When Someone Tries to Sell Your Sermon

By Raul Rivera

Having spent several weeks preparing for a special Easter weekend message, Pastor Brady was surprised when he discovered that someone with a pastoral resource ministry had posted the sermon online for the benefits of paid members.  Shocked that someone would have the audacity to do such a thing, he was not sure what action he could take to force the perpetrator to stop.  The church contacted its attorney. The leadership was shocked when the attorney informed them that they might not have a case.  (More later...)

A pastor in New York

Last year I had a conversation with a minister that claimed a church was profiting from his sermons.  In December of the previous year, he briefly held an interim position at a 500-member church in New York and received compensation from them for the services he rendered.  At the end of his tenure, the church sent him off with an additional love offering of $1,100.00.  He was truly blessed by the offering, as he needed it for a missionary trip to Haiti.  After he returned from his trip to Haiti, he called the church in New York and asked for a copy of a particular sermon.  He wanted to use it as part of a three-part series on godliness.  The church denied his request and told him he could purchase a CD of the message for $7.00 but that he did not have permission to reproduce it.  They planned on selling it in their church bookstore and possibly making it available online.  Like Pastor Brady, this pastor was shocked at the audacity of those with whom he was dealing.  At first he found it almost laughable, but as time passed, he discovered that he did not have a clear-cut case.  It was disheartening to discover that it was entirely possible that the church in New York could have a valid claim against him if he reproduced the sermon he had preached.

Why Pastor Brady had no case

Pastor Brady and his board of directors never imagined that people would ever try to sell his sermons for their own personal profit.  As a matter of principal, the church never officially copyrighted his messages and neither did they ever claim copyrights.  In fact, Pastor Brady on more than one occasion told the congregation that if they ever wanted a copy of the Sunday message, all they had to do was go to the church bookstore and ask for a free copy.  He also encouraged the congregation to make as many copies of the message as they could and to distribute them to the lost and to people who needed to hear a timely message. After all, it was God's Word!  He often said from the pulpit, "Our copyright notice to you is, 'Copy it right!'"  Those statements alone gave the perpetrator license to copy and sell his sermons: or did they? 

In order for Pastor Brady and his board to stop the perpetrator from commercially distributing his sermons, the church attorney sent a cease and desist letter to the perpetrator, in which he was given ten days to remove the sermons from the website and to stop distribution.  The perpetrator never responded.  For Pastor Brady and his board, the next step was legal action.  However, their attorney made it clear that it would be a very steep uphill battle and the likelihood of a favorable outcome was slim.  In order for them to stop the perpetrator they had to do three things, as follows:

1.     They had to register with the U.S. Copyright Office each of the sermons in question.

2.     They had to prove that they were the owners of the copyrighted material.

3.     They had to prove improper or unauthorized copying of the copyrighted material.

Based on the facts and circumstances, the church did not have much of a case.  It never occurred to Pastor Brady that anyone would ever try to sell his sermons.  Now having said what he had said about his sermons, he knew he should have had a different policy.

The pastor from New York

Realizing that he was facing a losing battle, he wondered what his future action plan should be.  Here is what he discovered.  When he went to the church to preach, he never discussed any copyrights with the church.  He also never bothered to check up on the church's copyright policies concerning recorded services.  The church had a policy posted in fine print in its weekly church program that stated that audio recordings of all services were conducted and the church reserved all its rights.  He also discovered that when the church asked him to preach they were compensating him for his services as an employee of the church. He soon learned that the1976 Copyright Act made his work at the church an automatic work for hire, meaning he had no rights to the recordings.  Many people erroneously believe that a minister is a contractor.  Even if a contract is written that states the church wants to hire him as a contractor, the law overrides that classification. 

What Pastor Brady should have done

Even if you want your congregation to have free copies of your sermons and for them to distribute them, you must have a copyright claim on the sermons that limits the use of the sermon to religious non-commercial purposes only.  Pastor Brady should have stated the church's copyright policy by saying the following, "You are encouraged to copy this message and distribute it to friends and family for religious, non-commercial purposes only.  Selling, redistributing, leasing, and other uses of this message are strictly prohibited.  All rights reserved."  This phrase should be at the end of each and every message. 

What the pastor from New York should have done

The law treats the work of an employee differently from that of a legitimate contractor.  In the case of the pastor from New York, the only way for him to have kept the rights to his sermons was to create an intellectual property agreement between himself and the church that allowed him to retain the ownership of the sermons he preached at the church.  At StartCHURCH we call it a Creative License Agreement.  Many pastors have benefited from this because it lays to rest issues concerning sermons they preach.  This is especially important if they later wish to transcribe those sermons into a book or use them as other teaching materials.  Feel free to call us at 770-638-3444 if you have any doubts about what can be done with your sermons.  We are here to help.