NextGen Pastors: Are We Ready for Them?
The most important sermon Jose Cortes ever preached was the one he didn’t preach alone.
I’ve preached over 1,500 sermons since beginning ministry in 1992, most of them across North America and some of them around the world: in the Caribbean, Central and South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the South Pacific. I’ve preached in small churches, church plants, mid-size and very large churches, at camporees, pastors' meetings, pastors’ conventions, conference and union events, and even global Adventist gatherings. But the most important sermon I’ve ever preached was this past Sabbath. Why? Because I didn’t preach it alone.
I had the sacred, unforgettable, and completely undeserved honor of stepping into the pulpit with a young man, an eighteen-year-old who just graduated high school and is getting ready to go to college as a theology major, with the dream of becoming an Adventist pastor in North America. Yes, this NextGen pastor is my youngest son Joel, and together, we preached at the BeLove DC Church, just steps from the nation’s capitol.
After all these years and all those sermons, this one will forever echo in my heart, since it marks the launch of what I pray will be the beautiful and fruitful ministry of a young man, whom I love dearly. While my joy—understandably and perhaps even biased—flows from witnessing the launch of my son’s preaching and, hopefully, great ministerial journey, it goes far deeper than personal gratitude. It represents something greater: a renewed hope for our church and the future of pastoral ministry across our division. As we stood on that platform together, I didn’t just see my son—I saw a spark of what God is raising up in the next generation of young men and women called to lead, to preach, and to serve.
Raising a New Generation of Shepherds: The Urgency and Vision of the NextGen Pastor Initiative
In a time marked by cultural shifts, decreasing religious affiliation, and an aging pastoral force with over eight-hundred pastors projected to retire (not including the pastors we may lose due to attrition), in the next few years, the North American Division (NAD) faces a critical yet not impossible challenge: ensuring the future of pastoral leadership. The NextGen Pastor Initiative is a bold and timely response to this challenge—a movement to inspire, identify, and equip a new generation of pastors from childhood through young adulthood. This initiative not only seeks to replenish the pastoral workforce but also to reimagine how ministry is introduced, supported, and celebrated across generations in the Adventist Church in North America.
The Current Landscape: Cause for Prayer and Action
Across ten Adventist schools with pre-seminary degrees, only about 400 students are currently enrolled. Of those, about 80–100 graduate each year. At the seminary level, a similar number, between 80–100 graduate every year with over 400 students pursuing their Master of Divinity (MDiv). With data painting a sobering picture, pastors, church leaders, and church members keep asking the question: What can we do to inspire, identify, and equip a new generation of pastors? Here are a few ideas:
Start Young: Introduce pastoral ministry early—in elementary schools, Adventurer clubs, and Sabbath School, the time when kids are wanting to be firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, and teachers is the time to start talking about pastoral ministry with them. Celebrate and mentor children who express interest in pastoring.
Create Engaging Pathways: Use tools like the upcoming NextGen Pastor Pathfinder Honor, Adventurer Award, and the already existing Pastor Clubs in some of our Academies. These programs plant seeds of calling early on.
Partner Intentionally: Collaborate with pastors, parents, educators, and youth leaders. Build a culture that constantly says: “We see you.” “We need you.” “You belong here.”
Offer Hands-On Exposure: Let youth shadow pastors or serve during church and events. Affirm young adults working as summer camp staff as emerging spiritual leaders.
Provide Meaningful Internships: Local conferences and churches should offer real ministry experience. Internships connect classroom learning to real-world pastoring.
Mentor One on One: Every pastor and leader should disciple at least one young person with potential. Mentorship is relational and transformational—just like Jesus modeled.
Empower with Leadership Roles: Elect and ordain younger elders. #NextGenElder (Joel, my son mentioned above, was ordained as an Elder at age seventeen; he has already led classmates to Jesus and baptized them with permission from his conference president). Trust builds confidence; young leaders thrive when given real responsibility.
Believe in Them Now: Don’t wait. Empower them today to shape the church of today and the church of tomorrow. When we trust thirteen, fourteen-, fifteen-, sixteen-, and seventeen-year-olds, we are indirectly, and at times very directly, investing in future pastors, church leaders, and ministry innovators.
A Call to All
Ultimately, the NextGen Pastor Initiative is not a program. It’s a call. A call to pastors and members, teachers and parents, conferences and congregations. A call to recognize that when a child or young adult says, “I want to be a pastor,” our response should not be doubt or delay. It should be joy, affirmation, and support.
This generation wants to contribute. The question is: Are we ready for them? Are we ready to embrace their calling and empower them with their gifts?
As Psalm 145:4 declares, “Generation after generation stands in awe of your work; each one tells stories of your mighty acts.” The story of God's mighty acts must continue, and it will through the voices and lives of NextGen Pastors who are called, mentored, and deployed to serve.
As we finished our sermon together, Joel said to me: “Papa, that was fun … can’t wait to do it again…” I hugged him as I said a quick prayer in my head: “Thank you Jesus.”
Jose Cortes Jr. is an Associate Director of the North American Division Ministerial Association. He oversees Pastoral Evangelism, Church Planting, Church Revitalization, Global Mission, Church Growth, Mission to the Cities, as well as Volunteer Lay Pastors and NextGen Pastors for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America.