Warning: Avoid Outline Books!
By Dan Hillard, Dean of Illinois Baptist College in Washington, Illinois
Would you rather eat a microwaveable TV dinner or a homemade meal of slow-cooked southern fried chicken, with real mashed potatoes, home-grown vegetables and garden grown sliced tomatoes? I compare stolen outlines from a sermon-outline book to a frozen TV dinner. A sermon prepared by the pastor should be like a homemade meal.
Everyone I know would rather eat the homemade meal because home cooking is superior to a frozen TV dinner. Preaching an outline or sermon that someone else prepared is like opening a prepackaged meal to feed your family.
I remember this warning from my teachers in Bible College. I do not remember all the reasons why. They said, “The outlines were canned sermons.” Simply put it was not my sermon. The duty of a pastor is to feed his people the Word of God.
Now, there is a more sinister problem than a sermon outline book. It is called the internet. In this day and age, you can get the whole sermon from a web page. You can have the introduction, three or four double alliterated points with single alliterated sub-points, and then a conclusion with a tear-jerking story if you like. You can preach a series or individual sermons.
What is worse is when we claim these “internet wonders” as our own. The proper word is plagiarism. The vulgar word is stealing. You are a thief. I could have entitled this article “Preaching in a Cut-and-Paste World.” However, that is the partial title of a book, I just ordered for Illinois Baptist College library. That title is much better suited for this day and age than my title that reflects the last century, but to use that title and not give the author credit would be plagiarism. No, it would be robbery!
Illinois Baptist College has a policy about students taking papers from the internet. You may think that students in a Bible college would not do that, but sure they would. They become preachers and teachers who take Sunday sermons from the internet. So if a student receives a failing grade for plagiarizing, what grade should a pastor receive for pilfering a sermon from the internet for Sunday morning?
I will give you two suggested guidelines. If a pastor constantly and consistently searches web sites for sermons because he is lazy and does not want to do the work, he should resign. Along with this if, a pastor says he is too busy, then he should re-examine his schedule and priorities. There is nothing more important than what a pastor preaches on Sunday. Second, if a pastor does not seem to know what to preach so he constantly and consistently searches web sites for sermons he should resign. Scott Gibson, author of the book Should We Use Someone Else’s Sermon?: Preaching in a Cut-and-Paste World says, “We sin against God and others when we neglect our responsibility as faithful servants to preach the whole counsel of God as the result of our [my emphasis] work and study.”
Articles on Bible Topics, Pastoral Issues | Bro. Jason | 
September 1, 2009 3:17 pm
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By Ronnie Wolfe, September 4, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
Thanks, brother, for this good warning. Too many preachers today are lazy, even those who have plenty of time to study. “Ain’t That A Shame?”
By Wayne Reynolds, September 7, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
Brother Dan – very good article. There are a lot of helps available today, but none are so helpful as simply reading the Bible and praying. God WILL give understanding to the person who seeks his face. God bless.
By Doug Newell, November 6, 2009 @ 6:44 pm
Very true. Reminded me of JER. 23:30. There is great danger, especially WHEN (not if) a man gets caught. Remember, you are not the only one who has seen that book, and certainly not the only one who has been to the website with all those “free” outlines.