A minister developed quite a reputation for his sermons so much so that every member of the community came to every service. Unfortunately, one weekend a member had to visit Long Island for his nephew's birthday; but he didn't want to miss the minister's sermon. So he decided to hire a stand-in to sit in the congregation and tape the sermon so he could listen to it when he returned.

The other congregates saw what was going on, and they decided to hire their own stand-in guys to tape the sermon so they could play golf instead of going to church. Within a few weeks time there were 500 stand-ins in the congregation sitting in church taping the minister.

The minister got wise to this. The following Sunday, he, too, hired a stand in who brought a tape recorder to play the minister's pre-recorded sermon to the 500 stand-ins in the congregation who dutifully recorded his words on their machines.

Witnesses said that this marked the first incidence in history of artificial insermonation.