This is great! I just found out how to be a pastor even if I don’t have the time to study, to pray, or to do any of the things I thought I would have to do if I were to be a shepherd of God’s sheep. I just found out I can BUY sermons - written by someone else; written by someone with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctorate, so I’ll sound really smart.
Click on the thumbnail below and you can find out how to be prepared every single Sunday without once opening your Bible during the week.
Notice the text on the web page. It seems to be pretty much all over the place. He says:
1. The site is for “…busy pastors on the move.” Did it occur to this dingo that if the pastor is so “on the move” that he doesn’t have time to study and prepare a sermon, then perhaps he’s too on the move. Or perhaps he shouldn’t be a pastor.
2. He says the sermons transcend race but describes the sermons as “one of the largest collections of sermons in the African-American pulpit tradition.” And the site’s name is “Black Sermons dot com.” I guess what he means here is he wants to make sure all preachers, Black and White, feel welcome to spend their money on his tripe.
3. If you’re too lazy to do any work at all, you can take part in the quarterly plan and you’ll get a FUNERAL sermon and a free Bible Study. I know I’m impressed. And since most folks don’t generally attend multiple funerals, you can even recycle the funeral sermon. All you have to do is be sure to remember the name of the dearly departed you’re saying goodbye to and not mix it up with the last dearly departed you said goodbye to.
4. And if I’m really lazy and a consummate procrastinator (which, as most of you readers know by now that I am), it seems “Saturday orders are emailed the SAME DAY.” Now I can wait until the very last minute (being on the move all this time) and still get the script for the next day. Ain’t technology wonderful.?
Maybe it’s just me, but I think this is a shame. It is a shame for Dr. Durham to offer the service and it’s a shame for ANY self-respecting pastor – or general preacher – to use such a service. This is even worse (if you can graduate sin) than copying some one else’s term paper. At least with the term paper, you actually make the effort to copy it. With this scam, you don’t even have to make the effort to copy it. It’s delivered to your computer, typed and ready to go.
Of course there are men out there who do use this kind of service. And most of them are, as the good doctor said, on the move all the time. The one that comes most readily to mind is Fast Eddie of Club New Birth in Hotlanta. Do you remember when he stood up and said that he had a message for the congregation FROM the Holy Spirit? Apparently the Holy Spirit had an e-mail for Fast Eddie, not a message for the congregation.
The pastors/elders’ job is to feed the sheep, to aid them in becoming self-sustaining and encourage them to work with each other to accomplish the work that God established for each of us from before the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 2:9-10) If they aren’t doing that, then they aren’t doing their jobs. And getting sermons through e-mail rather than study and prayer, doesn’t count.
Even the Apostles recognized this. Take a look at Acts, chapter 6 around verse 2. The Apostles, in trying to deal with an issue that had arisen, made it clear their first duty was to pay attention to the word of God, apparently in its study and preaching. Their first priority was to be preaching and teaching (as was done in the homes of the disciples).
This in no way matches the model being encouraged by Durham. If you’re too busy to study, then let him send you a sermon. Doesn’t it occur to these bozos that if you are too busy to study, you are too busy?
I called Dr. Durham’s business a couple of days ago and I called again today to ask them why they are providing sermons to people to preach as if they were their own. There was no answer the other day. I’ll try again today.
By the way, I can’t even see the sermon before I buy it. But he does provide a sample of his work. Click here for a view.
Wow!! I never thought something like this existed, but at the sametime it makes perfect sense, since the new millinea church is nothing but big business. They even have a sample sermon, something like an appitizer to help you make the decision to commit..
http://www.blacksermons.com/samplesermon.cfm
“I can’t hold my peace now. I can’t stand here without feeling my hands get lighter as they reach toward my Father!
I can’t hold my peace - I can’t come in here and not thank Him for rescuing me.
I can’t hold my peace - I know its just a rehearsal, but its REAL to me!
I can’t help myself. Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! I just want to See Him!
“Oh I want to see him
Look upon his face
There to sing forever
Of His saving grace
On the streets of glory
Let me lift my voice
Cares all passed
Home at last
Ever to rejoice.”
….Are you kidding me?!
To obtain a “message” by these means is truly a disservice to the Body of Christ. The purpose of delivering a sermon on Sundays and/or Wednesdays is to bring the word that God has on that day to His people. It’s not to show how charismatic or how well-versed you are. Sure, preaching involves those things, but the objective is to deliver what’s in the Creator’s heart.
In this computer age, with information so readily available, I have found the internet to be an invaluable resource towards Bible study and the preparation of sermons. This does NOT, however, substitute time spent in prayer, fasting, and overall “sitting at His table.”
There’s a body that’s disabled and impaired because of the lack of diligence towards the Word of God. Hosea 4:6 “My people perish from a lack of knowledge.”
MJ,
Two things. First, using sermons from someone else isn’t new. Are you old enough to remember all the “agape love” sermons of the late 70’s? Someone got out their Strong’s concordance and found different Greek words for “love”. The sermons were very popular with all the ladies in the churches (and the effeminate men). Next thing you know, every other pastor did the same Strongs study on Saturday night and gave the same sermon!
Shucks! What a coincidence! Can you believe it?
Second, I don’t see what’s wrong with actually selling sermons. It does away with that whole plagiarism issue. A sermon you bought and paid for can’t really be stolen, can it?
And remember this. Not every seminary grad can get a job right off as a senior pastor and those school loan payments keep coming. So why not write a few sermons and let one of these sermons-fur-earnin’s websites sell them for you?
In short, lighten up with all that honesty and biblical stuff. It’s a bit old fashioned in the computer age, don’t you think?
Tongue in cheek,
Phil Perkins.
I agree with Phil, Melvin! Kenny Copeland listened to old man Hagin’s tapes over and over again. That’s why Hagin was known as “pete” and Copeland “repete!” Tongue further in cheek,Ex-WoFer. ; ) P.S. old man Hagin did plagarize a lot of Kenyon’s stuff.
It’s a great shame that this is what the world is coming to - this is what the church of God (if you can call it such) is coming to.
You know, in this lifetime, so many abominations are coming to pass that it’s almost enough to make me walk away from the faith and more than enough to make me scared for the heritage that will be passed on to my children.
The Word was passed down, through sweat and blood and now look what it’s come to….
Shame.
(MN: Don’t walk away. Double down on your efforts to find an orthodox church. And as far as the follow-on generations - it’s up to us to protect the heritage (contend for the faith) and pass it on to our children and our grandchildren. Christianity has always been a single generation deep. )
Rick Warren has been offering sermons for years. The pastor at my old church was a paying subscriber to his pastors.com, and had access to even more of these “resources.”
Mr Warren has been “shaping” pastors’ minds for a long time.
http://legacy.pastors.com/en-US/FreeSermons/RicksFreeSermons.htm
The Apostles said that the duty of a leader of the Church is to preach and pray…preach and pray…preach and pray…etc. How can you NOT have time for HALF your job?! Seriously, can you imagine your boss or co-workers being okay with you being so “busy” that you do not have time for HALF your job?
This is, however, bigger than this website. I think churches as a whole do not understand the role of the Pastor/Teaching Elder of their local assembly. They want someone who will do everything and all things, much of which the Deacons should probably be doing to be honest.
Other than that I have no strong opinions on the matter.
Wow! At first my mouth dropped in surprise! Then I came back to reality…business for business. There is nothing that will change the way they do business. It’s all about the dolla bill…the green back! Those ungodly men/women that will go to purchase these sermons are only in it for business sake and for nothing else…you and I both know it can’t be for reaching the “lost” when it’s made so easy. The longer we’re here the worst it gets!
“Come quickly Lord Jesus”.
I love it Phil, “lighten up with all that honesty and biblical stuff.” What will these people do next? If a pastor cannot TAKE the time to study-what is he doing? The congregation pays his salary, so it’s not like he does a 40/5 like the rest of us working people.
Sites like this makes a Preacher study less. I Pray that all Preachers Study and Pray, Pray and Study before going into the Pulpit. Preach Preacher Preach
wow. what ever happened to hearing from God for a word for YOUR house?
i looked on the list. nothing about fasting, consecration, deliverance… or homosexuality. i guess you shouldn’t offend people on sunday mornings anyway. keep talking about easter bunnies then …and i loved how the sample sermon ended with heaven-talk and a hymn.
that’s a black sermon alright. (i’m black, btw).
I’m going to use a carnal example (forgive me Melvin) this is the equivalent of comparing music tracks that were put together with the aid of computer software versus someone that actually took the time to write and original song from the heart that utilized real instruments. Listen to anything written by Bach or Beethoven. God Bless!!
(MN: No need for apologies. I think it’s right on the money. )
Hey now, let’s not go apples and oranges. I produce commercial and full length music like that but whenever I can give a job to someone who plays a traditional instrument, I do. The primary radio ministry for whom I do this wouldn’t be on the air if they had to pay a full band because they couldn’t afford it.
A traditional instrument is something you learn to manipulate to produce sounds pleasing to the ears of some.
The computer is a “real instrument”, amply evidenced by the fact that not everybody can play it, and some can use it to produce sounds pleasing to some ears, starting from a bunch of unrelated notes.
The preacher/teacher must know the Word and put it forth using the particular personality God gave him, as did the penners of Scripture, by the call and command of God. No way is that the same.
(MN: I think what we’re talking about with the computer is the idea of a guy using a fancy keyboard to play a chord progression he has absolutely no control over other than the speed, taking that and laying down a little tune and calling it a great composition.
One of my sons is a musician and, interestingly enough, a computer egineer. And one of the things he does is compose, really compose, using the computer/suynthesizer/fake drums/everything else.
My apologies if I came across as dismissing the use of technology for TRUE creativity. )
Thank you Melvin, much appreciated. It was actually more your commenter’s remarks than yours that fleshed out the impression. Now I understand better what you were referencing.
I promise to work hard to avoid becoming lazy at my craft!
Oh Melvin, you and the Melvinites just don’t get it. Don’t you realize the “mand of gawd” in the new millenium church must maintain other revenue streams, ( as T. Dexter calls it). He just doesn’t have time for all that prayin’ and studyin’ when there are soooo many other important things to attend to. After all how is one to maintain their status in the social and political arenas. It’s all about visibility after all. And then there’s all those conferences to attend, gotta network man.
So you and the Melvinites need to lighten up, judge not, and go with the flow. After all as long as Passa “tunes up” on Sunday morning it’s all good. Yeah, that’s the ticket! Like Phil said, man’s gotta eat and these sermons aren’t going to sell themselves.
Really, the attempt to mock black people is disgusting, and takes away any credibility you may have had. Blacks wouldn’t have a separate church and tradition if many white Christians didn’t think they were more pure than the God they claim to serve. In fact, since you know so much, why don’t YOU pastor a black church for awhile???
(MN: I reject the notion of a Black church. There is only The One Church in Christ. There are, however, organizations that refer to themselves as churches and that promote tradition specific to Blacks, as there are those organizations that promote traditions specific to Germans, Italians, Irish, and British. This is truly disgusting since the tradition, in almost every case, is contrary to the Bible, contrary to sound doctrine, and contrary to the development of the individual in the doctrines of grace. Jesus Himself pointed out the habit we have of putting tradition above God’s word [Matt 15:9]. It is because men and women are so eager to follow after Black tradition or White tradition that the pulpit pimps are able to so easily fleece the sheep.
I would never be able to pastor a Black church since I would continually present the Gospel in all its glory and not make do with what often amounts to no more than a social gospel or at worst a social club. Most of the folks would leave (or vote me out) and I would be left with members of The Church, not a Black church. But I’m willing to wager you have no idea of what I am talking about. )
Hello, Uncle Mel:
I guess Galatians 3:28 is missing in Bunnie’s Bible. Good grief.
Miss your posts, man. You and your significant other are in my daily prayers to Him who controls our very breaths.
Peter.
Sermon-lifting has been going on for years. Back when I would watch the pimps on TV, I would notice similarities in the sermons my minister would preach the next Sunday. One time, I watched a pimp on TV in the early morning and the preacher preached the same topic at the 11 am service! I suspect my current pastor is in a sermon-of-the-week club. His sermons have actually improved, lol.
Well I for one am glad the Holy Ghost is using email. Did the email to Fast Eddie say “money coming”? Any word if the HG will be using twitter? Seriously though this is just plain laziness. Cliff notes theology I guess.
hey hey hey, don’t beat this guy up too much. He did offer to throw in a FREE funeral sermon and Bible study right? LOL Gotta giv’em credit for that :p
Could someone tell me where I can find
sermonsforwhitepeople.com
(MN: Hey Steve! Good to hear from you. )
Sermoncentral.com
Please pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is a “black” sermon?
one that bamboozles black people based on their cultural “preferences”.
Man, I’ve been thinking about this all day, I blame you Mel because this has been bugging me.
Lets look at the logic. There is a book, that any preacher is encouraged to plagiarize from verbatim that is thousands of pages long. Its a little known work called the bible, and there are only a couple billion of them, in thousands of translations in print.
Any preacher can literally plop his bible open to any part of Romans for example and preach a year off of that. The theological GEMS inside that book alone would take years to exhaust.
Its not like preachers are called to create stuff out of thin air. Personally, I’m a preacher and I know the pressure of what it takes to have a sound sermon for Sunday, but in the same time people spend browsing for a stolen, I mean purchased sermon, they could have easily turned to Paul, Peter, James, or even this dude I heard of named…JESUS to quote what he says.
Gimme a break, these guys aren’t “pressed for time”, they’re charlatans trying to sound more polished and profound then they are.
Sounds closed minded. ;o)
Melvin: It sounds like the guys who use this system are a bunch of loafers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_TGQ7rGL-Q&feature=youtube_gdata
Money cometh 2 me NOW! I’m dying, lol!
Maybe Dr. Durham could sell the audio along with the sermon text. Then all a busy pastor would have to do is lip-sync the message.
Melvin, it’s time you expand your repertoire and start selling this discernment!
Hey Melvin:
This is really an amazing thing! I actually stumbled on this guy’s website a fe years back, and I am really surprised that he is still in business. I actually challenged him on this very thing, and he gave some nonsensical reponse that clearly indicated that he didn’t appreciate me challenging him about his education.
(MN: And the fact that he is still “in business” indicates that he is, unfortunately, making money doing it. That means he has clients. )
I think I wrote what I am about to write in the wrong page!
Anyway, I said, upon further thinking about the subject, would this be the same as a pastor (who is to pray and study/preach God’s word) buying Bible studies (for things such as Wed. night services)? If we were to conclude that it is, then what do we say to the numerous Reformed pastors/preachers/writers who sell their material for churches to study as a group? Thoughts?
it is called plagarism, my friends-fake-fake fake!!!!
If you have no respect for the African American church tradition, then go ahead and say so.
(MN: Okay. In general, I have no respect for the African American church traditions. I also have no respect for Italian American, Irish American, British, Spanish, Ethiopian, or Uraguayan church traditions. I prefer, as Jesus pointed out, the Laws of God, not the traditions of men. Church isn’t about traditions. It’s about worshiping God in spirit and in truth. Most churches (Black, Brown, White, or Yellow) don’t do that. )
Don’t forget that church tradition started because thousands of sanctimonious non-Africans owned slaves and wanted to deny folks of another color the right to gather and worship.
(MN: Church tradition starts because people wish to fill in the blanks and the blanks become more important than what’s already there. )
As an Atlantan, I really don’t appreciate the sarcastic “HOTlanta” comment in reference to Bishop Eddie Long. (MN: I know where Lithonia is. I grew up in Hotlanta. ) The man is in Lithonia, a city 40 minutes to the east.
Further, have you considered the fact that maybe his “email” comment referred to not an actual email from God, but perhaps a timely word of encouragement or reproach from a church member?
(MN: A better question: Are you naive enough to believe that? Did his elders indicate they believed that? No. Face it. Eddie lied about where he got the message from. )
Sorry you are having such a tough time in your life, but perhaps you forgot that God didn’t put YOU in charge of judgment, but others.
(MN: What does a tough time in my life have to do with Fast Eddie and the rest of the pimps? )