1PointPreacher Ep. 23 - Pulpit Plagiarism: Taking Pains

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1 Point Preacher
Episode 23

Show Notes:

1 Tim. 4:12–16, Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but show yourself as a model to those who believe in word, conduct, love, faith and purity.
Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
Do not neglect the gift within you, which was given to you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.
Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.
Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

Paul gives a well-rounded picture of how one is to live and conduct himself as a pastor.

"show yourself as a model to those who believe in word, conduct, love, faith and purity."
An example, looked to for imitation.
Not to be plagiarized!
Is stealing someone's sermon good conduct for the flock to follow?

The plagiarizing pastor is not being a model in his words—his preaching is fake and deceptive. His conduct, when he should be laboring with the text of Scripture and crafting his sermon, is not exemplary.

Question: why should we reinvent the wheel? Others have done the hard work.
Answer: God's Word doesn't change, the commands are true and valid regardless of time and place. That includes this command from Paul.

"give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the gift within you...Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them...Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things..."
This all speaks to diligence and using the gift.
For the plagiarizing pastor, the "gift" that the congregation thinks they have been hearing is not there. Maybe he has it and is not using it, or doesn't have it at all.
Also, the congregation is that much of a stranger to the pastor. They cannot discern his own words from someone else's.

Plagiarizing goes against what Paul is exhorting to Timothy. Teaching and exhortation take time. Application takes a lot of work. Sermon prep is hard, absorbing work.

"so that your progress will be evident to all."
Almost every preacher starts poorly. But over time, you become better and know your people better.
Your growth in the pastoral office will be clear to everybody.
The plagiarizing pastor is sabotaging himself: he's not growing at all. There is no progress.

"Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things"
Plagiarism compromises integrity.
No attention is paid to his teaching.

When a pastor is guilty of plagiarizing, we should ask about the gift: "Do not neglect the gift within you."
At minimum, plagiarism is a neglect of the gift. How he got there is not the point.
At most, he does not have the gift at all. Nothing to neglect. He was never qualified for office. Plagiarism is a symptom.

Whichever church government is in place needs to go to this factor first: neglecting the gift.
Investigate to determine whether he has the gift in the first place. Probation from the pulpit, and closely examine his sermon preparation process.
Make sure he's not plagiarizing to maintain the act of a pastor.
If he cannot study the Bible, prepare a sermon, and preach, then the only course of action is removal from office.
But if he does have the gift—and he's neglecting it for some reason—then the disciplinary action would be different.

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