[Mins] literary & scholarly etiquette

Mon Dec 2 00:19:27 UTC 2013

Hi all,
This reminds me of my former prof and colleague Dr Richard Muller at Calvin
Seminary who said to new students,"If you think that you can say something
new when it comes to preaching the gospel you can be sure it is heresy.
I am also reminded of a candidate who preached for his classis exam( not in
this country) and when an elder googled a phrase that sounded familiar
found out that his sermon was plagiarized.
Give credit to sources where you can. Sometimes just a some wrote or said
is sufficient, or at the beginning of a series, acknowledge the main
 sources that you will draw from.
Do allow me to say that the older i get ( And yes, John you can still
remember how young I once was), I am having more fun preparing, preaching
and writing sermons than ever before. Have a good eye on Scripture, our
confessions, the culture around us and discern how the Holy Spirit is at
work in the congregation as well as the world, the devil and our sinful
flesh.

Blessings,  Pieter

On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 9:39 AM, <jwestendorp at crca.org.au> wrote:

> Good morning men.
>
>
>
> I trust you had a wonderful Lord’s Day yesterday.  We certainly did and
> were blessed by Andrew’s third sermon on Song of Songs.  We hope to have it
> accessible from our church web page shortly.  I said to someone yesterday,
> “I’ve only ever heard one sermon on Song of Songs and that was as
> allegorical as could be.  Andrew’s approach was refreshing and it’s good to
> see that sending Andrew to the last Preaching Conference at the RTC has
> paid dividends for us in Toowoomba J
>
>
>
> I write this though because I want to raise a matter for discussion on the
> MINS email list that has troubled me for some time.  It’s the matter of
> acknowledging our sources.  That’s a difficult matter and I know that there
> are a lot of grey areas.  In our preaching we do heaps of research that
> includes not only grammars and lexicons but also commentaries and the even
> the sermons of others.  At the end of the day we may end up with a sermon
> that has “borrowed” from half a dozen sources or more.  Most of us, if we
> have a lengthy quote, will acknowledge the source.  It’s even happened that
> at the start of a new series of sermons I begin by acknowledging my
> indebtedness to a certain book/author.  However there is a grey area where
> we use ideas that we pick up and then develop further ourselves.  It
> becomes a nightmare – and a hindrance to good communication – to repeatedly
> say, “I just want to acknowledge that I got that idea from Matthew Henry
> (or whoever)”.  I sometimes take consolation in the thought that it has all
> been said before.
>
>
>
> The same is true for the stuff we put in our bulletins.  If we thought it
> up ourselves we put our own name under it.  If we’ve taken it from a book
> or off the internet then it is good etiquette to acknowledge the source.
> In fact not to do so could lead us to be charged with plagiarism.  Although
> I’m mindful of the quote, “If you borrow the words of one author it’s
> called plagiarism, if you borrow from twenty authors it’s called
> scholarship!”.
>
>
>
> I mention all this because I do take the time these days to listen to some
> of the sermons being preached in our churches and I also get a fair number
> of church bulletins crossing my desk.  There have been times when I have
> thought, “That sounds familiar!”  The helpful thing is that these days you
> can do a google search on a whole phrase or sentence.  When that same
> sentence (or even paragraph) then pops up on a website then it’s obvious
> that it has been cut and pasted.  And please don’t think you can get away
> by arguing that the same Spirit who inspired the other author also inspired
> you J
>
>
>
> We need to remember not only that doing this is not good etiquette... it
> is also embarrassing when you are caught out.  In fact many years ago a man
> was actually dismissed from the ministry when it was found out that all his
> sermons had been plagiarised – in that case simply by being translated from
> another language but never acknowledged.
>
>
>
> This is not intended to be taken as me having a shot at anyone – I just
> want to raise a concern I have and I trust that those who find that the cap
> fits, will indeed wear it.
>
>
>
> Thanks for hearing me out.
>
>
>
> Please add your words of wisdom if you have something to offer.
>
>
>
> John Westendorp (CRC Toowoomba)
>
>
>
>
>
> *Westy’s Weekly Blog*
>
> *Pearls*
>
> *In the Holy Bible there are less than a dozen references to pearls. Some
> of those references simply refer to what is most valuable and precious.
> Thus Jesus tells us not to throw our pearls to pigs (Mat.7:6). I've often
> used that verse (and probably misused it too!) to justify not answering an
> antagonist who is having a go at me for my Christian beliefs. In other
> instances pearls are used to refer to jewellery items and are simply
> included along with gold and precious stones.*
>
> *Read more…! <http://www.crca.org.au/events/blogs/entry/blogs/pearls.html>*
>
>
>
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>
>

-- 
Rev. Pieter C Tuit
Minister of the Ulverstone Christian Reformed Church and
Sanctuary Hill Christian Fellowship ( Penguin CRC)
2 Main Road
PO Box 110 Penguin
Tasmania
Australia 7316
Phone 61-(0)3-64372188
Mobile 0417919098
email for North America
ptuit at calvinseminary.edu
email for other countries including Australia ptuit at crca.org.au
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