> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dashhouse.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Vanity link
- URL: https://www.dashhouse.com/2004825vanity-link-html/
- Published: 2004-08-25T14:33:00.000Z
- Updated: 2022-08-15T15:35:33.000Z
- Author: Darryl Dash
- Tags: Blog, pastoring, #DashHouseCom, #wp

My article in [*Preaching*](http://www.preaching.com/?ref=dashhouse.com) magazine is about to come out. [Here’s a teaser](http://www.preaching.com/preaching/preachingnow.html?ref=dashhouse.com) (scroll down to the preview of the September-October issue):

> In “Confessions of a Sermon Thief,” Darryl Dash shares his own experience: “I still remember the Sunday it caught up with me. I had hardly prepared, and I stank. I knew I stank. Everyone knew I stank. I went home that day and repented for my shoddy sermon preparation. I knew that I wasn’t living up to my calling, that I was a workman who needed to be ashamed. You could say a lot about my sermons since then, but you couldn’t say that I hadn’t prepared. “In January 2000, I attended a preaching seminar that changed my approach to preaching. The speaker encouraged us to be ourselves, but his method was so compelling, and his sermons so available, that I adopted his method. My sermons started to sound a little like his. They weren’t his, but they sounded like his. I then began to go even further. “I never knowingly stole a whole sermon. I did, however, begin to get series ideas from others. I began to borrow sermon titles, even though I would develop the sermon differently. It was easy to begin the preparation process by looking at what others had done on the topic. I might or might not use an outline or a point. My sermons were becoming more of a collaborative effort. “I never stopped putting lots of time into my sermons, usually at least ten hours. I never significantly borrowed material without giving credit. I was open with my leaders that I consulted other people’s sermons as I prepared my own. But