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| One artist wrote to thank me for giving credit to the original artist in each graphic, even the long-dead classical painters. At Bethany Lutheran Church we have our own artist-in-residence, Norma Boeckler. |
Tim Niedfeldt has left a new comment on your post "Thou Shalt Not Steal - WELS":
Obviously I would have some insight in this little situation. Besides just being my former church (Victory), it is my artist that makes the all the sermon graphics.
This phenomenon is a little bit different than stealing but an interesting thing to pursue. This is a group of pastors who have a study group and they share worship planning and the series "Big Idea" as well as the weekly themes, readings and such. Some of them study together even more closely. They invite others into the group and each series outline and all accompanying graphics are sent out about 6-8 weeks ahead of time.
So what do you get? A WELS home grown sermon generator. So is this good? bad? Well it certainly means that the graphics my artist originally donated for free for Victory's use are being shared indiscriminately with everyone without any consideration that every theme is probably $300 work.
Even though the artist is my best friend I did not want to put any burden on her as to whether she would continue to provide them after I left. I haven't asked if she is continuing. However it was her working on the graphics, and investigating the sermon themes for inspiration, and her consequent concerns that helped me see how alarming the material was becoming.
These sermons, the PDF's and the podcasts are all hosted on my web server still. Sitting less than 3 feet from me. I am the person who until 5 months ago put up every sermon series page. One interesting thing to note. The largest page views for Victory are the sermons. From all over the world. and on Friday and Saturday nights the server lights up with browsers from all over looking through servers. The phenomenon is widespread all over.
Tim
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GJ - Someone from WELS got me looking at groups of sermons built around a theme. I found that some series were appearing in a dozen denominations at once, different years, different times of the year.
My assumption as a Lutheran is that every minister writes his own sermons, but that is becoming an exceptional approach. Many publish the audio of their sermons but not the written version. Why? The comparisons are too easy to make. I can edit a PDF into Word, copy and paste a section, and find it all over the web. Rarely do two people write the same five words in a row, but a copy and paste will show about 90% agreement verbatim.
Some observations - the ones listed in my earlier post (including Victory of the Lamb) are all part of Church and Change. There is probably not an original idea in that entire sub-group of WELS. They take after their founders and leaders - Parlow, Steve Witte, John Johnson, Valleskey, Bivens, Kelm, Olson, Jim Huebner - bowing toward Fuller and Willow Creek, their twin Meccas.
The Big Idea concept caught my attention because one famous Evangelical minister, Haddon Robinson, developed it.
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| Haddon Robinson taught at Gordon Conwell and Denver Seminary, alma maters of Church and Changers. |
Haddon Robinson's bio. Robinson taught at Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, where John Parlow got his drive-by DMin. He also taught at Gordon Conwell, where Steve Witte got his DMin. Parlow got caught posting the Babtist sermon of another minister, acting as if he wrote the sermon hisself, with the thievery published on the church websty. Parlow even stole, almost verbatim, the self-serving email sent by Hybels of Willow Creek. These guys have no shame.
Read the Parlow/Hybels emails, sent the same day, for hilarity.
Sermon series appeal to the plagiarists because they can use them at any time, except for those obvious seasons where Christmas and Easter need to be emphasized.
Sermons series are typical of Evangelical Church Growth types, who also love praise bands and despise a pipe organ playing real Lutheran hymns. Such products of Fuller, Willow Creek, and Trinity in Deerfield are openly contemptuous of real church music.
Victory of the Lamb is also one of those snacking churches, where people are urged to take a drink and munchies into the service. One visitor to The CORE was disturbed that he heard people munching popcorn during the prayer of the church. The visitor was condemned for publishing his comments - using the 8th Commandment/Matthew 18 combo to denounce him.
The CORE began with all Groeschel graphics, mottos, and sermons, plus snacks. They would have had better attendance by sharing the beer kept in The CORE's refrigerator.
The Shrinker churches claim they are serving God because of their numbers, so God must have shut down the Latte Church run by Randy Hunter, current poster boy for Church Growth in WELS. The sect has done everything except erect a bronze statue of him at The Love Shack. Hunter spoke on Evangelism Day (sic) at Martin Luther College and subsequently at the Leadership broadcast from Willowcreek's Little Coven, aka WLC in Milwaukee.
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| "He got our Evangelism Day speakers list?" |