Brilliant. Now that’s a cool idea – behind-the-scenes accountability versus competition, full of inside jokes. 🙂

It’s interesting that you mention the idea of having a team of people helping others craft messages. In a former church, I had a new senior pastor come in and ask me to start writing his messages for him. I wasn’t a fan of the idea, which he picked up on… and within a few months, I was no longer employed there. Perhaps it was related to other issues, or perhaps that was the main issue. In hindsight, I could have been more of a team player – but it would have been hard for me personally to get behind someone who I felt wasn’t being genuine with the church about where his content was coming from.

In other news, I have been a ghost writer for some authors who have more street value at selling a book than I do. I didn’t have a hard time doing it then… I wonder what the difference is in my hypocrisy. It wasn’t so much the paycheck, because I wasn’t paid on every job. Hmm… now I need a quiet time. 🙂 Thanks, Charlie.

To be fair, to ask someone to come up with original content all the time is really taxing. You don’t have to compromise creativity for originality. I’m not that creative. Several great speakers I know aren’t that creative. They have teams around them to help craft messages. If you use a team, does that take away from the genuineness of your message? I’m always upfront and honest when someone wants to compliment me on something I borrowed that it wasn’t me, but something I heard or read. Really, if you dig down deep enough, this is a heart issue. If you can’t be honest with your audience, you’ve got deeper problems, like pride or self glorification.

Good catch on that, too. I sometimes feel that when people ask me, “Why doesn’t so-and-so speak more?” I want to reply, “Because so-and-so needs extended time to develop a message,” but that would sound/hint like I’m a superhero at it for doing it regularly. It does place that expectation (either way) that every message will be a homerun versus a base hit.

I think it’s different if every week one is preaching someone else’s stuff. It is a fair practice but I wouldn’t want to make a normal practice of it.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, I don’t preach full time so it is not as much of an issue for me as it is for others.

I think it’s different if every week one is preaching someone else’s stuff. It is a fair practice but I wouldn’t want to make a normal practice of it.

Makes sense, Steven. I sense that students may not catch a borrowed theme as easily as savvy Christian adults might… but I think students can sense authenticity, though. Early on in ministry I mentioned to a prospective senior pastor who was interviewing me how I didn’t think using curriculum was a good idea when we should create our own stuff. He set me straight, explaining that it has its place – especially if it frees a youth worker up to spend more time with students versus message prep. I wonder what that balance truly looks like without it getting lazy.

That’s fair, Travis. I imagine it helps your church to know there are breadcrumbs to your own journey on something. Do you think that the average person listening to a message allows for this or expects this to not be a trend, though?