Featured I don't like young pastors! What about you?

Three names come to my mind when 'young pastors' is mentioned, Charles Hadden Spurgeon, W.A. Criswell, and Vance Havner. I guess you could include a young fellow out of North Carolina, Billy Graham. OTOH, I prefer old pastors too. I guess that is 'cause I'm old.

 

Just to answer the question of the thread title... I am one!!!

And I will admit, age was a big part of ministry difficulties. How do you lead w/ confidence yet express humility due to a lack of experience??? Either you look like a hot head know it all or a timid push over. I am glad that I took a 2 year hiatus from pastoring (started just before I turned 24 years old). I am almost 30 now, had my first daughter 2 days ago(!!!), and was voted in as a new elder at my church. So I look forward to bringing a bit more maturity to the table this time. I also work with an amazing board of elders and a staff elder (lead pastor) who is simply great.

 

had my first daughter 2 days ago
...you ain't "had" nothing. Your wife went through the anguish of...

Just picking on 'ya. Otherwise, congratulations!!!!:godisgood:

When one considers all those young children who grew up during the Great Depression, most all of them did without! They had nothing! My father told me once that if there was any meat on the table it was because he went out and shot it.

What the Great Depression did however was toughen up that generation ultimately to enter World War II and to not give up until the job was done.

Our Lord prepared the greatest generation to suffer hardships so as to withstand our enemies of that time.

As a child I remember one man tell of joining the Marine Corps in 1940 just so he could have something to eat. He never dreamed he'd end up on Iwo Jima. He didn't even know there was a place called Iwo Jima.

What I'm trying to say is that hard times mature individuals. As it was with so many during the 1930's and 40's, they suffered hard times. As a result they grew up and matured. Became responsible. They did the job they were called upon to do.

For sure, young pastors in this day and age lack the experiences of life but that alone does not discount away from their level of maturity.

One does not have to be an old man to preach the gospel.

Young preachers mature in the Lord and often become great Old Men of wisdom.

 

Ya know, if there were never any YOUNG pastors, there wouldn't be very many OLD pastors!!! :laugh:

 

God uses willing vessels. If a young man is humble and willing to be used, God can and will use him. For us to say we dislike a vessel God has chosen, or have a prejudice against that vessel, we are limiting the Lord. It may well be God has chosen that young preacher to be a mouthpiece for what the congregation needs to hear.

Having the attitude that you can only learn from an older, more experienced pastor is nothing short of PRIDE. Is it any wonder that so many of the younger generation has fallen away from church? If they are constantly told they aren't good enough to participate, to teach, to sing, to serve, why would they want to stick around once they get older? Why bother trying to teach or preach when the congregation has an attitude of pride and criticism?

I've seen this attitude time and time again as my dh would spend hours praying and studying in preparation, then get up and preach a wonderful sermon, only to have it fall on deaf ears because our "older" congregation had a know-it-all attitude that completely stopped the spirit of God from working in the church.

If you have a young pastor who is willing to serve, willing to love and learn and lead, you'd better get on your knees and thank God there are such young men left in this world! I will speak frankly here: stop criticizing, condemning and complaining about your pastor. Pray for him, encourage him, humbly ask God to speak through him, and stop the Satanic voice whispering in your ears that says you can't learn anything from a young, inexperienced person. That is the kind of garbage that discourages young men from even bothering to do ministry work.

 

It seems the kind of pastor you desire is one who has a real good testimony. I'm 68 and have gone to a baptist church for most of those 68 years. It would seem that by now avoiding sin should be getting easier, but it isn't. It seems that by now I should already have all the instructions I need to live a sinless life, but I don't. You would think I should have amassed an enormous amount of Biblical knowledge. Though my 27 year old pastor has shown me things in scripture that I never seen before. I'm amazed because you see I read the Bible all the way through every year and I don't understand how I missed these things.

My only explanation is that everyone receives something from scripture though it isn't always the exact same things. The Holy Spirit is wonderful in that He can take a young Pastor and direct him better than an old one at times. The sermon comes from God not the Pastor. The Pastor is just the vessel God uses. There are really good Pastors and bad ones but the good ones are not measured by age, but by how well they obey God's directions.

This is not to say get rid of the old ones. Certainly there are many older Pastors that get the job done very well. My point isn't about the age of the Pastor at all, but about how well they obey the direction from God.

For me this is what I look for in a Pastor. If they do this one thing really well then they will be very humble men who love there congregation just as Christ does.
MB

 

Excellent post!!! Wish the OPer read it.

 

Find a church with a God called pastor. His age is secondary. His message on a particular Sunday morning, good or not so good (in our view), is secondary. Our pastor, an older man, doesn't "hit the ball out of the park" every Sunday morning. My point is that I'm not expecting that from him.

He usually has an outline or prepared notes when he comes to the pulpit. Many times, I've seen him close that little notebook and let the Lord lead him in his message. When he comes to the pulpit without that notebook, I know him well enough to know that he has scrapped the message he intended to deliver. God has led him in a different direction that Sunday morning.

That's all that I'm expecting from him. That God is leading him, whether I personally like his message, including "quality", or not.

(BTW, he is younger than I am!)

Find a church with a God called pastor.

Next, by staying at home, you are NOT doing your part, as a member of the body of Christ. Yes, I can say that with conviction.

Because, that's exactly what I did for far too many years. Yes, I had reasons and excuses. Looking back, I realize today that satan used those to his advantage to keep me away from what I should have been doing for our Saviour. Not only by failing to spend time, in His house, to worship and praise Him. I was doing little, if anything, to bring honor and glory to His name.

Me and My became more important for too long a period of time. Nothing went into a collection plate. I did nothing to further any ministry of any assembly of believers. Didn't lift any ministry in prayer. Didn't lift a finger to help. Didn't offer fellowship and support to those who were giving all they could to bring others to Christ.

Regrets. Yes. Deep regrets because I found excuses that I now sadly recognize them for what they were at the time. There's no way I can go back and undo those excuses. There's not enough time left in my lifetime to make amends for those lost years. Each new day in service of our Lord leaves little time for "make up work" to compensate for my past failures.

Find a church with a God called pastor!

 

Congratulation on new daughter

 

And if there are no churches with God called pastors?

 

When did that famine happen?