# Would You Use Docent Research Group for Sermon Prep?



## B.L. (Jul 5, 2021)

Morning Esteemed Friends,

I was recently made aware of the Docent Research Group and discovered a number of pastor "celebs" endorse their services for helping them craft their sermons, etc.

With the recent plagiarism controversy swirling around some church leaders in their sermons I was curious when I learned there are research groups out there that pastors can submit RFIs to (for a fee) for help on everything from sermon series planning to sermon preparation (plus assistance in a host of other ministry areas). It seems the "clientele" Docent is targeting are those who pastor large congregations who "need" assistance doing the work of a shepherd day in and day out.

If you are (or ever were to be) a pastor would you consider using the services of a group like Docent? Is this sort of research outsourcing common these days do you think? Perhaps I am naïve, but I never would have guessed pastors (their congregations really) would be paying for a service like this.

Here is a description of the "research" services Docent offers:



> The work of a pastor never really ends. You’re sermon prepping. Then you’re meeting with staff or elders. Next you have a couple visits with a congregant. And as you go from meeting to meeting, you’re thinking about a hundred other things–priorities for your Sunday school offerings, whether to continue growing your congregation or to plant a new church, and how to deal with the hundred different “small” things that come up throughout the week that, when added together, aren’t so small.
> 
> The result is what author Chris McChesney calls “the whirlwind.” There are so many things to be managed on a day-to-day basis that it leaves little time for working toward specific goals you have as a pastor or as a church. You really want to read that book, but you haven’t gotten to it yet. You would love to know more about your local demographics to better understand your neighborhood, but you don’t know where to look. Management wins and executing ideas gets lost.
> 
> ...


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## Poimen (Jul 5, 2021)

Perhaps they should assist pastors with prayer too. After all, if order implies priority, they comes first: Acts 6:4.

Digital prayer wheels might be handy or perhaps a few monasteries that we can finance to help with time off purgatory for grandfather.

Reactions: Like 1


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## B.L. (Jul 5, 2021)

Poimen said:


> Perhaps they should assist pastors with prayer too. After all, if order implies priority, it comes first: Acts 6:4.
> 
> Prayer wheels might be handy or perhaps a few monasteries that we can finance to help with time off purgatory for grandfather.



This reminded me of a session meeting I heard about a few years back where one of the agenda items was discussing a congregant's request to restart a prayer ministry. Those present discussed the mechanics of what something like this might look like...consolidated list of prayer needs, team of "prayer warriors" who would meet together, weekly prayer emails, etc. When the brainstorming had run its course one of the young pastors was said to have commented that the church had tried something similar in the past and that his schedule was too busy to commit to doing that again. Apparently the congregant who made the request had been actively voicing her desire to get another prayer group started for some time and gained the nickname "the squeaky wheel" by some present.

Prayer, like preaching, has fallen on hard times I'm afraid. Both seem to have been substituted with another "p" word -- pragmatism.

Reactions: Sad 1


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