Local churches don’t appeal to many ministry minded students

From the Baptist Press and DMN:

Ministerial students want to serve God, but not necessarily in local church
By Ken Camp
Published August 24, 2007

DALLAS (ABP) — College students who feel called to work in ministry want to make a difference for God’s kingdom. But a significant number don’t believe the local church is the place to do it, according to guidance directors for ministerial students at some Baptist schools.
“I think that for both positive and negative reasons, a lot of young people don’t see themselves settling into local-church ministry positions,” said Omer Hancock, professor of church ministry and director of in-service guidance at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. “An increasing number of our students are gravitating to other areas — other expressions of ministry.”
To some degree, students are looking for other avenues of ministry because of controversy within the churches, Hancock said.
“The reality is that for the entire lifetime of these young people, they have grown up in a culture where there is a lot of church conflict and a lot of denominational conflict,” he said.

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