Reasons Why I Hate Us - 6

Comments

[josh]

exactly. my former pastor and boss for 4+ years. and people wonder why i quit the ministry and left the church. you take a steady dose of that and you end up throwing up in your mouth every sunday morning.

[Dan Barnett]

GEEZ

[Ton]

So you're not going to preach his free sermon?

[LayGuy]

Hey Steve,

Don't know exactly what you are talking about here..any chance to enlighten me?

[Bryan]

There's a guy in my hometown, who preaches an SBC church, who preaches someone else's sermon every single week. Needless to say, his church does not have very many people attending.

[Steve McCoy]

Ton, no. James Merritt sermon = very no.

LayGuy,

1. I'd never preach a JM sermon, for a handful of reasons. I'll not give them out of concern for a fellow preacher.

2. My take: Pastor's should study the Bible and preach it.

[James Gordon]

What a joke

[Alex]

Not to go all ad hominem, but how many microphones does he need? Two at he lecturn *and* the Madonna?

[Eric]

That is the kind of stuff that truly is sickening. FYI... Telling your pastor he needs to stop buying sermons and study the bible for himself will get you thrown out of church.

[Micah]

Not to follow the ad hominem to far but as a former sound engineer at Southern you always use that many mics. In case one goes out (which it will).

About the sermon thing. I don't want to make to much about this being a James Merritt sermon. I would be upset with a pastor if they used a Piper or Spurgeon sermon word for word. Besides that fact that you are lying to your congregation unless you tell them I took every word from...

[Micah]

Something I forgot to add to the last post. I think the reason we see things like Merritt's website is because we have a somewhat jaded view of preaching.

This is something I have been struggling with recently, but I just don't seem to see what we call preaching in the Bible. All the teaching to the church appears to be dialog or discussion. The only time I see someone standing up and giving a monologue sermon is to unbelievers and that sermon consist of Christ crucified buried and rose again (i.e. Peter at Pentecost, Paul in Athens, Stephen at his stoning).

It appears to me if we stuck to something more like what appears to be in scripture we would never need to "borrow" a sermon from someone because we simply tell the story of Christ to unbelievers. And with believers we would just discuss the beauties and intricacies of scripture and the theology therein.

[Account Deleted]

What's more Steve, is I believe they attempted to hand this one out to everyone who would take it. I refrained though sooo difficult. :)

[LayGuy]

ok - i see where you are coming from. You see, I'm an Aussie watching what you Americans do in the church. We are a little different here - but connected.

It kind of freaks me out when I look at what happens there on the other side of the globe.

[Nicholas Fiedler]

I don't know what is more disturbing, the fact that the church is encouraging being UNCREATIVE, or that someone is so prideful to assume other people want to other people want to read what they have created word for word?

[josh]

bingo nick. bingo.

[Chris Wilson]

Steve,

I am normally, slightly opposed to your reasons to hate us, but you definitely nailed this one.

The only thing worse than people who steal others' sermons are the ones pimping them out.

[Michael]

And one wonders why our churches (well at least some) are shrinking....

Is this acknowledgement that many of our churches being led by pastors (and I use that term with some apprehension) who are not capable of opening the Bible and having the discernment to develop and deliver a coherent sermon that is both of sound content, contends for Christ and the Gospel, and lastly is culturally appropriate to the audience?

This just turns my stomach inside out!

[Jeremy]

I just want to point out this has very little to do with the SBC and i'd say it's may be even worse among the independent churches.

While they are hardly ever blantant from the pulpit, I have literally seen the exact same sermon series taught at three churches in the same area at the exact same time pulling from the exact same resource.

Many start up church pastors us the excuse that they have so much other stuff to do that it's just "an aide." Granted, independant start up churches generally only have one to two people on staff, this "aide" usually becomes a crutch and nearly verbatim regurgitation of the original. There is no pulse as to what the community needs to hear and there is rarely "preaching from the heart" unless it has to do with the struggling finances.

[FSUChris]

What's really sad is what he says at the very end...that he's been given the topic of "holiness" to preach on. Obviously he sees no connection to what he just offered.

[Bill Renfro]

Steve-

You are a hypocritical do-nothing. I notice that you distribute your sermons here:http://www.gotocalvary.org/index.cfm?i=1230&mid=7#N13780
And, when I called your church as a "minister looking for sermon helps" the receptionist sent me to YOUR website. I think this is a bad case of ministerial jealousy, because after listening to your sermons, I noticed that you can't preach well enough to hold James Merritt's seminary textbooks.

Try reading the www.pastorsedge.com blog on jealousy called "The Green-Eyed Minister." You might learn something.

BP

[Joe Thorn]

Bill,

I just have to say, "Bravo!" Come on everyone, let's give it up for Bill! You have done an excellent job assaulting Steve's character here. I am always looking for ways to insult people without knowing anything about them, or their ministries, and you have shown the way.

Seriously, you said Steve is a "hypocritical do-nothing," and is driven by jealousy. Wow. I do believe God will hold you accountable for such words. I am willing to bet Dr. Merritt would agree. You don't know Steve, or the lives God has impacted through his ministry. You have assumed and voiced a lot about him here that is both wrong and inappropriate.

I would encourage you to seek Steve's forgiveness, and confess this to God.

Also, for Steve to have a problem with encouraging pastors to preach other pastor's material is not an assault on Dr. Merritt, nor his character. Those of us who disapprove of pimping sermons like this are taking issue with a specific area of praxis and methodology.

[Steve McCoy]

Hey, nice comment. Winsome.

1. Who are you? "BP" means what? I'm curious since your name and email (a Southeastern Seminary email at that) are "Bill Renfro" but Renfro doesn't start with a "P," so.....? And, by the way, you know exactly who I am. All my stuff is out there. So it's only fair if you intend to judge me publicly like this that you should let us know who you are.

2. I don't have a receptionist. You may have been talking to a person who cleans the church for all I know. And they probably had no idea what you meant by your vague question about "sermon helps" since I don't offer sermon helps.

3. Did you really call my church in order to uncover my "hypocrisy?" Nice work. Quality.

4. How does putting my sermons online have anything to do with hypocrisy? I haven't told anyone to preach them as their own.

5. To call me "jealous" is to judge my motives and assume you know my heart. Are you the Almighty, omniscient (that means "all-knowing", according to my seminary textbooks) God?

Or are you just trying to hurt my character, harm my name, when all I did was point to a practice I don't think is wise for pastors: to preach someone else's sermons.

6. My wife is a few days away from brain surgery. If you would have read my blog in order to understand me and my thoughts better (which should have been a prereq to judging me) you would know that she is suffering from a congenital malformation causing her all sorts of problems. And in light of that you may have chosen to find a better time to attack me. But then again, I don't know you well enough to know that you would show that kindness.

7. Judgmental comments like yours are definitely one of the "reasons why I hate us."