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Dont be original be effective! by Steve Sjogren |
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 We need to get over the idea that we have to be completely original with our messages, each and every week. In my mind there is a tremendous amount of pride (let's call it what it is) when we insist on being completely original as communicators.Steve Sjogren, www.GrowingEdgeBuzz.com/blog |
There has been much talk in recent years on blogs and Web sites about how much of other people's sermons is appropriate to incorporate into your own messages. When does it get to the point of "plagiarism"? A friend of mine in Cincinnati was recently dismissed by his church's board of trustees because of this. As I predicted to that board of trustees, the size of that thriving church has been cut in half, the momentum they had been experiencing has gone away, and they are in big financial trouble. What a needless waste of God's momentum that had been resting upon them.
At a seminar, Dr. Cho, pastor of the world's largest church in Korea, was asked during a question and answer time, "How do you put your weekly messages together? They are so powerful!" He said, "Honestly, I have never given an original message in all my years of ministry here at Yoido Church. Each week, I preach word-for-word messages from either Billy Graham or W.A. Criswell from Dallas First Baptist Church. I can't afford to not have a home run each weekend when we gather. I don't trust my own ability to give completely original messages." Wow!
I regularly read the blogs of my favorite communicators from influential churches around the United States. Without mentioning their names in this article, they are young guys who are well-known to everyone reading this piece. They are all authors. They all have very large churches.
Each of these pastors has recently come out on their blogging sites and admitted, curiously, the same thing. They get approximately 70 percent of their messages each week from other people word for word according to them. They fill in their own personal illustrations and stories, of course. Two of the guys that I am thinking of as I write this have churches of more than 10,000 in attendance each weekend.
We need to get over the idea that we have to be completely original with our messages, each and every week. In my mind there is a tremendous amount of pride (let's call it what it is) when we insist on being completely original as communicators. In our desire to give "killer messages" we are dishing out something far less. Think about it for a second: If you really were giving a killer message each week, would your church be the size that it is right now? Maybe you need to be open to doing things a different way.
After listening to tens of thousands of messages over the last 30-plus years as a leader, I have come to the conclusion that there are probably only a handful of truly unique communicators in a given generation. And those communicators are almost always the kinds of messengers who speak to already-believers, not the kind who can connect with not-yet believers.
What is a leader to do?
First of all, stop all of this nonsense of spending 25 or 30 hours a week preparing to speak on the weekend. The guys I draw encouragement from the best communicators in the United States confess they spend a total of about 15 hours preparing for their message. As I have already said, they get 70 percent of their material from someone else. Remember, Solomon wrote that "there is nothing new under the sun ..."
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I can tell you from experience that many authors have lifted things word for word that I coined without asking for my permission. This material has gone into no less than a dozen books that have sold a lot of copies. Others have taken my unique ideas that I shared in messages, unique approaches to small groups that we used at our church in Cincinnati, or items I have written and are in print somewhere. Hear me: I DON'T CARE! There really is nothing new under the sun. God gave me the idea to begin with. I don't grasp it I give it away freely.
Let's forget about originality which is often a form of pride. Let's begin to focus on effectiveness, and pray that we will be powerful at connecting with not-yet believers.
A wise mentor of mine brought great liberty to me when he was coaching me in the area of how to put messages together. He said, "There once was a man who said, I will be original or nothing;' in the end he became both." Dare to step out of the box. Regardless of what you have heard or been taught hit a homerun this weekend with the help of a message master!
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Steve Sjogren is the founding pastor of the