“So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” That is the question that adults will always ask children. The usual answers include: doctor, nurse, teacher, firefighter, etc. In recent years, the answers have started to include: YouTuber, Vlogger, Social Media Influencer. There are lots of options out there today, and parents will often try to steer their children in (or out of) a certain direction.
Young man, you may think that becoming a professional athlete would be the best thing in the world. You may think that joining a band and touring the world would be your dream job. There are some jobs out there that are not very realistic for most guys. There are other jobs that are very realistic but may not be as appealing or as fulfilling as others. For some reason, one job that never seems to make the Top 5 List of dream jobs for young men (or even the Top 10 List) is to be a preacher of the gospel. Why is that?
I wish I knew the reason(s) that more boys did not want to become a preacher, so that I could address those directly, but I suspect that I can guess many of them. Most of the reasons probably start at home. For many families, “church” is something that we do on most Sundays, but it’s not really the number one priority or central focus of the home. Children are very perceptive and readily recognize when an activity is merely being checked off a to-do list rather than being the absolute highlight of the week. As a result, “church” does not become much of an importance to the children in the home, and many of them will grow up not even wanting to go to church when they’re older (let alone to be a preacher).
For some families, the sermon part of the worship service is something to be tolerated. What do children see their parents (or, for that matter, other Christian adults) doing during the sermon? When parents/adults are not fully engaged and interested in the sermon but are doing other things (like playing games, surfing the web, scrolling social media, making to-do lists, reading a book, etc.) while the preacher is up “doing his thing,” it sends a visually clear message to children that the sermon is something to be endured rather than enjoyed. What boy would grow up wanting to preach (or even to love the Bible and studying it)?
No doubt, the influence of the home is not the only reason that boys do not grow up wanting to be preachers. Congregations and preachers themselves have probably not done a good job in sparking that interest and generating true excitement for preaching. Whatever the reasons, I want to appeal to you, young man, to be a preacher. It is the best job and best life you will ever have! (More next week)