Parenting & Family Quote by Clayton Christensen

A businessman praising a church’s lack of “professional preachers” is doing something sly: he’s importing an organizational ideal into a spiritual setting, then letting it read as moral truth. Christensen frames the arrangement as an engine of authenticity. No paid pulpit class means the message isn’t outsourced; it’s produced by the community itself. The line turns “regular member” into a credential, and it quietly flips what many institutions treat as a bug (amateurism) into a feature (shared ownership).

The intent is partly testimonial and partly managerial. Christensen isn’t just describing a practice common in the LDS tradition; he’s selling its downstream effects: participation, accountability, and a kind of distributed leadership. The list - women and men, children and grandparents - functions like a democratically casted commercial. It signals breadth and continuity, a multi-generational relay where belonging is proved through contribution. It’s also a gentle rebuttal to the modern suspicion that institutions are run by detached specialists who speak in polished generalities to passive consumers.

The subtext is more complicated. “No professional preachers” sounds egalitarian, but it also disciplines: if everyone can be called to speak, everyone is expected to be ready, worthy, and aligned. Authority doesn’t disappear; it’s laundered through participation. In a culture where people increasingly treat church like content - something to evaluate, rate, and leave - Christensen is pointing to a different logic: you don’t attend to be impressed. You attend because, sooner or later, you’re on the schedule.