Author: Kroll, Woodrow
Genre: Culture, Theology - Ecclesiology
Tags: Ministry / Leadership
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
Woodrow Kroll wrote a first book on the Vanishing Ministry in 1991 dealing with the 20th century. He updated that volume to this one in 2002. Although the book is now over 20 years old, it is very helpful and insightful on the reasons why we have fewer and fewer men entering the ministry. In a day when there are more men over 60 in the ministry than under 40 (according to a current Barna article), the church needs to identify problems and correct them. Some of the more notable reasons Kroll gives for a lack of young ministers are: a lack of preaching on commitment, a diversion of Bible Colleges to secular and non-ministry majors (a subject he repeated often), upwardly mobile parents who prepare their children for upwardly mobile lives, surrender to a call without commitment for the long-run, and more. I found the book very helpful even in the year 2022. Interestingly, in the last chapters, Kroll expressed encouragement because, he thought, the new millennial generation was showing greater hope for the future–a hope that has not materialized.