greater tragedy than one avoided." zenodaddy does not have a good track record. He accuses TD Jakes of not believing in the trinity, even though Jakes has said with his own mouth that he does. I feel that zeno's info is more hearsay then actual facts. Be careful of how you judge. I've listened to all these preachers speak, and I find nothing errant in what they've spoken.
prophet, graceman,
maybe zeno's tone was a little harsh for you. maybe it was, but I believe his intentions were right on. if you are in a postion of leadership and you are letting your folks listen to heresy and not tell them so, you will answer before the Great White thrown judgement.
zeno,
btw, I believe we won't have to endure the trib. But that is neither here nor there in terms of salvation. There is only one way and that is in Christ Jesus, the Son of God and God the Son, part of the Triune Godhead.
amen, Graceman, amen! "...for the greates of these is love."
Zenodaddy, why do you skip over all the instructions about not speaking evil about your brothers? Why do you ignore the Lord’s command to love one another? You are free to preach the truth that you believe but you are not free neglect the commandment to love. Without love we are nothing: “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3 NASB.
No, zeno...we don't need to quote scripture out of context...you're doing well enough on your own. I get the feeling that you don't believe in miracles, healings, and the raising of the dead.
Jesus created the heavens and the earth, He created all living creatures including man, He breathed life into Adam and Eve, he walked with Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego in the fire, he's the one that spoke to Abram about having a son, he wrestled with Jacob. I believe in the eternal trinity. The end days are coming...not because of what's happening in the world, or in the church, but because it is spoken of in His infallible Word. Much has to happen, both in the world and in the church before he returns. but it will, and it will be swift. whether i am raptured out before the tribulation, during, or after...my spirit is ready to endure whatever God requires of me. I believe that, by his grace and spirit, that i will stand before him someday and hear the words "well done good and faithful servant."
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
2 Tim 4:1-5 (NASB)
'Do they say the Jesus is not the son of God?'
Do they say that He is God? Do they claim that Jesus did not finish the work of Redemption on the Cross? These people teach that Jesus did not finish the work on the Cross... they claim that Jesus was tortured for 3 days by Satan and his Demons... do you people believe everything you hear?
'"And then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ'; or, 'Behold, He is there'; do not believe him; 22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
Mark 13:21-22 (NASB)'
Sound familiar? Take Benny Hinn and his many false healings, prophesies and personal encounters with Christ.
All of these people have 'miraculous' meetings with Christ... shoot, Benny Hinn claims to be able to raise the dead...
I am not surprised that many of God's people are gullible... these are the same people who believe that they will be raptured before all the bad things happen because not of what they know... but what they are told.
How many of you know that Jesus is God? How many of you know that Jesus existed before His human birth? How many of you know that Jesus is the One who spoke to Moses in the burning bush and who commanded Joshua to take Jericho?
When will God's people learn to study His Word instead of regurgitate what they are told on Sundays... the end is coming... not because of what is going on in the world... but what is not going on in the church.
Yes, quote your verses out of context... humor me.
Please zenodaddy, we Christians need to obey God’s word concerning how we speak about each other:
-Do not speak against or judge: James 4:11, 12, Matthew 7:1-5, Luke 6:37, Romans 2:1, Romans 14:4-13
-Do not complain or grumble: James 5:9
-Let no corrupt or unwholesome speech come out of your mouth: Ephesians 4:29
-Not to slander anyone: Titus 3:2, Colossians 3:8
-To avoid arguments, strife and envy: 2 Timothy 2:23-25, Galatians 5:19-21, James 3:14-16
You say these people are heretics. Do they say the Bible is not the word of God? Do they say the Jesus is not the son of God? Do they say the salvation is not by faith through grace? Do they teach that Christ did not rise from the dead? Do they deny Christ’s second coming? The answer to all these is ‘no’. Even T. J. Dakes affirms his belief in the trinity; see this link: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/februaryweb-only/13.0b.html
Just because you may have disagreements with what these individuals teach does not make them heretics. It does not even make them non-Christians. Rather, each one of them has a testimony of how they received Christ. And because they are brothers and sisters in Christ you and I have an obligation to love them. Remember Jesus gave us his command in John 13:34, 35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (NASB). Jesus is our Lord. He is the boss. He did not say judge one another. He did not even say that we all must all have exactly the same beliefs. He said we must love each other with the same unconditional love that he has for us. It is not our ability to criticize and condemn that will set us apart from other faiths. Rather we will be noticed by demonstrating Christ love toward each other.
zenodaddy--
just because someone preaches that God wants to bless us, doesn't make him a false prophet. God places each person in the body wheresoever He will. I'm sure you would consider me a false prophet because I preach hardcore holiness! I preach accountability, real love, purity, sinlessness, overcoming, no compormise AT ANY COST! Maybe would should all just go mainstream and water down our sermons. As for these other preachers....maybe God has them there for those who are not as mature as some of us. I know in my walk with God, I've gone through different "phases" that took me a step closer each time. There was a time when if i heard someone preaching the way I preach now, I would have been completely turned off. But that's just where I was at that time. We can't all be "college students" in the school of God....some are still in elementary school. But we should pray that God would move on those people and give them a desire for a deeper, closer walk with Him.
Kenneth Copeland? You serious? He's been preaching since before the internet was available! So I know he doesn't plagarize. Give me a break. I've written a number of sermons. Some were even inspired by sermons I've hear elsewhere. Usually, I would take that inspiration and begin building my sermons on that. Sure, I've used other preachers' ideas and quotes in in my sermons. But 95% of it was given by the Holy Spirit. But you know what really irks me? I just discovered this. I was looking in the front of my wifes NIV Bible. It had a warning in the front pages that stated that if I was going to use any of the scriptures from "their" version in any writing i was doing, that i would have to get permission from them if it was over a certain amount! Can you believe that?! Now people have the Word of God copyrighted! That's just sick! I don't care if it is "their version" it's still the Word of God!
'Sorry zenodaddy, but all the people you named do preach from the Bible. I know because I listen to them and they bless my life.'
Financially? I am only asking because these people use less scripture then the pagans do. When was the last time you learned something new about God through these people? When was the last time they showed biblically and scripturally that Jesus is Yahweh in the Old Testament or the Angel of the Lord in the OT?
I admit that sometimes Joyce does have some good stuff... but it does not make up for the 99% of the rest that hold barely any scripture at all except for their uneducated opinions on the text. Each of these people have been flagged as heretics by many theologians and scholars.
Benny Hinn for example... is a false prophet. TD Jakes rejects the Trinity and the rest teach and preach from the prosperity gospel (false gospel).
These people are not of God.... they are their own gods.
It is not enough to preach the bible. Many heretics have used the bible to prooftext their heresies. What is more important is that they interpret it correctly.
Sorry zenodaddy, but all the people you named do preach from the Bible. I know because I listen to them and they bless my life.
I agree that preachers should use the Bile as their priomary source. But I've known a couple of pastors who used other's material. There are plenty of places that provide such material. In one case, I really dont know why he used someone else's material. For the other, I know it was he claimed he was more effective using other people's material - but I also know he lacked self-confidence and time and was burned out. None of which in my mind justify the use of other people's work in his sermons. the fact is, when he felt the least prepared but had been in prayer and reading the word is when his sermons were the best.
This pledge is something a Pastor should the day they are ordained. A Pastor should be in a relationship and communication with God through Christ, and should be living a Holy life. I'm not saying they will be perfect, but this issue of downloading sermons and just repeating them in front of a congregation is silly. People who do this see being a "Pastor" as an occupation, not a position before God.
Not surprisingly, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyers, Joel Osteen, Ken Copeland, T.D. Jakes and the rest have not signed the pledge and I suspect that none of them will either... since none of these could write a biblical sermon if their lives depended on it.