Training men for ministry: in a post-Christian nation

Dear Editor,

I read John Brand’s letter June (en 2024) concerning training men for pastoral ministry with interest. The Church of England have recently reported that those seeking ‘vocations’ are 40% down on the 650 they had hoped for – I suspect en’s regular readers will have a good idea why that is, but I doubt that the CofE will publicly recognise the reasons! I only foresee that shortfall increasing as they continue in their apostasy.

A key point I picked out from Mr Brand’s letter is an expectation in some churches to have a pastor who will teach twice on Sunday and again in midweek and appearing surprised that there is a shortage of men interested. Three sermons per week sounds to me like a church that has settled for decline and entertainment, however good the preaching may be. I suggest that we need Bible Colleges to prepare men who are comfortable teaching once per week with home groups discussing application of the teaching during the week – doers of the Word and not just hearers, men who will lead prayer stations outside supermarkets or other places of gathering, who will facilitate discipling of new believers, who will be present in meeting places just to be available for anyone who needs encouragement or prayer – training members to join him and grow the church. If Bible Colleges are still focused on producing theologians and ‘settlers’ or ‘maintainers’, I can’t see why they’d expect to be packed with students? However, if ‘in-church’ training or college studies include preaching and teaching, but also pioneer activities to connect the church in the community, then I can see that they will become more popular.