Video Venue Preaching: Projection or Presence

Video venues are flying off the ecclesial griddle like hot cakes. Everyone seems to be doing it- High Church, Low Church, and Middle Church, only Tolkien knows where that is. Some are seeing splendid success, if success is primarily determined by attendance at the venue church. Growing churches are getting behind this trend so they can grow more. Churches that have plateaued or declined in growth are trying it out too. Who knows if the trend is here to stay or merely a flash in the pan?

Regardless of the staying power of the trend, no one should jump on too quickly. Pastors and churches must pause to explore not only the possible short-term but potential long-term consequences of the video venue.

Let’s admit, before reflecting on specific pros and cons, that video venue preaching is not fundamentally good simply because of the apparent fruit it produces. Nor is this preaching practice inherently evil. Churches that start video venue campuses do it to reach the unchurched. They are motivated by outreach to people far from God who have yet to identify with a church family.

I was privileged to pastor a congregation that tripled in size in seven years, primarily due to conversion growth. I’m painfully aware that creative risk-taking and “outside the box” thinking is necessary to reach the unchurched. This current reality has been the perpetual reality for the Church since the days of St. Paul. Pastors are constantly scratching their heads, trying to figure out better ways to bring Christ’s love to people disconnected from that love. And we should. Needless to say, churches that launch video venues should not be demonized. They are simply trying to reach people through their “cream of the crop” communicators.

Caution, however, is vital. Before jumping onto the video venue bandwagon, it’s crucial to think prayerfully and critically about the theological and practical implications of a launching a venue where the preacher is projected but not present. What might be fruitful in the short term can shoot the church in the foot long term.

Here are some of the major pros and cons of video venue preaching. The question that must be asked, and answered, is do the pros of projecting a preacher on a screen outweigh the cons?

Pros of Projection

-The most effective preacher gets projected. Let’s face it, there are relatively few preachers who hit the sermonic ball out of the park on a regular basis. And, there are many who are mediocre at best. They hit mostly singles and, on occasion, even strike out. Why shouldn’t the church put her best foot forward in order to impact more lives through preaching? So much is at stake. Seekers who visit churches do not typically return a second time to hear irrelevant sermons from sub-par communicators who seem disconnected from real life. A projected, but absent, preacher who is effective seems better than an ineffective, though fully present, preacher.  

-Video venue preaching is efficient. It doesn’t take too much time or money to launch a video venue. The main expense is renting a facility with seating capacity and projection capability. While most video venues have a campus pastor or host who is present, you don’t need to find and employ another high quality and expensive communicator. You already have that person. He or she can simply be projected. No extra blood, sweat, and tears, no wasted time, money and energy.  If you can rent a facility with projection and recruit a campus host, you can launch a video venue almost overnight. Vuala! If you’re looking for efficiency, to “get the most bang for your buck,” the video venue is for you.

-Current culture is enamored with the screen. Many North Americans spend countless hours each week looking at a computer screen, TV screen, phone screen, and the big screen. People are used to viewing images on a screen. A case could be made that people are sick and tired of looking at screens, but we are still culturally conditioned to do so. Apparently, many nominally churched and unchurched people feel as though a projected preacher is safer than a present preacher. They’re probably right.     

Cons of Projection

-A projected preacher proclaiming a God who became present in the flesh feels like a contradiction. The incarnation of God through Christ is the central event of Christianity. God came onto our turf as one of us to save us because he loves us. He came to 1^st century Jews as a 1^st century Jew. He was physically neck deep in the culture he was trying to reach. Jesus’ preaching was profound precisely because he put himself in the sandals of the people to whom he preached. He walked where they walked. He breathed the same air they breathed. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14a). God didn’t show up as a virtual projection but as real presence. I suppose God could have sent a holographic image of himself, if he wanted. He did send the law and the prophets. But, in the fullness of time, God came on our turf. God evidenced the depth of his love by dwelling among us. How can a Christian preacher do anything less?  Incarnational ministry, at its core, necessitates the real presence of the preacher among the people to whom she/he will preach.

-A projected preacher cannot preach an authentically contextual sermon. Every congregational context is different. A one size sermon does not fit all. It is impossible to develop a single sermon that will profoundly penetrate the hearts of people in both the mother church and the multi-site venue, especially if those contexts are radically different. If those contexts are not distinguishable, why start a video-venue in the first place? Let’s assume the multiple campuses are distinct. The live “in the flesh” sermon I design and preach for a Caucasian congregation in an affluent suburb of Dallas will not likely connect via video with an African American church in an impoverished urban area. Even if the video quality is stellar and the campus pastor superb. Plus, the projected preacher on video cannot adjust “on the fly” to congregational cues that surface during the preaching event. The best communicators, the ones who tend to get projected, are the best because they develop content that contextually connects and their delivery allows them to adjust based on congregational cues. These very skills that make the best communicators so effective are relegated to the side-lines in video-venue preaching. Is insightful and contextual pastoral preaching really possible from a distance? I, for one, have my doubts.

-Projecting one preacher prevents others preachers from being developed. If we want to utilize our best preacher, then I suppose the video venue is the way to go. But if we are focused on developing the next generation of preachers, the video venue should be avoided like the plague. The way to develop more and better preachers is to give them loads of opportunities to preach. If the resident preaching pro is the one preaching almost all of the time across the multiple church sites, the growth of potential preachers on the team will be stifled. Instead of having one person on a screen in three different locations, the multi-site church can have three emerging preachers use and develop their gifts. In the short run, projecting the best communicator seems wise, but it may be disastrous in the long run. When the elite preachers we project are gone, who will replace them? Unfortunately, under-developed preachers will.

You Make the Call

This article does not and, likely cannot, come close to providing an exhaustive list of pros and cons regarding video-venue preaching. My intent is simply to touch on what seem to me the most salient issues at stake for the Church.

Back to my original question, do you think the pros outweigh the cons of video-venue preaching? Or do the cons outweigh the pros? Is this cultural trend driven by pragmatic conventions or by theological convictions? Is video-venue preaching a short-term success with a long-term failure attached to it? 

You can easily sense where I currently stand on the matter. I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, and evidently on my writing. But I am still very much open to loving debate. What is undebatable is the foolishness of simply jumping on the “everybody’s doing it” bandwagon without prayerfully considering the theological and practical dynamics involved. Thankfully, there are more than a few pastors and theologians on both sides of the issue who refuse to abandon critical reflection for quick results.   

I am genuinely interested in the various perspectives on this issue represented in the communion of saints. In fact, as I wrestle with the implications of projection and presence, I need you.  And, without a doubt, the Church needs you too.

Mind Mapping: Picture What You Preach

Imagine if you could actually see your sermon as a complete picture on a single page instead of as a 7-10 page document full of so many words you could never internalize them before or recall them during the preaching event. The way forward is called mind mapping.

Basic mind mapping has been around for centuries and has progressed into some advanced forms. But the primary premise is still the same. Transforming conceptual words into a concrete visual picture, or map, can aid in communication, learning, and recall. Mind mapping is not only a great way to take notes, cram for a test, and simplify complex concepts, it has the potential to significantly enhance our preaching.

PLANTING THE TREE

There are many ways to utilize mind mapping. Some communicators will draw an actual map that employs the journey metaphor. Their map will contain a starting point and a destination, with landmarks, streets, and turns in between. I prefer another metaphor for mapping the sermon. The mind mapped tree works well for me.

Here’s how it works. After you have finished developing your detailed sermon outline or manuscript, draw a tree trunk on a piece of paper. Write the sermon focus or, if you prefer, the big idea or main point in the center of the trunk. Now, draw several branches out from the top of the trunk, moving left to right. These branches represent the flow for a narrative plot-based sermon (setting, problem, climax, resolution, response) or for a linear point-based sermon with various “moves.” On each branch you will write a short phrase that best describes how that branch reveals and/or reinforces the focus of the tree trunk. The phrase should be as imagistic as possible. You will probably not want to have more than 5-7 branches sprouting off of the trunk.

Next, draw no more than 3-4 small twigs off of each branch. On each of these twigs write a word that helps you recall what you will say about that branch. Try to come up with picturesque words for your twigs. Avoid esoteric language. The words of your twigs and branches should be more concrete than conceptual, which is why “image” is written on each twig.

When you develop a mind map, your 10 page 4000 word sermon becomes a 1 page picture consisting of approximately 20-30 words. Writing a sermon manuscript is a good practice, but the mind map allows you to boil down your multi-page document to a one page picture. A mind map not only helps the preacher with recall during delivery but can also foster sermons that are more clear and creative in development. The preacher can quickly see whether or not a branch or twig really fits with the focus of the sermonic tree and prune as necessary. Additionally, with the visual aid of a mind map the preacher can more easily discern if and where another branch or twig is needed to firmly root the sermonic tree in the lives of listeners.

PLACING THE BRANCHES AND TWIGS

Once you have all the branches and twigs drawn up, prayerfully consider the best ordering of the branches for the sermon. Since we are clock-conscious, left to right readers, it makes sense to order the branches from left to right on the tree. When placing the twigs on each branch, you will likely want to order them the same way. Take your time placing the branches and twigs on the tree. They should be placed to facilitate sermon clarity for listeners and sermon recall for the preacher.

PICTURING THE PARTS

If you want to make the mind map even more memorable, there is a way. Look at the words you have mapped on the branches and twigs. Try replacing the imagistic words with actual images you draw. If your artistic ability is limited, cut and paste pictures from the internet or magazines. If your entire sermon is conceived as images that create one primary picture on a single page, you cannot help but remember and preach the sermon with power and precision. 

PRUNING AND PRODUCING

A mind map enables the sermon to become memorable, manageable, and malleable. What I mean by malleable is “adaptable.” If the service is going long because the guy doing announcements or the worship leader got a little too long-winded, you can simply cut one branch or several twigs in your mind or on the one piece of paper you bring to the platform with you. Perhaps you are the guest speaker at a conference and the organizer tells you the worship leader got sick, which means you now have 40 instead of 20 minutes to preach your sermon. Find a prayer closet and simply invite God to reveal a few more branches and twigs that may reinforce the focus of the tree. 

PRACTICING

Mind mapping requires practice before proficiency is achieved. Stick with it for a few months before you decide it may not be for you. In the beginning, you will likely want to mind map from a manuscript. But be prepared to not use everything in the manuscript, since some ideas may seem superfluous to the mind mapped tree. Have fun. Be creative. Enjoy the freedom that can result from mapping your manuscript into a picture. Maybe a picture is worth, not a thousand words, but four thousand! 

EXERCISES

            1. Try mind mapping from the sermon manuscript or outline for your next preaching opportunity. Use the tree metaphor and include no more than a three-word phrase for each branch and one word for every twig.

2. Now, try to further develop the mind map by replacing the words on the tree with images you draw or find on the internet or in magazines.

3. Spend some time prayerfully viewing and internalizing your tree. If the focus of your sermonic tree trunk is clear and compelling, if the branches reinforce the trunk, and if the twigs reinforce the branches, your sermon will powerfully connect with listeners. Prune as needed.

How to Bake a Good Sermon

Preachers need a bulls eye. What target are we trying to hit with the sermon? I offer a response to this question in an article I wrote recently for Christianity Today's Preaching Today. Here it is:  http://www.preachingtoday.com/skills/2015/june/how-to-bake-good-sermon.html

A Pastoral Confession and Apology to the Congregations I’ve Served

I have served small, mid-sized and large churches as a youth, assistant, solo and lead pastor. For the most part, I’ve loved those congregations with all of my heart and soul. They were, to be honest, easy to love. But, I have made numerous mistakes in each ministry role and context. I didn’t realize that most of those mistakes were actually mistakes until many years later, when I had the space for reflection. Here, now, is my untimely confession and apology.

To all the congregations I’ve served:

I’m sorry for using the task of preaching as a tool for revenge. I’m sorry for those times when I saw myself only as a prophet representing a holy God to sinful humanity instead also as a priest representing sinful humanity to a holy God. I’m sorry for those times when I succumbed to preaching what I did not believe or practice. I’m sorry for preaching life-application in place of Kingdom values. I’m sorry for those times when I gave you good advice without giving you God. I’m sorry for my inability to string together words to capture the beauty, mystery and majesty of “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” I’m sorry for those times when I preached to entertain more than I did to transform.  

I’m sorry for underestimating the power of my presence to make real the presence of Christ in your crisis. I’m sorry for those times when I wasn’t fully present with you in your pain, when I looked like I was listening empathetically but was really searching desperately for an escape so I could get to my next task. I’m sorry for offering small talk even when I sensed that meaningful, challenging conversation was what you needed most. I’m sorry for giving you therapy instead of theology.

I’m sorry for leading meetings that deteriorated into small-minded minutia instead of allowing space to dream God-sized dreams together. I’m sorry for allowing charts and graphs to blind me to the presence and power of God in our midst. I’m sorry for those times when I pushed you too hard to become what God never called you to be. I’m sorry for those times when I didn’t push you hard enough to become what God created you to be. I’m sorry for those times when I did not pursue the vision God gave us with passionate purpose. I’m sorry for those times when I was more consumed with what you thought of me than how I could join with God to love you.  I’m sorry for allowing my quest for an ego stroke to trump my desire to glorify God.

I’m sorry for those times when I critiqued you instead of praying for you. I’m sorry for fantasizing about pastoring other churches when I was married in ministry to you. I’m sorry for complaining about you to my pastoral friends when there was so much about you to commend. I’m sorry for any cynicism that diminished my hope in what God could make of you. I’m sorry for those times when I used you as a pawn in my ploy for power and popularity.

For these and all of my pastoral sins, I am sincerely sorry.

Survival Tips for the Guest Speaker

If you’re a pastor, chances are someone at some point will invite you to be a guest speaker at their church or special event.  Guest speaking occasions can provide some of the most significant opportunities for ministry impact. The guest speaking adventure is also laden with some dangerous dynamics. These guest speaker survival tips can help you navigate the challenges.

Explore the Context: There have been a few times when I was invited to preach in a context that I knew absolutely nothing about. Maybe that has happened to you. The person who invited you was in her 20s, so you planned a message for 20 somethings. When you arrived to speak at the event, you discovered that the large majority of people in the preaching context are in their 60s and 70s. None of your pop culture illustrations and quotes are going to connect with this crowd. You might as well chuck the Lady Gaga quote and Avengers movie illustration. If we take the time to explore the context, total disconnects like this one wouldn’t happen.

Nowadays, when I am invited to speak in a new context, I ask the person inviting me to complete a Ministry Request Form. On the form I request the following information: Describe the culture of the group with five adjectives. What is the demographic make-up of the group in terms of ethnicity, generation, socio-economics, education, and spiritual maturity? What is the purpose of the event? How many people will attend the event? What is the appropriate attire for the event? The response to these inquiries provides a sketch of the group and shapes the content and delivery of my message.

When I receive the completed Ministry Request Form I pass it on to members of my prayer team. They not only pray for my speaking events, but help me to discern which invitations to accept.  

Respect the Context: If someone invites you to speak at their event, then they want you to be you. You should show up at the event as your authentic self. After all, they want you to speak. But, without losing the essence of who you are as a person and a preacher, you should respect the context enough to adapt to it. I’ve seen too many speakers shoot themselves in the foot by disrespecting the context. They dress incongruently with the group. They use language that offends the group. Their message goes 20 minutes past the group’s listening capacity. It’s one thing to explore the context, it’s another to respectfully adjust to it. The needs of the listener must trump our personal preferences. We call this empathy and it is effective when genuine.   

When the speaker disrespects the group she has been invited to address, the listeners can’t help but ear-muff the message. They’ll stop listening to what you have to say when they feel disregarded. If the group is going to be impacted by what God gave you to share, they will need to sense that you “get” and respect who they are.

Thank Your Host:  I’m often so eager to jump into my message that I forget to thank my host for cutting me loose in his people. About 5 minutes into my message I realize, as I make eye contact with the host, that I forgot to express thanks for the invitation and hospitality he extended to me. At this point, it’s too late. It wouldn’t be wise for me to say, “I interrupt this message with the following public service announcement- I want to thank your so and so for inviting me here today.”

Remember that while it’s important to thank the host, don’t overdo it, especially if you’re on a tight time budget. Make your comments brief and to the point. But please try to offer something a bit more creative and personal than the typical “thanks so much for having me.” Come on. You can do better than that.

Exalt Jesus: Although we must respect the context, we are called to proclaim Christ not entertain people. Our speaking should exalt Christ in a winsome manner. But, at the end of the sermon’s day, listeners should come away more impressed with Christ than with the speaker. If the host asks you not to mention the name of Jesus in your message, say at an inter-faith event, and you just can’t comply, be up front with your host. But, if your host doesn’t make such a request, proclaim Christ with love, respect and absolute gusto!

I was invited to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives Session at the Capitol Building in Harrisburg to offer an opening prayer. I’m a Christian minister, so the content of my prayer was Christ-focused. No one asked me not to pray in the name of Jesus and I didn’t ask permission. I assumed that’s what they expected since I’m a Christian minister. I didn’t use my prayer to beat up on other religions. I didn’t pray, “and, God, we know that all Muslims and Hindus are going to hell” or anything like that. That would betray my rule about respecting the context. But, make no mistake, Jesus was the central point of my prayer. I thanked the Father for sending Christ the Son to be the ultimate public servant. One of the people who worked at the State Capitol Building said to me, “it was so good to hear a prayer from a Christian minister that mentioned Jesus.” I know, novel, right?  

Discussion

Now it’s your turn to share some wisdom with our readers. What tips for the guest speaker would you add to my list? Which of my tips do you want to challenge or confirm?

Miraculous Healing with Redemptive Scars

Setting:

I grew up in an Italian family in Philadelphia, PA. We were nominally Catholic. Some would call us “Chreasters” because we went to church only on Christmas and Easter. My family was a hard working, blue collar family in a city full of vice. We didn’t have much, but my sister, mom, dad and I had each other.

Strife:

When I was 12 everything changed. My older sister, Tammy, found a needle in the bathroom. We brought it to my dad and mom. And then the bomb dropped. My dad confessed that the needle belonged to him. He used it to shoot up drugs. He confessed that he had battled a heroin addiction since he was 17. The rug of my security was pulled out from under me. My dad was no longer my hero; he was a junkie.

But I still had my mom. My mom was the glue. But, a year after I found out about my dad’s addiction, she came unglued. She had what she called a nervous breakdown and began using drugs with my dad. She preferred to shoot up Cocaine. I was probably more crushed by my mom’s addiction than my dad’s. It’s a real shocker when the same hands that bake you cupcakes, fold your clothes, and rub your head, put a needle in her arm to get high.  

Well, you know what happens when two people start using hardcore street drugs. Every discretionary dollar we had went to the drug dealer. Now that my mom was no longer holding my dad somewhat accountable, since she was using with him, he went hog wild with his addiction. We were about to hit the rock bottom we thought we already hit.

My parents lost their jobs. We went on welfare. I remember my mom still trying to be a mom, so she packed my lunch for school. She made me a welfare cheese sandwich. You could tell it’s welfare cheese because it comes in a block and you have to carve off pieces. I remember going to school hoping none of my friends recognized my sandwich as a welfare cheese sandwich. Well, they did. “Lenny’s eating welfare cheese…Lenny’s eating welfare cheese.” I was humiliated. Shame would become my middle name through my high school years.

In order to feed their addiction my once loving, unselfish parents who would do anything for me and my sister began to steal from us. I worked as a bus boy at a restaurant. I would get some tip money every night. A few times my parents found it and stole it to support their habit. I got better at hiding my cash. One time I put about $60, a good night’s pay, up in one of my neck ties. I thought, “they’ll never find it here.” They found it and took it. They hocked my guitar and Atari video game system. Drugs transformed my parents so that they were almost unrecognizable to me.

Within a year after my parents lost their jobs, we lost the car and the house, not to mention our dignity and hope. When we lost the house, we lost each other. My mom went to live with her parents, my dad with his mother, my sister with an aunt and uncle on my mom’s side, and me with an aunt and uncle on my dad’s side. All four of us were living in separate homes as I was going into high school.

I would still see my parents in the hood from time to time, pretty strung out. On one occasion my mom, in front of some of my buddies, chased me down the street begging me to give her money so she could get high. What happened to my mom? Who stole my mom? Where did my loving mom go?  

When I lost my parents, and our house, and our dignity and each other, I also lost myself. This one took a little longer. In order to escape my shame and pain, I self-medicated. I started getting drunk with friends when I was 13. By the time I was 17, I was getting drunk 3-4 nights a week. I dropped out of high school in my junior year since it was getting in the way of my lifestyle. While my friends were thinking about college or career, I was concluding that my life would never amount to much at all. I was a high school drop-out alcoholic son of two drug-addicted parents. That was my lot in life.

I wouldn’t say I was suicidal, but I had a bit of a death-wish. I did some crazy things when emboldened by beer. And my death-wish was almost granted. I was drunk and initiated a fight with someone for no other reason but the color of his skin. I threw a punch that landed. He started to run down the middle of the street. I chased him while my friends laughed. The guy stopped in the middle of the street and put his hands up. I put my hands up and threw a punch. I never saw the knife. He stabbed me. The blade plunged 4 inches into my body and punctured my lung. Blood was everywhere. I couldn’t breathe. My friends came to my rescue and got me to the hospital quickly.

Salvation:

My rock bottom arrived while my parents were coming off the bottom. I was falling apart in Philly when my parents were both in Syracuse, NY recovering in rehab. My dad was recovering at a Christian rehab called Teen Challenge. He was doing well, even taking on some leadership at the rehab. My mom was caught shoplifting. They gave her the option of jail or rehab. She chose rehab and ended up going into a Christian rehab for women in Syracuse. My strung out parents were sobering up in the savior’s love.

My parents were accessing the grace of God in the context of Christian community. They were being healed. They were being liberated from addiction. I never thought I would see the day when my parents were clean. Even my unconverted cynical eyes could see that this was a miracle. Shortly after I was stabbed, my parents talked me into rehab at the Syracuse Teen Challenge. I had some gambling debts hanging over my head and no money to pay. To escape the debt, I said yes and went into rehab.

It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with Jesus. I had lost myself in a sea of shame and sin between the ages of 13-18. Now, God began to restore his image in me. “He broke the bars of my yoke and caused me to walk with my head held high” in the dignity of discipleship. All of a sudden I was able to envision a life that was worth living.

If you would have seen us when I was about 16, you would have thought “this family doesn’t have a chance.” I know you would have thought that because everyone around us, including us, felt that way. Three years later, when I was 19, we were living life to the full together in a box of an apartment. We were like the demon possessed madman in Mark 5. He was running around in the nude, cutting himself and yelling out vulgarity. Then he meets Jesus. All of a sudden, he is clothed and sitting in his right mind. Jesus had exorcised our demons, a legion, and we were sitting together in our right mind, clothed in his love.

We were passive participants in a miracle of grace God was bent on doing.      

Scars:

The miracle we experienced had a lasting positive impact on our relationships with each other and with God. My mom has, sadly, passed on but my dad is one of my best friends.   

If this were a fairy tale, there would be no scars. But in real life there are scars. Jesus has healed my deepest wounds but the scars still remain, at least this side of heaven. Here are some of the scars that keep me perpetually and humbly dependent on God’s grace:

My mom died at age 54, nine years ago. You know how Italian sons are with their moms. I was so emotionally crushed by my mom’s addiction, that I shut down my emotions toward her. It was hard for me to get those back. I forgave her for the pain she caused me during my teenage years, but I’m not sure I communicated grace as fully as I could have done. I wish she was here so I could love her in a manner that did more to lift her shame. I live with that scar of regret.

There are some demons from my past that still haunt me from time to time. I bear the scars of inferiority and insecurity. Through most of my formative years, I was labelled by myself and others as a “loser, high risk, destined for failure, alcoholic high school drop-out, son of junkies.” So, on my worst days, the demon whispers in my ear when I stand up to preach or teach “you’re  a loser, a nobody, what could someone like you offer to people like this, you’ve got nothing.” I’m usually able to tweek him off my shoulder. But not always. Sometimes I will walk into a room full of capable people and catch myself thinking, “I am the person in the room with the least to offer.” I have doctoral degree, have been fruitful in ministry, have written a couple of books, and receive invitations to preach and teach all over the world. Yet, I still bear the scars of insecurity and inferiority. I few years ago I wrote in my prayer journal, “Lord, I still feel like there’s a 13 year old boy trapped inside of me who needs to get healed and get out.”      

Another scar is my trust issue. When the people you trust most, your mom and dad, disappoint you in big ways, it obviously impacts your overall trust capacity. When my parents came undone and unreliable, I made a subconscious choice to never put myself in a position to trust or need another person again. People are not trustworthy. So don’t trust them. I have forced myself over the years to trust people, even though I risk being disappointed or let down. I do this because I see a direct connection between the level of my capacity to trust others and the level of my capacity to trust God. In other words, learning to trust others helps me to trust God more.

Conclusion:

Well, that’s my story. I have been miraculously healed by Jesus, but scars remain. The scars that remain, though, are also redemptive. They keep me leaning on the everlasting arms of a God who is able “break the bars of my sin and shame, and cause me to walk with my head held high.”  

Augustine on Sermon Plagiarism

In every preaching class I teach, the crucial question always comes up. What do you think about sermon plagiarism? A junior high boy still lives inside of this man, so I offer a one word response. “Bad.” I teach at the graduate level, so my students won’t accept easy answers to complex questions. They want to know why I think plagiarism is “bad.” I’m not going to spell out my rationale here, since my thoughts on the issue are not really the issue. If you want to check out (or pick apart) my convictions, check out this article I wrote a while back:  http://lennyluchetti.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-thoughts-on-preaching-another.html

I am writing this article as a student not a professor. I want to probe one of my preaching professors on the topic of sermon plagiarism. The only problem is that my professor has been dead for more than 1500 years. He did, however, address my concern in his writing.

My professor is St. Augustine. I was recently reading, for about the tenth time, his book IV from On Christine Doctrine. This 4^th century theologian treats sermon plagiarism in a unique and hard-hitting way. What does Augustine think? He writes:

“For those who steal take what does not belong to them, but the word of God belongs to all who obey it; and it is the man who speaks well, but lives badly, who really takes the words that belong to another. For the good things he says seem to be the result of his own thought, and yet they have nothing in common with his manner of life. And so God has said that they steal His words who would appear good by speaking God's words, but are in fact bad, as they follow their own ways. And if you look closely into the matter, it is not really themselves who say the good things they say. For how can they say in words what they deny in deeds? It is not for nothing that the apostle says of such men: ‘They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him.’" (chapter 29, paragraph 63).

Did you catch how Augustine defines plagiarism? He does not condemn the preaching of someone else’s sermon, as I often do in class. According to Augustine, if we preach someone else’s sermon but we’ve submitted our lives to the reality we preach, we avoid plagiaristic theft. This does not give us license to preach someone else’s sermon without giving that person credit. A few sentences before the section cited above Augustine writes, “Now, if such men take what has been written with wisdom and eloquence by others, and commit it to memory, and deliver it to the people, they cannot be blamed, supposing them to do it without deception.” “Without deception” is Augustine’s way of saying “give credit to whom credit is due,” to the one whose thoughts drive the sermon you preach.

What is plagiarism, then, according to Augustine? Sermon plagiarism happens not simply when a preacher preaches another person’s sermon. Sermon plagiarism can happen even if we preach our own original words. But if our lives do not align with the reality we preach, we plagiarize. In other words, plagiarism is a form of hypocrisy in which the preacher proclaims what she does not live. So, if I preach on the importance of submission to God but don’t practice it, I am a plagiarist. If I preach on giving generously to the poor but remain as stingy as the young Ebenezer Scrooge, I am a plagiarist. If I call people to racial reconciliation based on Gospel convictions not political conventions but embody exclusion, I am a plagiarist.

Augustine’s take on plagiarism is refreshing, because it’s unusual and more thoughtful than most. After the refreshing wind of his words hits my face I am struck by the loving slap of his challenge. Augustine is not asking us to be perfect. He is calling us, as far as I can tell, to be preachers who strive by grace to practice what we preach. If we don’t we are the worst kind of plagiarist.