About Preachers

This post is prompted by this post by GI Jeffrey Siauw.

The quality of output by preachers sometimes belies common sense. One tends to expect that the higher the level of education and the longer the experience, the better the output quality should be. Sadly, my observations speak otherwise. This past year I have the rare opportunity to observe and evaluate for myself, how some preachers perform today compared to their younger days. I met many of these preachers 22-25 years ago and I didn't see them again until recently. Except for Dr Rahmiyati's, I found there is now lack of depth and thoroughness in their sermons compared to years ago. It left me with the feeling that there is a missing ingredients (sometimes lots of missing ingredients) and it could have been better prepared.

Some might say that 20+ years ago, my young mind was easily satisfied and maturity made me more critical. I have compared my opinion with some people of my youth days, and they concurred what I think. But of course they too have become more mature over the years. But the fact remains that I find them lacking now but not then.

Some might say that because of my years of exposure to excellent American preachers, my judgment is clouded. It's true that all the churches I attended in the past were pastored by highly educated and dynamic preachers who preach every Sunday. But I don't believe that the American pastors have spoiled it for Asian pastors as there happen to be Asian pastors whom I think are good preachers. Many of them are young and can not claim long years of experience. But their dedication to service is refreshing and it is clearly reflected in the quality of sermons they deliver.

It is a sad state of the affair. How is the quality of the pulpit to be maintained if the older and experienced ones do not provide good role models? How are the younger preachers to be motivated and inspired to improve if the one who should be their role models are slacking?