Why Aren't We Raising Up More Preachers?

Our Brotherhood is turning out fewer and fewer preachers. One has to ask the question, "Why?" I believe the blame cannot be placed on any one reason. I believe it is a combination of many of us failing in many capacities. Here are my observations and constructive criticisms.

First, the family itself must take some of the blame. Ministers are criticized too freely in many homes. The ministry is not respected as a whole. Many families have roasted preacher for dinner. The boys who do wish to enter the ministry are often discouraged at home. Many parents don't want their sons to be treated like their own preacher is treated. Yet the vast majority of boys who enter the ministry, decide to do so before they are 18. Many decide even long before that. I did so at the age of 12. Incidentally, in this age of divorce we need to know that happy homes often create the desire to preach, but very few preachers come from divorced households.

Second, the local Church is partly to blame. Church fights have a tendency to discourage recruitment to the ministry. "Preacher bashing" and "firing" don't make the minister's work very appealing. Poor salaries, constant criticism and no encouragement to those who do plan to enter the ministry take their toll as well. Every Church ought to have a "Preacher Recruitment" program, and help those young men who wish to preach. If you would check the records, you would find that over half of the preachers come from a Church that had other students in training at the same time they were in training. Some Churches have driven more preachers from the ministry than they have ever replaced. Perhaps we ought to keep records of the Churches that drive men from the ministry and who never fill in the ranks with their own sons. The elders of Churches who see their preachers leave the ministry after serving their congregation, ought to do some real soul-searching.

Third, preachers themselves often discourage recruitment. Disgruntled, complaining preachers who do not keep their eye on eternal rewards instead of monetary gain are hurtful to the cause. They do not encourage young men by their very actions and attitudes. They could care less about having "Timothys." Having a "Timothy" is no longer a sign of a successful minister. Some preachers speak of their lack of respect, their unmet needs, and their unfulfilled desires, instead of emphasizing a lost and dying world. Preacher recruitment needs to be a "top priority." II Timothy 2:2, "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."

Fourth, fathers do not encourage their sons to enter the ministry like they used to do. They are prouder of a "doctor" son than one who serves the Great Physician. A "lawyer" son who helps defend the guilty, receives more praise than he who preaches of Him who can take away guilt. Many men prefer for their sons to speak of the age of rocks, than the Rock of Ages. Some have more interest in their sons being bankers than helping their sons get people to bank on Him who has an interest in saving souls. They would prefer the son to teach math than preach of Him who is the "Sum of all things." They prefer their sons to engineer a roadway than for them to show the road to "The Way." Statistics show that fathers are more important in recruitment than even the preacher, mother, or elders.

Fifth, Christian Service Camps have got to take some of the blame. They used to be one of the greatest tools of recruitment we had. I don't expect the next remark to be appreciated, yet I know dozens of preachers who secretly talk about it. We turn our High School weeks of camp over to youth ministers, who do not have a love for preaching. They love games, skits, sports, and music. Back in the days when I was recruited, we had "preacher" men, not overgrown boys as role models at camp. They moved us by their preaching. I went to camp with "role model" preachers: Reggie Thomas, Marshall Leggett, E. Ray Jones, Phil Young, Larry Schnautz, Wayne Smith, Tommy Overton, and Luke Perrine. My brother was greatly moved by Ernie Laughlin, Elmer Kyle, J. Thomas Segroves, Leon Appel, and Charles Mills. No one is going to be moved to preach by someone who doesn't love it. We turn our camps over to "fun-loving" fellows who are hardly any more mature than the students. Then we sit and wonder why we are not recruiting preachers!!!

Sixth, the colleges are guilty of several errors that contribute to the fact that few are entering or staying in the ministry. (This could be an article on its own.)

A. By insisting on accreditation, they add greatly to the costs of the Church training men for the ministry. This cost discourages many boys from preaching. I know students graduating from Bible Colleges with indebted-ness of $30,000.00! Who wants to enroll in such a pro-gram? As a father, a preacher, an educator, I would discourage any young man from doing that! It is totally unnecessary. They have to quit the ministry to make the money to pay their school bill.

B. The college's interest often appears to be in quantity of students and not quality. This is a great hindrance. I had three colleges write me for a recommendation of three different students. I informed them that they were "gay". All three schools accepted the students because they were "live tuition paying bodies". Fortunately, none of these students became preachers.

For financial reasons colleges accept students that the local minister could not recommend to the college. The "life style" of these students no doubt kept some fine young men at these schools from ever preaching due to disillusionment with fellow students.

C. By the colleges refusing to take a firm stand on doctrine, and sapping the evangelistic excitement of the student, many young men have been discouraged from preaching at all. I have seen many young men go to college "on fire for the Lord." They came back without evangelistic zeal, and watered down in their convictions. They have become walking spiritual zombies of doubt, despair and discouragement. In attempting to quench their "over enthusiasm," the college has "quenched the Spirit of God."

D. When effeminate music directors and choir members from the colleges visit the Churches they often turn off young fellows planning to go to Bible College. Others, for the same reason, have left the school and gone home!!! This is not theory. I am repeating what young men have actually told me.

E. The use of women recruiters is fine for recruiting girls to nursing or educational majors. It is not going to recruit men to the ministry. Recruiters need to be preachers who are good at preaching. The Presidents of the colleges need to be outstanding preachers, who love preaching and are knowledgeable in the Word. Real preachers attract real preachers. I am happy to see some of the finest preachers with conviction taking some of our largest schools. This will help.

F. The Colleges whose emphasis is not on preparing preachers and Christian workers is another great hindrance. Imagine a fine young man who plans to preach, going to college where he falls in love with a sweet young lady studying to be a nurse or school teacher. She is determined to never marry a preacher. He shifts to an education major, instead of preaching. This happens over and over and it cannot be denied.

G. Due to an insufficient amount of Bible teaching, students graduate from our schools unprepared. They then leave the ministry due to failure and feelings of inadequacy. I have been amazed, as I review transcripts of preachers transferring into Summit Theological Seminary, at their lack of Bible and theological education. It is appalling. I recently enrolled a preacher as a Master's candidate that had a Bachelor's degree. He had a total of 16 credits in Bible! This is two credits per semester! These poor fellows get out into the ministry and have a total feeling of helplessness because they are not pre-pared to answer the simplest Bible questions. Even worse, some of them think that they are prepared because they have been to Bible College!! Do you think these unprepared and ill-equipped men are going to recruit others to the ministry? Not hardly!!!

H. College professors who are not in the preaching area often try to recruit the preacher boys into their field. Several professors of music have tried to prevent students from changing to a major in preaching. The jealousy and rivalry of the professors puts preaching majors in an awkward position. Professors who push preaching are often rebuked or fired. Christian education and music, as well as liberal arts instructors push for faculty and equipment for their departments to the exclusion of the "preacher boys." "Preaching" is shown no priority. They manipulate the curriculum away from preaching to general studies. The fact that many of my readers think I am speaking of a case they know about only proves that what I am saying is true. Choirs, ensembles, and sports participants get excused absences for their participations up to a week. A preacher boy getting back late from preaching on Sunday is not excused. Holding revivals are not valid reasons for absence, but putting a ball through a hoop is. Doesn't this speak volumes to our young men? It tells them what we think has priority. Often, training preachers is not the real goal of the school. Preacher boys are just the means of getting the Church to support the whole college program. I do not think it is honorable to say, "Help us train preachers," and not give them priority over the other majors.

Seventh, the Church Growth experts have to take their share of the blame. They say, "Evangelize the cities, not the rural areas." Yet, the statistics show that most preachers come from rural Churches. Over 50% of our preachers come from areas of less than 10,000 people. Less than 10% of the preachers come from metropolitan areas. I sat with a brother yesterday, and we named people we knew from Southern Illinois who entered the ministry. We probably named at least 100 men between us. Neither of us knew one from Chicago, or even Springfield, and I have attended six colleges! Our ministers come from little Churches, little towns, and from the poor to middle class. Church Growth experts may be outstanding in their field, but most of the preacher boys were fellows "out standing in a field". The Church Growth experts may know something about how to get a crowd, but I have found that they know very little about how to "get a heart to be committed." They have never learned that what you use for bait determines what kind of crowd you get. If men are drawn to fun, music, personalities, entertainment and buildings, they will leave for "better" of the same. If men are drawn to truthful preaching, some of them will want to preach the Truth. Church growth principles work in any denomination or cult. These principles then are not a part of the convicting message of the Gospel, but rather the wisdom that man teaches. The spirit-led Philip was taken away from a great revival to preach to one lone black man in a chariot. Church history makes him a preacher to Ceylon, Arabia and Ethiopia.

Eighth, Sunday School teachers have to come in for some criticism, too. Unprepared lessons, uninteresting presentations, or reading to the class out of the quarterly is a "turn-off." They need to be prepared and show an interest in their students personally. How many preachers are preaching because of a Sunday School teacher? It used to be a common thing for the preacher to give credit to one of their teachers. Today, all too often the Sunday School teachers do not see the opportunity that they have to recruit to the ministry. The thought that ought to be foremost in their minds as they teach is, "One of these boys may be a great soul winner, and I am helping to form him by what I say." They ought to know that the most rambunctious kid in the class is probably going to become a preacher, because that is the way it usually is. Challenge that powerful leadership for Christ. It is the young who decide to preach. Less than 10% of men enter the ministry after college. Sunday School teachers miss a golden opportunity to put the idea in a young man's mind. It is fruit that could abound to the teacher's account.

Ninth, Youth ministers, too, have to take part of the blame. "Pizza, Pepsi, playin' and pickin'" won't do it. They have got to stop the same old tiresome curriculum of "What's wrong with sex, rock music, smoking, drinking, and drugs?" That is all some of our kids get in youth group. The good kids don't do it, and the bad kids don't listen. Faith comes by hearing the Word. The Gospel is "Good News." The kids are insulted by "games" instead of "God," "Pizza" instead of "prayer." Kids will study the Word. I have found from experience that youth groups grew when I taught the Word. I had fifteen kids out of twenty planning to go to Bible College in one Church where I ministered. We studied the Word. The youth minister at a neighboring Church had 90 kids in his youth group. They had two intending to go to Bible College. The difference was "emphasis". Youth ministers need to change the emphasis of their curriculum! If Christ makes a difference in their life, they will want to share that. Not too many people want to grow up and share "Pizza, Pepsi, and popcorn."

Tenth, Christians in general must admit their own shortcomings. When was the last time you prayed, or heard someone pray, "Lord, help us raise up laborers"? Isn't that what the Lord told us to pray? We are not told to pray for souls. We are told to pray for laborers! We are not told to pray for the doors of men's hearts to be open-ed. We are told to pray for doors of opportunity to be opened. We are not told to pray for men to be brave enough to obey. We are told to pray for boldness to speak what we ought to speak. We are not told to pray for sinners to repent, we are told to pray that the Word of God might have free course and be glorified. We are not told to pray for the lost, but for the preacher. Jesus did not pray for the world, but for His apostles. We need to let our young men hear us pray, asking for laborers. I read recently of a Church that had never turned out a preacher. The preacher put an emphasis on praying for laborers, and the Church saw several young men enter the ministry. God answers prayer. He is the Lord of harvest and He is the One who sends them out.

Eleventh, preaching fathers must admit that they have not always set good examples for their sons. Preacher's sons often follow sincere, earnest, happy and contented fathers into the ministry. No greater compliment of a man's ministry can be given than for his sons and grand-sons to preach. My father saw both of his sons enter the ministry. Had he lived, he could have heard four of his grandsons preach. He would have seen five of his grand-daughters marry preachers. In fact, sixteen out of nine-teen of Len Faull's descendants entered Bible college. Dad was termed one of those fanatical, radical, opinionated preachers. God, give us more men who have conviction, and are wholly sold out to the Lord. Men like that give us preachers who mean business for God and the Lord's Church.

Twelfth, poor stewards in the Church are also to blame. Preachers are often paid very poorly. God has ordained that "they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." When we see the many costs of Bible colleges today, it costs 50,000.00 for four years!! That amount, if invested at age 22 at 8% interest, would be worth $1.3 million at 65. That is the real cost of a Bible College education. Yet when he gets to 65, will he even have a retirement? Churches usually fail to plan, so they plan to fail in meeting their preacher's retirement needs. A Church usually ordains a man at 22. There are safe methods to invest $6,000.00 that would grow into a monthly retirement of $2,816.00 for life. Instead, we wait until he is 40 years of age, and invest $2,000.00 a year, or $50,000.00 till he is 65 years old, and he gets only $1,264.00 a month for life. This would save the Church $44,000.00 for evangelism, but also give $1,552.00 more each month for the minister's retirement, plus a $100,000.00 death benefit. Low pay, poor fringe benefits, and poor retirement all say to our youth, that preaching is not an important job. It is a job for a flunky or someone who can't do anything other than preach. The message we send out is that God's ox ought to be muzzled. This is exactly what God forbids. "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." (I Corinthians 9).

Thirteenth reason is the most important of all. The Brotherhood at large is responsible for few entering the ministry. The Brotherhood is drifting into complacency, self-satisfaction, worldliness and denominational confusion. The Brotherhood has lost its identity. We are no longer the bearers of a unique message. We do not give a distinct sound. The men who do are accused of sounding a disconcerted note. We have no message. It is easy believism. We do not award our pulpits to the fearless and the faithful. We award them to the faint and feeble voiced chameleons among us. We prefer tact to truth. We would rather hear what Tony Compalo, Chuck Colson, Chuck Swindoll, Billy Graham, John McArthur and the Fuller bunch have to say than the apostles. If it doesn't make any difference what we believe, it doesn't make any difference if we believe. We have never been smart enough to understand that a distinct message gives a clear call to the ministry. Who wants to give his life preaching a message from a Bible that is not inerrant? Who wants to preach for a God that doesn't have a Hell for sinners and a Heaven for His saints? Who wants to preach from a Word that only contains Paul's opinion about women? Who will be challenged to proclaim a message that must be sociologically interpreted instead of a "Thus saith the Lord"? Won't we ever learn why Methodists, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalians and United Church of Christ can't get preachers? Liberals have no conviction that matter. I would never preach if I could not know that what I said was the very Word of God, and that the authority of Christ was absolute. Our Brotherhood is a hodgepodge of opinions. The schools teach conflicting things about the woman's place, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and grace. We give no certain sound on many subjects, and therefore, no one prepares for Battle!!! We need to return to preaching the message of the One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Body, One Hope, etc., because we will never be able to recruit men to proclaim an indistinct message. A man would be a fool to preach a message that doesn't matter. We are more guilty of vacillation and indifference to theology than any other religious body I know. We have failed to say what Truth is. We cannot recruit men to want to proclaim an opinion. There won't be men like Jeremiah with burning hearts preaching if we only can say, "maybe" and "ought to" and "perhaps." Men can be recruited to preach "Thus saith the Lord," so let's get back to it.

So what are all of us going to do? We need to repent of apathy. We need to pray for laborers. We need to encourage and support the ministry. We need to honor those who do preach. We need strong families, Churches, preachers, colleges, camps, Sunday School teachers, and youth ministers who will encourage those who are thinking of preaching. We need to make college affordable, and stop this idiotic practice of graduating men $20 or $30 thousand dollars in debt, thus, forcing the graduate out of the ministry, to pay their school bills. We need to emphasize "preaching" in camps and colleges, and properly provide for those who do preach. Mothers and fathers need to stop discouraging sons who want to preach.