# Age started preaching ?



## crossbearer89 (Dec 27, 2013)

If you're a preacher, may I ask, when did you start preaching? And if you were ordained, how old were you at ordination? And did you begin paving consistently before or after ordination, if you had to go through formal ordination.


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## KMK (Dec 27, 2013)

Welcome to PB!

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## reaganmarsh (Dec 27, 2013)

crossbearer89 said:


> If you're a preacher, may I ask, when did you start preaching? And if you were ordained, how old were you at ordination? And did you begin paving consistently before or after ordination, if you had to go through formal ordination.



I started preaching to children and teenagers at 19 years old, and to adults at 23 years old (although inconsistently until after ordination). I was ordained at 26. 

Welcome to the PB!


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## C. M. Sheffield (Dec 27, 2013)

I began preaching in rural southeast Georgia churches at the age of sixteen and was ordained in a Southern Baptist church upon entering the ministry at twenty-two.


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## C. M. Sheffield (Dec 27, 2013)

And for the record, I had no business behind a pulpit as a teenager. But in a lot of those country churches, if you've got the gumption to get up in front of a group of people and say anything, they think you need to preach! I didn't have a clue about what preaching was or how it should be done. My only saving grace was that many of my early sermons were plagiarized from Spurgeon. I had a little set of his sermons and I would "preach" them to the best of my ability. I am thankful God is gracious and abundant in mercy and that he is able to draw straight lines with crooked sticks!


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## JOwen (Dec 27, 2013)

Started preaching at 29, ordained at 35.


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## Pergamum (Dec 27, 2013)

About 26 and 30.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Dec 28, 2013)

26 and 30.


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## Wynteriii (Dec 28, 2013)

I first delivered public speeches on biblical passages when I was in high school to fellow high school kids in the Christian club. I had to much fire. I would bring up things like "This verse is clear cut, we do not practice what it says, and want to then call ourselves adheres to the Word. No wonder are fellow students call us hypocrites." 

They didn't ask me back.

I felt ashamed for how I approached preaching and soon discovered the style of expository preaching which really helped me. I started actually preaching at the age of 20.


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## crossbearer89 (Dec 29, 2013)

Thanks guys, all your stories are encouraging. I want to preach and to be an elder but I am very self conscious of my age, I'm 23 now and am in school for computer science, but I want to go to seminary afterwards and predict I will not be able to preach for a while and be ordained until at least 30. I often feel like this is too late to start and I get discouraged (I'm sure i'm being foolish, but I have a tendacy to compare my age and progress with what is common. I do this for reasons too complicated to say here). I want to preach, but I am afraid I am too timid when it comes to asking for the opportunity (although certainly not afraid to proclaim the whole truth of Scripture!). I am hoping for God to give me the grace to be more assertive when it comes to seeking an opportunity to preach.


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## InSlaveryToChrist (Dec 29, 2013)

I may not have any authrority whatsoever to give advice to you in your choice to become an elder, but may I ask you what your background is? I couldn't care less about your age, I'm more concerned about your knowledge in the things of God and your will to wrestle with God with no rest and plead with sinners to come to Christ. We all have the will to preach (to share our ideas of what we think the Bible means to communicate to us), but even without having any experience myself, I know preaching is a terrifying thing. If God is in it, you will be ripped apart, whether you are prepared or not.

Now, I'm not saying you are not aware of these things. I just want to confirm you understand the responsibilities that come with becoming an elder. Choose _wisely_ young Brother (I'm 23 also).


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## JonathanHunt (Dec 29, 2013)

Teaching children at 16, first preached aged 26 (I think) set apart as an elder at 31 (preaching regularly) and 'ordained into the ministry' at 34.


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## au5t1n (Dec 29, 2013)

30 is not anywhere close to too late to start. One of the worst things a man can do is rush into preaching without very thorough preparation. Please don't seek opportunities to preach at 23 (I don't despise your age - I'm also 23) without seminary preparation, thorough training, and ordination. Christ's flock need examined and ordained ministers of the Word to nourish them. A Presbytery may authorize one under care (''the sonnes of the prophets'' as Rutherford calls them) to preach, but that would not happen for a while. Please remember that preaching is for the edification of the flock

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2


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## Alan D. Strange (Dec 29, 2013)

I began speaking occasionally at 17, teaching and exhorting more regularly in seminary at 23, licensed to preach at 26, ordained at 27. 

The point is not the age: it is the gifting and calling of God as that is realized internally, manifested externally, all under the proper guidance and authority of the church. Training, such as one receives at seminary, shapes and develops the gifts, though it does not give a single gift to anyone. Only the Lord does that and the recognition of such by the other office-bearers and by the congregation is a most crucial part of all of this. 

May the Lord bless and direct you in all these matters.

Peace,
Alan


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## JML (Dec 29, 2013)

I started teaching at 21, preaching at 24 and was licensed and ordained at 24 as well.


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## Wynteriii (Dec 29, 2013)

I agree that age does not matter to an extent. I would think the majority on this forum would disagree with children preachers. There is also an issue of maturity that I know I didnt have at the. When I was 19 (I'm 20 now) their was a youth rally with a young preacher giving the message who I went to high school with. After the message, people would tell me that this 19 year old was the next Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham. I have to admit that I was jealous. It made me question my own abilities. Today, I feel you can call me what you want, just listen to the Gospel that is being preached.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 4


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Dec 29, 2013)

First mass at age 29. Heh? Does that count?  
OK, then first sermon as ordained So. Baptist at age 32 following ordination. 

AMR


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## reaganmarsh (Dec 29, 2013)

As Rev. Sheffield said, I was entirely too young/unprepared to be preaching or teaching. In my pride I insisted that God had called me to ministry, and sought a place to serve. He had called me; I was simply unwilling to be patient and prepare before preaching.

I shudder to think of what I taught "from the Bible." It has been an object of much prayer for me, and much of what drives me in study now, that I might "rightly divide the word of truth." 

As the old saying goes, "the call to preach is first the call to prepare." At the same time, if your pastor/elders are overseeing your study and progress, you should be teaching SS and preaching (read: evangelizing) in the jails and nursing homes and street corners. 

Grace to you as you seek the Lord's will.


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## Edward (Dec 29, 2013)

crossbearer89 said:


> I will not be able to preach for a while and be ordained until at least 30. I often feel like this is too late to start and I get discouraged



There is more to being a preacher than preaching. Some of the best pastors have some real life experience before they are called.


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Dec 29, 2013)

crossbearer89 said:


> Thanks guys, all your stories are encouraging. I want to preach and to be an elder but I am very self conscious of my age, I'm 23 now and am in school for computer science, but I want to go to seminary afterwards and predict I will not be able to preach for a while and be ordained until at least 30.


That personal pronoun "I" needs to be balanced against the calling you perceive. If validated by the church then rest confident that what you consider "late" God considers the fullness of time, brother.

A few years of proper exhortation in the ministry cannot compare to years of mistaken blabbering under the name of "preaching".

AMR


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## Josh Williamson (Dec 29, 2013)

Started preaching at 17. Was 'appointed' to evangelistic ministry at 17. I was ordained to pastoral ministry at 23.


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## Bill The Baptist (Dec 29, 2013)

crossbearer89 said:


> Thanks guys, all your stories are encouraging. I want to preach and to be an elder but I am very self conscious of my age, I'm 23 now and am in school for computer science, but I want to go to seminary afterwards and predict I will not be able to preach for a while and be ordained until at least 30. I often feel like this is too late to start and I get discouraged



This is by no means too old. I did not begin preaching until I was 37 and was not ordained until I was 38. Life experience is a good thing that will ultimately benefit you greatly in ministry.


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## reaganmarsh (Dec 29, 2013)

Ask Mr. Religion said:


> crossbearer89 said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks guys, all your stories are encouraging. I want to preach and to be an elder but I am very self conscious of my age, I'm 23 now and am in school for computer science, but I want to go to seminary afterwards and predict I will not be able to preach for a while and be ordained until at least 30.
> ...


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## Darryl Le Roux (Jan 4, 2014)

Bill The Baptist said:


> crossbearer89 said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks guys, all your stories are encouraging. I want to preach and to be an elder but I am very self conscious of my age, I'm 23 now and am in school for computer science, but I want to go to seminary afterwards and predict I will not be able to preach for a while and be ordained until at least 30. I often feel like this is too late to start and I get discouraged
> ...



This is excellent news to a 31 year old (me) who has just started seminary  Have to agree with your life experience though, it really does help, in my opinion, to get on the same level as a lot of the people we will be preaching to.


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## Alan D. Strange (Jan 4, 2014)

God is calling many second-career (and third and later!) men into the ministry. I praise Him for that and rejoice in the sort of experience that such men bring and how He can richly use that in their ministries. 

That being said, we should not make the error that I see us making with respect to many things of embracing the opposite (rejecting feminism to embrace patriarchy, dispensationalism for FV, etc.), of then insisting/arguing that one is not really fit for ministry until older (at least mid-30s, I have heard). Historically, that has not been the case and if a young man, and the church especially, is clear on his gifting and calling, he should give himself to that service at his earliest opportunity (which includes all the training necessary to hone his gifts). 

We tend, if not called to later, to say that it was good because we were not ready. That's good to see the wisdom of God's providential guidance in our own circumstances. To then make that a rule (and I'm not saying anyone on this thread is doing so, only that we can tend to such) and to say it's best for everyone to trod our path is simply wrongheaded and misguided. Different men are called at different times into the ministry. The Lord who calls and who confirms that internally and externally knows what He's doing. 

Peace,
Alan


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## Alan D. Strange (Jan 4, 2014)

One further thought. A little time as a pastor will teach you that experience itself does not mean anything. Some people experience all sorts of things and never seem to learn much from it. It is only when He sanctifies to us our deepest distress that we learn the lessons therein intended. 

Some people have gone through lots of things and seem to have little maturity to show for it. Contrariwise, some comparatively younger men have some real maturity. Again, we must not make the mistake of confusing the merely natural with the spiritual (cf. I Cor. 2:6-16). 

Peace,
Alan


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## Scottish Lass (Jan 4, 2014)

Tim doesn't always see these threads, so I'll add his. He began seminary at 33, probably started preaching at 34 (other than filling in as an elder a few times before that), and was ordained at 36, I think. I may be off a year or two, but he definitely started seminary at 33, the year we married.


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## KMK (Jan 4, 2014)

I began preaching at 41 and was licensed at 42. 

What I want is a shepherd who is willing and able to fight lions and bears on my behalf, regardless of how old he is. In many ways youth has advantages, and others maturity.


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