Preaching Beyond The Grave

26 April 2009 No Comment

I received this interesting article at Christianity Today about famous preachers whose sermons are more popular after they are dead. Adrian Rogers and D. James Kennedy were mentioned. But one famous preacher seems to be even more popular.

J. Vernon McGee

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And according to a spokesperson, McGee”s Thru the Bible Radio Network in Pasadena, Calif. continues to receive donations to keep his sermons on the air.

Yes, more popular than Rogers, Kennedy, and Falwell and another surprising person, Derek Prince.

According to this article, Dobson”s messages will still continue to be broadcasted after his death. As I will suspect Billy Graham”s sermons, Charles Stanley”s sermons, Oral Robert”s sermons, and Paul and Jan Crouch”s sermons will be also and most every famous televangelist.

A friend of mine who was raised fundamentalist tells me that Jack Hyles, the Bob Joneses, and Lester Roloff are in that same category in fundamentalist circles as Rogers, Kennedy, McGee, and Prince. The same with a Catholic friend that loves to watch the old Bishop Fulton J. Sheen reruns on EWTN.

Is this because men like McGee, Kennedy, and Rogers are still anointed? According to followers, Yes! and uncompromising too.

The article did raise a question of interest to me

When is the line crossed between the ole time anointed men of God and the newer preachers (some considerably not anointed) who have better technologies to archive and preserve their sermons?

I”m wondering fifty years from now if we are going to see more archived sermons from dead preachers we complain about compromising (when compared to older preachers) more available because of advances in technology?

We at least have Spurgeon and Luther archived through books. We have McGee archived via cassette tape. Now we have entire television ministries, television networks, and YouTube archiving anyone with capabilities.

This is going to be very interesting and do you copyright a sermon to the point where you have to wait the years before it enters public domain?