Trends and ideas: Preacher proposes option for declining lectureships

by Matthew Morine, pulpit minister with the Castle Rock, Colo., church
Republished, with permission, from his weblog.

An elder was in my office yesterday, and we got to talking about lectureships.

This elder is highly connected in the church, and he goes to various lectureships each year. He was talking about how the numbers are down in some of the lectureships across the brotherhood. He made the comment, “It is more for old people now.”

This is not always true, I still like attending lectures, but the point is still true in general.

So if lectureships are not working, what will work with young people or young ministers?

This got me thinking: How can I help this situation?

Here is my plan, and I would love some feedback on this, if people would like it or not.

I would like to a do a spiritual climb of a 14er with ministers across the church.

It would be hard, we would go out into the woods for a few days, I would have some guys lead us in spiritual formation stuff, and have a theme, or some material or training in some important area of ministry, or whatever is relevant.

We would hike in, and mostly climb a 14er together as a group. People could fly into Denver, and I would take them to the mountains. So the time together would be training, refreshing, and just plain spiritually hard.

Lectureships are mostly passive, you come, you sit, and sing some, and you learn, but on this retreat, passive would not be a good term for it. It would be active, challenging, and I promise by the end of it, you would be high on God.

I would love to do something like this, it would not cost much, just transportation, and you bring the supplies. But it would be an excellent way for me to contribute to the brotherhood.

What do you think? Is this a better way to do spiritual training than a lectureship? Is this too hard for most preachers? There is Polishing the Pulpit which is hugely successful, and would this be something that is an alternative to a lectureship format?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.