Bidding the Lexington Herald-Leader a very fond farewell | Opinion

I arrived at the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1986 as the oldest intern anybody in the newsroom had ever seen.

I was 30, working on a Ph.D. in communications at the University of Kentucky and playing catchup from a misspent youth that had put me way behind in my career journey.

My internship was supposed to provide me a needed paycheck through the summer, and then I’d return to grad school. Instead, I found my true home.

I did return to school that fall, but soon realized academia couldn’t compete with the adrenaline rush of reporting on deadline for a daily newspaper.

At the newspaper I went from intern to freelancer to a staff writer covering business to, by 1990, the staff religion writer. All along, I’d been the bi-vocational pastor of a tiny Pentecostal church, too. In 1997, I reluctantly left the paper to devote full-time to that weekend vocation.

But I missed the aroma of fresh ink. So in 2002, when an editor asked me to come back as a contributing columnist, to pontificate about what the paper was calling “faith and values,” I said, “Amen.” I’ve been doing that ever since, 24 straight years.

Now, after nearly 40 years altogether, I’m concluding my time writing for the Herald-Leader.

I’m grateful for my experiences here. I’ve worked with some of the finest journalists — and finest human beings — in the profession. I’ve hung around even as the industry shifted beneath everyone’s feet.

I loved my colleagues and loved the institution and loved writing about religion and loved the good-humored freedom my editors gave me to say any danged fool thing I wanted to. I loved you readers, too, who sought me out to tell me what you liked about my work and often, in straightforward terms (ahem), exactly what you didn’t.

Don’t worry, I’m going to keep cranking out columns for Religion Unplugged, an award-winning website that has carried my contributions for several years. Who knows where else I’ll show up?

Still, I’m sad I won’t be affiliated with the Herald-Leader any longer. We’ve been together a long time.

Both religion and journalism have undergone sea changes over the decades I’ve been involved with them.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about an article in The Atlantic that said 40 million Americans had stopped going to church during the previous 25 years, the largest shift in church attendance in history.

Another analysis that same year by the Washington Post found that although 21% to 24% of us said we regularly attended religious services, research that tracked people’s actual behavior showed the number to be as low as 5%.

Worse, from my view: the 5% statistic was based on research conducted before the coronavirus pandemic hammered religious attendance further. It’s a challenging time to be a pastor, which is something I’m still doing and plan to continue.

Momentous shifts have occurred in news consumption as well.

A study from the Pew Research Center in 2025 showed that only 7% of U.S. adults reported getting their news from newspapers or printed magazines, and in the digital space, fewer than 30% of people reported getting their news from news websites or apps.

If all this sounds depressing, I apologize. I don’t want to sing my Herald-Leader swan song in a sour key.

I’ve had so many fascinating, touching, illuminating experiences while reporting on and pontificating about religion. I intend to tell a few of those anecdotes in my final installment, which will follow in a week or two.

In any case, I trust God is present in all situations.

Dedicated, honest journalists such as the folks I worked beside will remain, looking for fresh ways to speak truth to power. New generations will come to stand on their shoulders.

And all those people who left their churches are out there somewhere, with their same hungry souls, seeking their maker. Those who seek will find.

It’s all good, folks.

Paul Prather is pastor of Bethesda Church near Mount Sterling. You can email him at pratpd@yahoo.com.