In some branches of Christianity, especially American pentecostalism, children are occasionally preachers, or even ordained ministers. The heyday of child preachers was in the 1920s and 1930s, [1] but a number of videos of modern-day child preachers can be seen on YouTube. [2]
One of the most prominent child preachers was Marjoe Gortner, who was the subject of the 1972 documentary Marjoe .
According to Randall Balmer, the appeal of having child preachers is in its novelty, making it "a kind of a carnival side-show". [1]
In 2012, when he was 11 years old, Ezekiel Stoddard was ordained as a minister in his family's non-denominational Fullness of Time Church, in Maryland. [3]
In 2011, National Geographic aired a documentary that featured a four-year-old preacher in the United Pentecostal Church International. [4] [5]