Paul has considered the qualifications for office, and we understand these to be the minimum qualifications. Preaching obviously describes an ability; it also describes knowledge. Luther had nine qualifications for the preacher, and first of all he insisted that he must have the ability to teach systematically, and have the sort of mind that will see a structure in an address and present it in a logical manner. The second thing he said is that he must have a ready wit. He meant that he must have a mind which is nimble enough to see different ways of putting things so that the sermon is palatable. Then his third standard was that the preacher must be eloquent by which he simply meant that he must not be faltering. His fourth rule was that the preacher must have a good voice. That meant volume and power and it also meant tonal interest, Today we have amplification so volume is not so important as it was then. But a preacher should not be a shouter: that comes across today as hostile. Luther went on, the preacher must have a good memory, so that he can remember his preparation, and not be intimidated by the pulpit. His sixth rule was that he must know how to stop. Otherwise the impact is lost and people get extremely aggravated. He must be sure of his doctrine. He must be ready to venture and engage body and blood, wealth and honour in the service of the word. Finally he must be ready to suffer himself to be mocked and jeered by everybody. Such men will not give in to liberalism; they will not compromise with the new evangelicals; they will not be proud men who cannot bear being called obscurantists, for holding on to the old ways and the solid message of the Scripture.
So where are the preachers today? There are so few. Around the country, there are numerous churches, Bible-believing churches, which cannot get a pastor or a preacher. There's never been such a shortage. Many of those churches – and we say this delicately – have men as pastors and preachers, and you wonder if they should be. They may be earnest, they may be lovers of the truth, but, when you hear them, it doesn't sound as though they were ever equipped to be preachers. Furthermore, there are many men who are capable, humanly speaking, of explaining things and of persuading of things: why are they not preachers? It's an extraordinary shortage today, and there may be reasons for it.
One reason is no doubt because there is a great fall in the number of churches and men who are preaching regularly persuasive evangelistic sermons. Many are just expounding the Scripture to believers, with only an occasional evangelistic comment or reference, and that practice doesn't inspire a new generation of preachers. What grips the heart of young men is the preaching of the gospel to save souls. Yes, they are also going to have to expound the Scriptures to believers as a vital part of their work, but what traditionally inspires people is the preaching of the gospel. If churches do not believe anymore in the necessity of regular evangelistic sermons, then few people will be inspired to be preachers. The colleges, the so-called seminaries: they may have excellent lecturers in Biblical languages and church history, but very few of them are helping people to preach the gospel. They don't even believe that that's an important thing to do, and they will say so. They haven't got a specialist on the faculty for preaching the gospel, so there's no encouragement there.
There are other reasons too. A big influence among the churches in the last thirty years has been a movement towards what's called a plurality of elders, and the preaching pastors have virtually disappeared. ‘We do have a pastor, but he's just one of the elders who's privileged to be full-time to look after people, and all the elders share the pulpit.’ But they are not necessarily called to be preachers, so the preaching standard drops.
We pray that God may move young men in their hearts, if he has given them a gift to explain and to persuade and to urge people; if he has given them a heart for the gospel, and made them aspire to this noble work. It will be a task in which you will never earn very much, and you will be called to a reasonable and modest lifestyle. You will give all your hours and all your days to a community to reach out for the gospel, and the souls of men and women will be all important to you. Those who are called will say, ‘I came to a point in life where I couldn't imagine doing anything else, because nothing else meant anything to me. I had no other aspiration, other than to preach the gospel of Christ, and to be wholly given to this work.’ Where have all the preachers gone? May God by his mighty power alter things and raise up in these last days, these days of unbelief, more and more dedicated, committed preachers of the gospel.