Why don’t young men want to preach any more?

In the last post, we explored one reason–they lack the models of ministry that give preaching respectability.

But that’s only a single cause. Over three decades ago I stepped into full time “church work” (as it was called then). Since that time, I have witnessed a weekly carnage. Preachers, many with years of tenure and full of talent, walked away from pulpits. They had enough.

It’s tough to preach. Everyone is a critic who knows how to do it better (even though they never tried). The sermon is too obscure, too simple, too long, too short, not enough scripture, not enough application, etc., etc., etc. Every preacher can visualize the face of a well-meaning assassin.

Beyond public criticism is the whispering campaign done by members. The menu for many a Sunday dinner is fried preacher. Children grow up hearing how “dumb” the preacher is. Today, preachers get skewered on the barbecue pit of blog posts and Facebook mentions. For many, the merciless stabs keep coming until its time to turn out the light and leave the pulpit.

While some church members can plead guilty to spiritual murder, the preacher must bear some of the responsibility. They either just “took it” or finally exploded and lost their credibility.

If you preach, you need to learn a little spiritual karate. See the blows coming and deflect them.

Three simple strategies blocks the attacker in full-stride

Define your work. Few preachers have well-written job descriptions. I suggest a memo to the elders or leaders stating your understanding of your work and priorities. Ask them to write back to correct (with the caveat that you assume they are correct unless specifically corrected). This keeps you from being a puppet with dozens vying to pull the string next.

Record your work. Keep a daily log. Every hour write down every hour what you do. It doesn’t have to be detailed, but enough to provide a casual reader of what your doing. For instance, don’t write down “studying for sermon.” Instead make an entry that says, “reading commentaries for sermons” or “writing first outline of sermon.” This puts teeth in the entry. Keep your log open on your desk so anyone can see it. (After all, you have nothing to hide.)

Report your work. From you daily log, write a monthly report and send it to your elders or leaders. (Regardless of whether they want it or not, send it. If necessary, tell them it is for your benefit.) From a dozen monthly reports, write an annual review. The experience will keep you on track in ways nothing else can.

This process does one thing. It provides ammunition for people who come at you with “he just doesn’t do his job” (or some variant of the attack). Cooly, you can say, “Perhaps, let’s look at it.” You open your log, take out your reports and start tediously going through them. Your attitude is not ugly. You only want to pursue the truth. (If the charge is true, be prepared to admit it.)

The tragedy of many churches is good men lost to the work simply because they never developed skills that would allow them to last. Don’t become a victim. Learn to last.

(For a copy of these resources, refer to the page on Becoming a Leader that Lasts on our website.)

But one category is vacate. No one wants to preach any longer.

Once the primary field of those studying Bible, preaching has fallen on hard times. Many   theories abound.

• There’s no money in it.
• It’s outdated and antiquated.
• It doesn’t “feel” as good as missions or youth ministry.

While there’s a subjective measure of truth to all the reasons advanced, two tend to be ignored. The first is the topic of this post.

To become a preacher, you have to have respectable models of the profession.

At one time, the preacher was the most educated man in town. He served as the conscience of a community, the locomotive of all that was good, and the most-admired man around.

The damage to preaching reputation came from many sources. The wolf-in-sheep-clothing televangelist in late 20^th century unjustly caricatured all preachers. A younger generations saw through the “fleece for profit” mentality and quickly dismissed both the preacher and his craft.

But another source is a closer to my heart. I grew up in two distinct churches. During my elementary years, we attend a small church of 100. The preacher’s office had a revolving door. In 8 years, we went through four preachers. One left under the unashamed cloak of adultery. Another sat on the parsonage steps and strummed a guitar. His sermons came not from study by a poorly written sermon outline book. The preaching was thin and the preachers more forgettable than the sermons.

When I was twelve, we moved to a larger, growing church. The preacher, Robert Oglesby had order to his sermons. They made sense. In addition, he worked hard and displayed competence both in and of the pulpit. He cared for people, cared for the future of the church, and cared about the preaching.

The contrast was not lost on a young man who was asking the question, “what do I want to be when I grow up?”

If you are a preacher, you are affecting the future of preaching.

Work at your sermons. Learn to outline, illustrate, and make the text come alive. Don’t fool yourself. Everyone (even the 8 year old boy) knows when you are resting on old material.

Work on your attitude. Really care for the church. I meet my share of “I’m here to tell off the church” types. Their messages are dismissed  far before the final “amen.” Love the church. Preach to improve not to pummel into submission. Don’t tell people off or “straighten them out.” Help them improve.

Work on your lifestyle. Work hard. Put in the hours, Be balance in both preaching and work. Be humble and stay a learner. Have a love for the work and a love for the people that says, “I’m proud of what I do.” No one can belittle a man who believes what he is doing is of eternal value.

I’ve been blessed to know great preachers in my life. I’m also saddened to know inadequate preachers in my life. Thankfully, I crossed paths with someone I could respect at the right time in my life.

Don’t wring your hands over the empty pulpit. Be the mold into which other men will pour their lives.

In the West, we have the luxury of going to a supermarket, making selections of products that leave the mind numb with indecision, and eating without thinking about the source. Our culture has removed us from the source of our food–the farm.

As long as the farm produces food, we can eat. But what happens if the farm disappears? What will you eat then?

But well-fed people can experience a famine worse than the Sudan. Amid great wealth Israel found another form of emptiness. Hosea the prophet saw the spiritual clouds dry up. In Hosea 4 he warned the people:

Concerns turn into emergencies which plunge into crises. The problem hides in the shadows before the crisis emerges. Gaze at the horizon and you can see the specter of spiritual famine take shape.

For decades, the church enjoyed the luxury of having a seemingly plentiful supply of preachers. Churches with open pulpits could count on a long waiting line of candidates. Even the smallest pulpits had competition for the space.

Now we have large churches with pulpits that stand vacant for a year or more while they “beat the bushes” looking for a qualified replacement. Currently, churches who have “gone fishing” for a new preacher have discovered there is an ever smaller pool of preachers from which to choose.

So the winds have shifted. The pressures of ministry drive hundreds from pulpits each year. For some they feel the drain of burnout. Others, untrained and unprepared, get caught in conflict with church members or elders. Many just had their unrealistic expectations dashed on the rocks of reality. The exit from the pulpit is packed with a throng of those fleeing preaching.

The problem is that no one is coming to replace them. Preaching has fallen out of the “respectable” profession list for many of our young people. Each year, less than 100 young men wanting to preach come out of all of our schools combined . Those who do have the desire are ill-prepared for the daily grind of church work. They are the “dropouts in waiting.”

Unless something happens, the day is coming when no one will step to the pulpit. Then, the prophecy will come to fruition, “People will stagger from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.

The call informed me that our preacher had fallen ill during the night and I was on tap to preach. I now had three hours to prepare and polish a message for an audience of 1000 listeners.

The sermon went well and was well-received. While that may be true, it is difficult to go from 0 to total presentation in three hours. How do stay ready so you prepare effectively when under the gun?

It doesn’t start when the call comes. Someone once asked me how long it took to prepare a sermon. My answer is simple–it took 30 years. All immediate preparation is a reflection of years of training. If you don’t put the hard hours in the cool of the day, you won’t be ready when thrown into the fire.

Yet, you need to do some things regularly to prepare for the last-minute situation. (These are also essential for the routine preparation of sermons.)

Read widely.

Reading is the river that fills the mental reservoir. Reading puts ideas into the mind and into notes. Read novels, self-help books, biographies and books on Bible topics. In addition, find some mind-stimulating blogs and read them daily. All will allow ideas to haunt the mind, reading it for the call when it comes.

Reflect daily.

Sermons take place at the intersection of text and current events. Think daily about what is happening. Analyze the news and think through reading. What do the events mean? What kind of implications are there for living? This kind of thinking is a tumbler turning rock into gemstone.

Write regularly.

One reason I write a blog post is to force me to do focused thinking. I write in a journal, put words into letters and memos, and make presentations. All are the whetstone of thinking. If the knife is not sharp, there’s no time to do it at the last minute. Too many preachers are dull because they don’t sharpen themselves regularly.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t enjoy the pressure of hurry-up preparation. I would never recommend it as a steady habit of life. However, when you take moments to prepare yourself daily, you are ready to prepare a message in a pinch.

Many leaders can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but they must learn to play the music of leadership.

Musicians use diverse tools to get a desired effect. When the score calls for a sustained note, the violinist draws the bow across the strings. However, a rapidly moving piece demands the machine-gun sound of a staccato tongue. It depends on the effect needed.

What kind of leadership music do you play? It depends on the effect you want to get.

Most leaders start with the question, “what do I want to do?” That question can have many answers.

• …preach a sermon.
• …hold a seminar.
• …have a meeting.
• …teach a class.

All are good answers to that question. But the question is asked out of sequence. Before “what” you must ask, “what effect do I want to get?” That question yields dramatically different answers.

• …create excitement among the parents of our young children.
• …have 40 people from our community.
• …train 20 of our members to teach the gospel to their friends.
• …energize our deacons to keep them from getting discouraged.

The second question frames a better answer for the first.

• The preacher will craft his sermon in a certain way to reach the audience.
• The seminar will need a topic and approach which entices the community.
• The meeting should focus on praise and planning.
• The class must do more than provide information. It must focus on hands-on training.

When a leader starts with the effect question, he then knows what to plan, whom to target, and what to avoid. Too many times events result in sighs of “I don’t know why they are not interested.” That’s because the leaders ignored the “effect” question.

The musician uses the tools at his disposal to get the proper effect. The leader, too, must master the music of leadership. Ask the right question first.

It’s Sunday morning and when the preacher steps to the platform, he presents an “ok” sermon. But in another church, a preacher “hits the bull’s eye.” Is one a better preacher? Perhaps, but it may be that one took a better bead on the target.

Let me explain about a small, subtle step that puts the arrow on the flight path to hitting the listener where they live.

I’ve known Robert Oglesby for over 40 years. He trained me as a preacher and I learned a lot. But perhaps one of the things he taught me about communication happened when I started working on staff with him 9 years ago at the Waterview Church of Christ.

The final step (which I omitted for several years) is a “final gleaning.” After hours of preparation, Robert has a perfectly crafted outline typed out and ready to go. But then comes the final gleaning. Robert sits down on the morning of his presentation, with legal pad and pen in hand, and quickly outlines what he will say. This resulted in taking out the chaff and leaving the presentation (sermon or class) with laser-beam focus. The final gleaning takes about 5 minutes but it makes the difference in what the audience keeps.

Recently I spoke at Waterview during Robert’s absence. The lesson just didn’t have the “zing” I wanted. So I did a final gleaning. I ended up taking 10 minutes and refashioning the conclusion. It had drama and movement and the punch it finally needed.

If you have to communicate on a regular basis, don’t ignore this last step. It solidifies your thoughts, focuses your attention, and takes your message to the next level.

One warning: don’t try it unless you really want to make your speaking better!

(For more help in preaching, email us and ask for Program 102–Preparation and Delivery of Sermons)

Sadly, this is the picture of many small churches of Christ. Begun with dreams, they died for lack of resources. They needed to reach out, but didn’t know how. They had people, but they did not know where to go or what to do. It was hard to keep the wolf from the door.

Somewhere in the journey, frustration overcame the dream.

It was out of that picture, the Waterview church in Richardson, Texas gave birth to Strengthening Mission Churches. Armed with the passion that small churches can survive, thrive, and grow, the Waterview elders put into play a video library stocked with titles by experienced and talented church leaders. They could teach leadership, church growth, Bible class teaching, preaching, and involvement.

At SMC, we want to be your partner in ministry. We want to help you. Look through our site and you will find a video library with dozens of title to help you. You can learn leadership, how to survive in ministry, and get some inspiration at the same time.

Thanks for coming. Let’s get to work in a small church!