I am dreading the day when, in the middle of some anecdote, a visitor jumps up and yells, “Hey, I heard that sermon last year. My pastor preached it! “
I just know that a lynch mob will be formed immediately; my elders and deacons will hold the rope, while one of our older ladies knits away, mumbling “guillotine” under her breath.
The fact is, everything I preach is stolen. Some of it from other thieves. It occurs to me that I may not have had an original thought in years. Of course, that thought is not original either.
Book after book, article after article, I read these incredibly brilliant ideas and find them a few weeks later creeping into my messages. At first, I didn’t really notice. I actually thought that I might be responsible for a few of the better thoughts expressed from the pulpit. Yet just as soon as I re-read a book I had not touched for years, I would come across that same, brilliant, original insight. Not mine.
In the beginning, I tried to hide it. I would read the latest book and quickly preach the best ideas it contained before any of my elders or deacons had a chance to read it. That wasn’t good enough. I found myself subscribing to all the latest journals. I hid them in my desk. I locked them in my study and came in late at night and early in the morning when no one else was around, just to read them.
But occasionally, one of my leaders would come to me praising an article he had just read, and I would lose three weeks of messages.
Eventually I became desperate. I would comb the libraries, looking for the great preachers of the past. Surely no one would recognize the words of Spurgeon if I nipped here and tucked there and added an anecdote from Edwards.
Finally, the fugitive lifestyle became too much. Exhausted, at the end of my resources, I confessed all to my congregation. It was, I was certain, the end of my ministry. My credibility would never be the same. Even my wife and children would disown me.
To my amazement, they forgave me.
Now, I am enrolled in “Preacher’s Anonymous,” doing the twelve steps and using only the Bible. At least, I was. Has anyone noticed those great sermons on the Internet?
Robin Toupin is pastor of Port McNeill Full Gospel Church P. O. Box 377, Port NcNeill B.C., Canada V0N2R0
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