The case for the 45 credit seminary degree

The Atlantic ran a disturbing article on the state of middle class clergy carrying a seminary degree: high debt, low wages, vanishing churches, and part-time pastor positions. The piece profiles Justin Barringer, a recent seminary grad who like many before him graduated the call to pastoral ministry. His story is not unlike thousands of other ministers:

Justin Barringer would seem to have the perfect résumé. He’s a seminary grad, an author and book editor, and a former missionary to China and Greece. But despite applying to nearly a hundred jobs over the course of two years, Barringer, who lives in Lexington, Kentucky, could not secure a full-time, salaried church position.

So he splits his time among three jobs, working as a freelance editor, an employee at a nonprofit for the homeless, and a part-time assistant pastor at a United Methodist Church. “I am not mad at the church,” Barringer says. “However, I wish someone had advised me against taking on so much debt in order to be trained for ministry.”

Here is the reality: high debt and scarcity of full-time paying pastor positions.

The traditional mainline church track for full-time pastors followed like this: 4-years of college, 3-years of graduate seminary education, and ordination. This process launched a generation of pastors into their ministry in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. The traditional 90-credit seminary degree, the master of divinity, became the mark of an intellectual, professional, and full-time pastor. Churches had the people and money to support such a model. The pastor typical could raise a family and even buy a house (if one was not provided).

Now, because of cost of graduate education, seminary graduates are saddled with debt. In the $40,000 to $60,000 range (on top of college debt). The pace of the rise of the cost of education has exceeded the rate of inflation: to the tune of 500% since 1985.  Usually, when a professional incurs such a debt, their boss gives them a raise because of their higher degree. Not the case with pastors. Many pastors have the same credit hours as school administrators, but paid much less.

With this current reality of shrinking churches, downsized church budgets, less full-time pastor positions, and need for a generation of clergy to lead churches into a new culture, a shorter more focused seminary degree is needed. An online distance modified 45-credit degree could shake up this bleak future for pastors and churches. Here’s what the 45-credit seminary degree could look like:

12 credits – Bible (Learning the story of God’s people)
9 credits – Theology (Learning who God is and how God works)
12 credits – Leadership (Learning how to lead through conflict and change)
12 credits – Mission (Learning how to put into practice the entrepreneur mission of the Gospel in the community)

If a distance online-modified program were introduced, it would cut debt and cost.  Some seminaries are attempting this. If denominations and seminaries realized they are training pastors for a religious world that does not exist anymore, then this proposal would help churches revitalize. Seminaries were so busy on training and educating biblical and theological grounded graduates that seminaries did not see the need for individuals train in how to help churches write the next chapter of their ministry. Currently, seminarians are not being trained in how to respond to the challenges of aging congregations, lament of downsized churches, aged buildings, loss of congregational creativity, and lack of interest in organized religion.

The case for the 45-credit seminary degree makes the track for pastoral ministry more attainable.  Seminary programs need to produce ministers that are ready to step into a church on day one and meet the church’s challenges. More training on leadership is needed. The 45-credit seminary degree needs to replace the 90-credit master of divinity.

A smaller graduate level seminary degree geared more towards training people in how to lead and serve rather than how to think, will fundamentally change the way people hear and experience Jesus Christ.