But Patrick Marrin, the editor of Celebration, based in Kansas City, Mo., said he'd disapprove of pastors reading his publication's sermons in church. We're a resource to help them prepare their sermons, not a substitute for the real thing. Mr. Marrin has several people who write sermons for his publication, which is read mostly by Roman Catholics. A number of his sermon writers are women, who usually aren't allowed to preach in Catholic churches. There's no way the application will fit with current events or to the particular needs of a community.
Pastors have to do their homework, too.
Will Rutherford of Dallas said that he feels cheated if the pastor doesn't apply the sermon to what's happening in the congregation. Sermon preparation Pastors who look to other pastors for sermon ideas are no different from musicians who take inspiration from other musicians or newspapers that take story ideas from other papers, Dr. Wright said. It's what happens next that can become a problem, he said. But there's an intellectual dishonesty if somebody stands up and says, 'As we all saw on television last week' when, in fact, the pastor was lying on a beach somewhere and not watching television at all. The principles of attribution are more well-defined in Judaism, said Rabbi William Lebeau, the vice chancellor for rabbinic development at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.