I covered some of reasoning above, but will expand further.

My answer is a simple one. You make your living selling books. A book is a product. I make my current living crafting words as a product for businesses to use to sell their products.

Pastors are to preach the Gospel, which is never a product. I also don’t believe that we should pay pastors with the idea that we’re paying them to deliver a product to us.

Truthfully, I question the whole idea of paid clergy. If our clergy were bivocational, this idea of plagiarism in the pulpit would be even less important. But the more we try to make pastoring into a profession, the more it takes on the trappings of the business world, including the idea of “this sermon is MY product.” Again, as John Piper entitled his book to pastors, “Brothers, we are not professionals.”

I know you will disagree with me on this and you have every right to do so, but I see my novel writing as entertainment. In the end, as a novelist, I’m an entertainer. Yes, my novels may have a solid message, but they’re still meant for entertainment purposes as they are for any teaching that comes out of them—even if the teaching is solid. Novel in hand, people don’t want to curl up in a fleece blanket with a warm cup of mulled wine unless they’re seeking some kind of escapism, even if that escapist entertainment encourages or teaches.

But preaching should never be thought of as entertainment. When it comes down to that, we’ve turned the Church and the Lord Himself into a sideshow.

This is the problem I have with it.

Congregant: Fine sermon, this morning, Pastor Schmastor! You really hit it out of the park today!

Pastor Schmastor: Well, thank you, Brother Schmother! Praise the Lord.

I’m a published author. Imagine I took somebody else’s manuscript, changed a word here or there, some phrases, added my own anecdotes, then put my name on it and sold it. Is there any scenario under which that’s not dishonest? And more importantly (and I’d really like to know) why is it any different with sermons?

I attended a congregation whose rector obviously used “prepared” sermons. The preaching was wise, witty, and properly nuanced — but it was obvious that the man had not dealt with the readings to any depth. He was, in fact, a bit of a huckster.

On the other hand, it is obvious to me that the Holy Spirit deals with his Church in a unified way, as should be expected. The message I hear on Sunday is likely the same as my neighbor hears, and we are certain that the two preachers have each wrestled with different texts but received the same inspiration. Is this not what we should expect?

And then there is our part, as hearers. Our Pastor Emeritus is fond of quoting Acts 17:11

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. KJV, Public domain

Whatever comes to us, better or worse, we are to be attentive — even if it is “stolen.”