Is there anything wrong with pastors using other pastors' sermons? Should pastors write their own sermons entirely or can they take advantage of sermon resources?
There are numerous websites offering free or nominally fee-based sermons for download. There are books that pastors can buy, which offer sermon outline or full sermon texts. These sermons are ready-made for delivery - often right down to the title, the joke(s), the outlines, and the biblical passages. All a pastor has to do is download it or buy it, print it out, and deliver.
Many people, however, don't like it one bit. A pastor, they say, shouldn't be like a politician relying on a speechwriter. When they go to church, they want to hear that pastor deliver a message that God has laid on the pastor's heart - not one the pastor downloaded off the Internet, because he was too lazy or too busy to prepare one himself.
Here's my take...
The apostle Peter says that a pastor's job is to principally "feed the flock of God." Paul tells Timothy that he (a pastoral apprentice) should "study to show [himself] approved unto God" so he can "rightly divide the word of truth." And in Acts, the apostles asked the congregation in Jerusalem to appoint deacons, so they (the apostles) would not have to "wait tables," but could instead focus on prayer and preaching.
It seems to me that a pastor's primary responsibility is to provide solid, biblically-grounded teaching and exhortation to his (or her - for those churches that ordain women) congregation. This is not a responsibility that we, as pastors, should delegate to the Internet or a book off the shelf.
That doesn't mean we can't borrow jokes or illustrations - or learn from other pastors by reading and/or listening to their messages. But when we preach a sermon, the congregation has a right to be confident that the sermon is something we've prepared through prayer and diligent study.
