Reusing the sermon?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CyrilSebastian
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CyrilSebastian

Guest
A minister of a Protestant church writes and uses his Sunday sermon. Can he reuse the same sermon so many years later?
 
This happens more often than you think. Most traditional, liturgical churches use the common three-year lectionary. So chances are you’ve heard the same sermon before, just updated with current events.
 
There are also clergy who, ahem, buy their sermons online. It isn’t quite ethical, to say the least, but I think it is happening more and more. In my mind, it’s similar to using services that write term papers for students. Students use the services and try to get away with it. Everything is online these days, isn’t it?

I know that one Episcopal priest was asked to leave his congregation after it was discovered he used a service regularly.

But writing the sermons and using them again? I think it’s quite common. And not a big deal at all.

sermoncentral.com/sermons/sermons-about-buy.asp?Keyword=Buy
 
I have seen this done a few times. Typically it is done at a funeral where the priest did not know the decedent so he reuses the same sermon and just inserts different names.

It is very hard to keep coming up with new material.
 
Our priest preaches the same sermon on Saturday
evening mass AND Sunday masses.🙂
 
Oh I remember once a certain preacher preached a Christmas sermon called ‘The Candy Cane’. In those days I would jot the general outline down in the margins of my Bible.
Two years later we visited that SAME preacher at another church at Christmas time. Guess what sermon he preached? 😃
I thoughtlessly showed him my old outline on the way out.
He looked rather annoyed.
I was such a jerk in those days. 😃
 
Maybe not nowadays, but in the Church of England there was a time when a priest could expect to be criticized for writing his own sermons. Some people in his congregation would see that as a sign of vanity, that he was puffed up with pride and thought way too much of his own abilities. The correct, uncontroversial procedure would be to display due modesty by going to a book of sermons by a reputable preacher, preferably a bishop, and choose an appropriate one in accordance with the Church calendar or the day’s Bible readings.
 
BartholomewB said:
Maybe not nowadays, but in the Church of England there was a time when a priest could expect to be criticized for writing his own sermons. Some people in his congregation would see that as a sign of vanity, that he was puffed up with pride and thought way too much of his own abilities. The correct, uncontroversial procedure would be to display due modesty by going to a book of sermons by a reputable preacher, preferably a bishop, and choose an appropriate one in accordance with the Church calendar or the day’s Bible readings.
Click to expand...
As well, during the beginning of the Reformation a “Book of Homilies”, actually 2 were created. 33 sermons which spoke to Reformed Theology which were to be read by the Anglican Priest who may or may not be fully educated. If you Google them, some are an interesting read. Reflecting the time though, quite anti-(Roman) Catholic.

In my opinion, re-using or even purchasing a sermon is no big deal. When a Priest has several hundred families to provide pastoral care for, parish business to conduct and daily masses to say, time to write a sermon can be in short supply. Most people don’t realize it easily can take an hour of prep time for each minute you wind up hearing. With all his other responsibilities, finding 15-20 hours in a week isn’t so easy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top