September 2010
Upcoming Schedule
September 12, Iglesia de Cristo--Park Plaza, Tulsa, Oklahoma
September 15-22, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
September 24, Amicus Association, Little Rock, Arkansas
September 26-29, Northside Church, Mena, Arkansas
October 3-5, Quest, Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
October 9-18, Holmes Road Church, Lansing, Michigan
October 30-November 6, Pan-American Lectureship, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
November 30-December 6, Graduation and Amicus Board Meeting, Baxter Institute, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
A Mission Calendar and information about upcoming ministry and mission activities also appears on my Missions Page.
Where Have All the Preachers Gone?
I have been researching and writing about the current and upcoming preacher shortage for over fifteen years. During the time I served at Ohio Valley University as chairman of the Bible program, I was in contact with dozens of congregations in the Mid-Atlantic region and in New England--areas of the U.S. often considered mission fields. I maintained a list of "churches looking" on the university website. I preached in hundreds of congregations and interviewed many church leaders. I became aware of many smaller congregations who had simply given up on finding a full-time minister willing to work with a small, struggling congregation for minimal pay. The reality is that larger congregations are requiring more and more ministers and smaller congregations are often going without. James Nored recently published a statistic that says nearly 1400 ministers across the U.S. quit ministry every month (across the broader spectrum of various kinds of churches). My experience and observation is that the number of available ministers is shrinking dramatically, especially preachers or pulpit ministers. Oklahoma Christian University has recently begun a new effort to reach out and encourage young men to consider ministry. Harding University has commissioned a study to investigate the decrease in the number of those desiring to preach.
Last year, Pastoral Care Inc. published an article by Jim Fuller: "10 Reasons Why Pastors Leave the Ministry" (http://pastoralcareinc.com/MR/Books/EBooks.php). In this essay I overview the reasons given in Fuller's article.
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My essay is available in PDF: Where Have All the Preachers Gone?.
