I for one was in a church yesterday that continues in the spirit of the black robe regiment ...
a problem I see is we have people that treat the Bible and the Constitution with equal disdain. That I have a copy of each does not make me knowledgeable nor able to teach anyone about it, or speak with authority on it. Without a good understanding of the A(a)uthor(s), the historical context, the language, the theological and philosophical ideas that were at work in the minds of the writers, all of which require some time, effort, and submission to the teaching of more learned men ... without that, any man can hold up their copy of the Constitution and imagine the 2A is about hunting, or their copy of the Bible and imagine that since the word abortion does not appear in it, God must be okay with it.
As long as we treat the office of pastor with disdain, imagining that anyone with a copy of the Bible is as equally equipped for office of pastor as anyone else, then we will continue to have weak and timid pastors, leading weak and timid churches. They will lack the courage that can only come from the vocation call, the indwelling of the spirit enabling that specific call, and the self-discipline that comes from humbling themselves to be a learner of the word. Paul the most educated Jew in Israel under the best teachers still spent 8 more years studying before he preached his first Christian sermon. Maybe if we were as hesitant as he was, maybe if we didn't rush the ill equipped and ill prepared into the pulpit, maybe if we didn't treat the very job of Pastor like a joke and a byword, but with the respect that the book of Acts suggests, we'd have better pastors in the pulpit.
I was in a great little New England church yesterday, all of the pastors are devout men of the word and prayer, boldly speaking out against ungodly counsel of government that leads to fear and not freedom. The church has survived a couple of decades during which time the other churches have cycled through one untrained immature dude with a bible after another and gone through all manner of heresy as a result, which weakens and divides the church. Yet this little church persists, grows slowly and deeply. A more praying church I've not seen. I have hope ... especially when I remember that for all of that, only 3% of the American colonials participated in obtaining their independence. It doesn't take everyone, it just takes enough, but they have to be strong in a way that is hard to find.