child preacher

File:Uldine Utley.png, aged about 12]]

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,{{cite news|last1=Hebblethwaite|first1=Cordelia|title=The curious allure of child preachers|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19377143|accessdate=17 May 2016|work=BBC News|date=29 August 2012}} but a number of videos of modern-day child preachers can be seen on YouTube.{{cite news|last1=Harris|first1=Dan|last2=Murphey|first2=Chris|title=Boy Preacher, 11, Says Skeptics Make Him 'More Determined to Stay in Christ'|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/boy-preacher-11-skeptics-make-determined-stay-christ/story?id=17018767|accessdate=17 May 2016|work=ABC News|date=16 August 2012}}

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".

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-19259774/ezekiel-stoddard-11-year-old-preacher-and-minister|title=11-year-old preacher and minister|work=BBC News}}

In 2011, National Geographic aired a documentary that featured a four-year-old preacher in the United Pentecostal Church International.{{cite news|last1=Walsh|first1=Stephen|title=Documentary shines light on pint-sized preachers|url=http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/17/pint-sized-preachers/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020004551/http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/17/pint-sized-preachers/|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 20, 2011|accessdate=30 July 2017|work=CNN|date=17 August 2011}}{{cite web|title=Pint-Sized Preachers|url=http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/videos/pint-sized-preachers/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130304063222/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/videos/pint-sized-preachers/|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 4, 2013|publisher=National Geographic|accessdate=30 July 2017}}