Supply of pastors may be insufficient – claim

What is happening to the pipeline of future pastors?

With claims of fewer than 15 conservative evangelicals training for ministry across Scotland and falling numbers at one of England’s leading theological colleges, the supply of future ministers is proving difficult to read.

Director of Cornhill Scotland, Jon Gemmell, recently claimed on his Substack that there may be fewer than 15 men currently in formal training for pastoral ministry in conservative evangelical churches across the whole of Scotland. According to Gemmell, Cornhill Scotland landed on the figure having spoken to several training providers to find “people who would actually be in the jobs market for pastoral vacancies once their training was complete”.