The Eastern Kentucky Question

Disclaimer: Most of this article is about my personal experience, and I encourage you to question it.

Most of eastern Kentucky has bi-vocational preachers, in which the preachers have full-time jobs as well as preach on the weekend. This is different from the full-time preachers that are often found in large cities. As may be expected, there are some disadvantages that come with being a bi-vocational preacher. Such disadvantages are that you have much less time to prepare your sermon and to visit those in need. At the same time, most bi-vocational preachers have not undergone a college education in religion and, therefore, are missing a lot of valuable knowledge. It should also be noted that eastern Kentucky is mostly made up of baptist churches, which are known to “keep to themselves.” This possibly limits a regional revival. But a large advantage is that you’re not as dependent on your preaching career for a paycheck. This puts less pressure on you as a preacher and on what you preach.

The reason why I bring this up is because there seems to be a vacuum of leadership in the Bible Belt of eastern Kentucky. We need a spiritual revival, but we cannot expect a regional revival if we are missing proper leadership. So the question arises, what can we do to bring revival? Is it that bi-vocational preachers bring less leadership skills than full-time preachers? As a full-time preacher focuses solely on the health of the church and tends to be more educated in religion, it definitely seems to be that there’s a large advantage for city churches to stay on fire for the Lord.Therefore, we need to ask how eastern Kentucky can start and keep a revival.

First of all, revival always starts with the individual. That should always be kept in mind. But a revival started by the congregation has better chances of taking place if they are given a reason to start a revival — in other words, if there is proper leadership in place. We should be thankful for each church and preacher in eastern Kentucky, and I don’t mean to condemn any preachers. The solution is this: each preacher needs to ask the question, “How can I be on fire for the Lord?” A congregation cannot be expected to be on fire for the Lord if the home pastor is not on fire for the Lord. It is vital to lead by example.

Again, this article is only based on my experience. Please let me know if you disagree, as I am willing to be corrected if I’m wrong with any of this article.

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