professional preachers

In my life I have been blessed to worship and work with a number of full time preachers... they have come in all shapes and sizes... different styles and levels of Bible knowledge. Some are great communicators and others are compelling speakers in spite of their limited ability, while others are neither good students of the Bible nor gifted speakers...

I have worshipped at a small church for the past 5 years (well it was small... now 250 souls join us each Sunday morning for worship assembly), and we have never employed a "full time preacher"... Today we still have no paid staff members... none!

I struggle sometimes with what more we might be able to accomplish if we would hire a full time person... I think, for instance, that we need a youth minister... and, at times, I think we need an administrative type who could organize all the activities and ministries we are involved in at Riverside...

and other times I love the fact that our elders have seen fit to lead us without any 'hired help'.... after all, God has led us so much further than we could have imagined, most of us have stopped trying to 'drive the boat'...

I'm convicted of this: I cannot see any need for Riverside to hire a conventional full time pulpit preacher. We get to hear from people of all stripe and station as they share with us during our 'preaching time' each Sunday... from drug addicts to missionaries to professors to inmates, we are blessed with 'God-story' after 'God-story' which deepens our faith and challenges us to greater servanthood... and I wouldn't change a thing about it... (I can see a day when we may pay a staff member to do some of the things which are required for continued spiritual and numerical growth, but I doubt this person will even slightly resemble a 'pulpit preacher')

Recently I visited a church which employs a more traditional approach to the 'preacher' question... they have a staff of 5 or 6 'professional ministers' whom they pay to minister to the seniors, the toddlers and the teens; including, of course, one to handle the pulpit duties...

as I sat and stood and participated in the worship assembly, I wondered about the importance and relevance of a 'paid preacher'. Where did that concept come from? How did we get that idea? ...that one 'coat-and-tie-clad-proclaimer' (or 'robed-and-collared', if that's your flavor) preaching to 300 (or 2,000) parishioners was the way to 'do' the whole organized religion thing?

I have heard all the reasons for having a full time pulpit man, and I understand their validity. I also understand that the Biblical model calls for churches to be autonomous in deciding what 'works best' for them... and I deeply respect that! I'm not trying to persuade anyone that 'they're doing it wrong' and I'm 'doing it right'.... not at all... I'm just asking the question: has the professional preacher outlived his usefulness?

You see, I am fearful we have fallen prey to imitating other religious organizations rather than trying to use our God-given imagination to figure out the very best way to exhort/encourage/challenge/uplift each other while we praise and worship a Star-Breathing God. And it appears sometimes that we have 'organized' the very life out of our worship...

...just wondering...

Blessings!