Mr. Hamilton,<\/p>\n
I have studied the Bible all my life. I read everything I can. I preached for three weeks a year ago in a local congregation and asked all my elders to attend, and one did. He asked me if I wanted to teach in our congregation. I said yes, and never got a chance. They (leadership everywhere) will not let me preach unless I go to a former school. I think about preaching all the time. Help, help, help. Should I go to another church (denomination)? They will give me a chance.<\/p>\n\t
A preacher does not need formal training in a seminary or preacher’s school to learn how to teach the gospel. There is no such requirement in the Bible. See:<\/p>\n
By not giving young men opportunities to learn to preach, the elders are indicating that they are failing one of their duties. “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:11-12).<\/p>\n Leaving the church to attend a group that is not teaching the truth simply because they offer something you want doesn’t show a commitment to the truth. Depending on where you live, there are often small churches that would like someone to help with the preaching, including reaching out to people in the community. For that matter, nothing is stopping you from talking to people in your area or holding Bible studies in the area. Preaching is far more than delivering lessons in front of a congregation.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Mr. Hamilton, I have studied the Bible all my life. I read everything I can. I preached for three weeks a year ago in a local congregation and asked all my elders to attend, and one did. He asked me if I wanted to teach in our congregation. I said yes, and never got…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[381,536],"class_list":["post-88265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-education","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68309,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-the-elders-helping-me-to-learn-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":88265,"position":0},"title":"Why aren’t the elders helping me to learn to preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I hope this email finds you doing well. I have a question. I finally got to preach and teach for a month in another congregation. I asked the elders in my church to attend one day and give me pointers. One finally attended, but all the elders said that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70562,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-eldership-censor-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":88265,"position":1},"title":"Can eldership censor preaching?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I understand elders make decisions to run the day-to-day operations of the congregation. If they cannot show a scriptural reason for not allowing a male member to preach, can they prohibit him from preaching? While it can always be said, \"Not enough knowledge,\" how does that not become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20733,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-questions-should-brethren-ask-of-a-man-wanting-to-preach-for-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":88265,"position":2},"title":"What questions should brethren ask of a man wanting to preach for them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a couple of other men here who fill in with the preaching service\u00a0occasionally and have asked me for suggestions that might help them improve.\u00a0 One of them has expressed an interest in possibly looking for a preaching job.\u00a0 So, I believe a \"preacher training class\" would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68556,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-to-be-paid-or-being-paid-so-you-can-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":88265,"position":3},"title":"Preaching to Be Paid or Being Paid So You Can Preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall Men should not preach to get paid; men should be paid so they can preach. There is a fundamental difference in that statement: If someone preaches to get paid, the emphasis is on the preacher wanting to receive money from the congregation for the time that he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32443,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-son-is-interested-in-online-studies-and-mission-work-where-can-he-find-good-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":88265,"position":4},"title":"My son is interested in online studies and mission work. Where can he find good studies?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One more question if you don't mind. My son is interested in online studies and mission work. I only know of the\u00a0\"AIM\" program. We have an individual from our congregation that is in the program now, but our church is pretty small, so they can only support one person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43810,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-have-a-good-paying-secular-job-but-what-i-really-want-to-do-is-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":88265,"position":5},"title":"I have a good-paying secular job, but what I really want to do is preach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am a recent college graduate, and I currently have a secular job with a high salary. I don't know, but I always feel sad whenever I'm going to work, thinking that this is not the world I wanted to be in, this is not the job I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}