Generalizations are misleading and always slightly wrong. Having taught preaching at one of the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ affiliated schools recently, I had difficulty recruiting college-age men for the discipline of preaching. In this article, I want to examine some of the reasons why fewer people are interested in preaching today and offer some suggestions on what to do about it.
I. Factors that interfere with the study of preaching
Ben Mandrell offers three reasons why the preacher population is declining. The first reason he calls fear of failure refers to the growing belief among many young adults that the traditional church is locked into rigid ways and seems unwilling to innovate. Many young adults don’t think they can fit into the traditional church. Thom Rainer expresses this idea in an interview with Michael Dudit in which Rainer says: “This generation is not going to accept church as usual. This generation is determined that if they are going to be part of a local congregation, that congregation has to be changing the world…These young adults are frustrated with church as usual, with the actions of the local church, business and what they perceive as irrelevance. So they are planting churches. Frustrations with traditional churches reduce the appeal of preaching for many of our young adults.
A second reason offered by Mandrell for the dearth of student preachers is what he calls a lack of exposure. Simply put, many young people feel disconnected from the pastor of their churches, instead identifying with the youth minister or college minister. Bob Russell, a well-known minister of the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ agrees with this idea. He says that many senior pastors no longer actively recruit student preachers into their congregations, unlike in the past. Youth ministers seem to be modeling powerful ministry for our youth, so the idea of becoming a senior pastor is not on the radar of many of our ministry students. the final invitation of each week was directed at inviting the youth to consider ministry. Simply put, the church in many ways is not recruiting young people to preach these days.
A third reason Mandrell offers for a lack of interest in preaching is fear of a dysfunctional family. Women today in particular view the tradition of a pastor’s wife with suspicion and fear. So when young men feel called to preach, their girlfriends are very discouraging. The pulpit seems like a dangerous place for a man who wants to be fully present and fully engaged with his family.
There are other factors that discourage the call to preach. One of those factors is simply the disrespect for ministry that is currently in vogue in our culture. Brian Baldwin, a professor of youth and family ministry at Kentucky Christian University, said that when he was a campus minister at Murray State University, some parents weren’t supportive of calling their children to ministry. In this secular age, Christian parents do not support their children to enter the ministry, because “there is not enough money in that profession.” Some Christian parents also try to discourage their children from ministry.
Another discouraging factor for college students studying preaching is the diversification of the college curriculum in most ministry schools today. Rob O’Lynn, the current preaching professor at Kentucky Christian University, said some senior pastors advise their ministry students to take up youth ministry in college so they can get a job and focus on preaching later on. Obviously, if young people who are interested in preaching never study the trade while they are in school, then they will not be as skilled as they should be when it comes time to preach later on. In previous generations of ministry training students, there was only one ministry track available to ministry students that required at least two semesters of preaching for all men interested in the ministry. Today, youth ministry courses often compete with preaching courses in many ministry programs.
Financial debt is another reason some college students do not pursue preaching. The amount of college debt is overwhelming today, and I have personally seen several young people who were interested in preaching pursuing a community college education instead of a Christian college because of the difference in tuition costs between public and private education. the private one I believe that churches should be more proactive in supporting the preaching ministry by investing in scholarships for student preachers.
Additionally, in denominations that allow women to preach, there is still a stigma attached to women serving in pulpits; therefore, some talented women will not follow this ministerial calling while others will have a hard time getting hired by local churches. Most women interested in ministry will seek educational or youth ministry positions at the local church rather than preach. With all these negative factors interfering with the study of preaching, the discipline of preaching seems to be in trouble.
II. Possibilities for recruiting and training preachers
One way to improve ministry students’ exposure to the discipline of preaching is to better balance credit hours within the college curriculum between youth ministry and preaching. Most undergraduate schools of ministry have concentrations or specializations in youth ministry or preaching that typically require nine to 12 hours for each emphasis. Because we live in an age of specialization, it seems natural for the ministry to specialize in later years rather than go in a general direction in terms of preparation. However, I would argue that since most male ministry students begin their ministry with youth minister positions, and many will end up preaching at the end of their careers, it makes sense to balance youth ministry and preaching training. I am not saying that all specialization should cease in terms of preparation for ministry, but I do believe that a general approach to ministry should be a possibility for students of ministry. In this program, students would take at least six semester hours in youth ministry and preaching. I found that it takes at least two courses in any subject to achieve proficiency in a skill set. Two-semester preaching courses were the standard preparation for preaching when I was in Bible college, and I believe this curriculum would best serve many of our male students seeking ministry in a Christian school setting.
I believe senior pastors also need to do a better job of recruiting talented young people for the preaching ministry. The number one job in the ministry is preaching. Every church wants a preacher regardless of all other concerns. One thing I have learned about ministry is that preaching teaches you the Bible like no other method of scripture study. This fact was a surprise to me personally in my life, and I believe that this blessing really needs to be promoted by the ministers who preach among their youth. Because the act of preaching requires the most preparation of any ministerial act (more than teaching), preaching immerses you in the text, and your retention of Scripture is excellent. It is the discipline of preaching that truly makes a person a teacher of the Scriptures, even for Bible college graduates who have majored in the Bible. I thought I knew the Bible from taking various Bible classes in my educational career. I really discovered the Bible through preaching. We need to tell our students that if you really want to learn the Bible: Preach!
One last motivation to study preaching. Preaching is blessed by God (Romans 10:14-15). We regularly need to make known in our churches the blessing that God reserves for those who preach. Some of our young people might choose to become preachers as a result of a little publicity!
Mandrell Ben. “Finding Timothy: Raising the Next Generation of Preachers.” Preaching, 26(6), pp. 18-21.
Duduit, Michael, “Reaching Millennials: An Interview with Thom Rainer.” Preaching (27) 4, p. 9.
Author’s Notes. National Preaching Conference, March 2011, Indianapolis, IN.
Mandrell, p. twenty.
Baldwin, Brian. Assistant Professor of Youth Ministry, Kentucky Christian University. A private conversation with the author, 2010.
O’Lynn, Rob. Assistant Professor of Preaching, Kentucky Christian University. A private conversation with the author, February 2011.