I get asked this question all the time, and I can understand why. After all, I am a seminary graduate, and I enjoyed my time there and learned a lot.
But that doesn’t mean that I think everyone should go to seminary. In this article I’ll try to identify and evaluate the three main reasons why people go to seminary in order to provide you with some insight into whether or not a seminary education is a good fit for.
So why do people go to seminary?
Before we answer that question, we should note that less and less people are deciding to go to seminary every year. In 2006, North American seminaries hit their inflection point. Enrollment in North American seminaries had increased every year since 1991, but from 2007 till today, seminaries have experienced a steady decrease in enrollment.
The most recent Data Table of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) reveals a total enrollment of 76,655 students in its 248 schools in 2008. By 2012 the number of reporting schools had increased to 269, although the total enrollment in those schools had dropped down to 74,548. In 2006, at its height, ATS boasted 81,180 students in 251 reporting schools. That means that between 2006 and 2012, ATS lost 8.17% of its enrollment even after increasing the number of its reporting schools by 7.17%.
These numbers are astounding, to say the least. Since 2006, North American seminaries have lost an average of 1.36% per year. If this trend continues, it will inevitably bring about a thoroughgoing redefinition of the content, mode, and method of theological education across the world within the next fifteen to twenty years!
But what would cause the numbers to fall so sharply and so consistently? Why are people forsaking theological education?
In actuality, the trend began long before it became visible in the enrollment numbers. Daniel Aleshire, Executive Director of ATS, said (in an article in the NY Times) back in 2006 that only half of M.Div graduates that year were expected to go into church ministry, and that that number was ten to fifteen percent higher in 2001. That means that as many as 65% of seminary graduates pursued full time parish ministry upon graduation in 2001, as opposed to 50% in 2006.
What these statistics document is the gradual erosion of the most historically significant reason for attending seminary: to prepare for pastoral ministry. This was the reason for the formation of the first seminarium in 1568; to produce a learned clergy (See William Clark, Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University, University of Chicago Press, 2006, p. 159ff). And this is the primary reason that people have attended seminary for centuries since then.
But times have changed.
It is no longer a given that if you are called to pastoral ministry, you should go to seminary to prepare for it. In fact, in some circles going to seminary is perceived as the worst path you could take toward ministry preparation. There are at least three reasons why people feel this way:
1. Traditional seminaries have a reputation for being more academic than practical. Many pastors who have gone to seminary have found that their seminary education equipped them with nothing more than a system of academic disciplines that lacked the practical instruction that they needed for the relational, spiritual, administrative, and financial components of pastoral ministry.
2. Traditional seminaries have a reputation for being spiritually arid. Oh, so you’re going to cemetery, huh? That’s the response that many of us got when we announced to our church friends that we had enrolled in seminary.
3. A traditional seminary education can cost upwards of $60k, and a typical pastor’s salary is sparse in comparison. Many people are finding that a seminary education is simply not a sound financial investment, and incurring tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt is simply not a good idea given the prospects of our current economic realities.
These three factors are causing many people who feel called to full-time ministry to turn to alternative avenues of ministry preparation, such as church-affiliated schools of ministry, discipleship training programs, and non-accredited seminaries and seminary-like programs. This is the niche that I tried to fill with Abba University (now defunct) and my current line of courses on patreon. Many are finding these programs preferable to a traditional seminary education because they are less expensive, more practically oriented, and tend to be more spiritually enriching as well.
So then, should we completely abandon the traditional seminary model? Before I offer my final word on the matter, let’s look at the other two prominent reasons for enrolling in seminary.
The most obvious reason that someone would go to seminary, besides to prepare for pastoral ministry, is to become a seminary professor. This is arguably the most logical reason for going to seminary of them all. If you are called to be a biblical scholar or a theologian, there is no better place to study than under the tutelage of other biblical scholars and theologians.
And in fact, it could be argued that the real (though unspoken) purpose of a traditional seminary education is to prepare you to become a seminary professor. I say this because it cannot be denied that a large percentage of what you learn in seminary is only useful in a seminary (or otherwise academic) context.
The third, and less obvious (though understandable) reason why people go to seminary is to gain a better foundation of understanding for their faith. I had a number of friends in seminary who were there for that purpose. They had no desire to teach or to preach or to lead, either in a church or in an academic institution. They simply wanted more knowledge about God and the bible to give them a better foundation for their faith that they could take with them into the marketplace.
I have observed some of these individuals leaving seminary disillusioned, because what they were really reaching for was a foundation for spiritual vitality, rather than academic credibility. And my suspicion is that this population is the most fragile of the three because less and less people are going to be willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an education that they don’t need for any professional reason whatsoever.
So, now that we have provided a little bit of background on some of the key issues, let’s get back to the central question. Should you go to seminary? Here’s my take on the question.
If you are called to be a bible scholar or a theologian, you should absolutely go, without a doubt. If you are called to be a pastor in a denominational context that requires seminary, you should absolutely go. If you sense that there is an academic side to your calling . . . that you are called not only to speak to the church, but to prophesy to the academy, you should probably go to seminary. But if you are not a part of a denomination that requires it and you do not have an academic call of God on your life, or if you simply want a deeper foundation for your faith, you probably should not go to seminary.
But if you go, you need to understand three things.
1) Everything you learn there will fit into three buckets: useful, useless, and harmful (depending on which seminary you attend). Make sure you stay connected to people who can help you discern those buckets correctly.
2) While your going to seminary is an act of faith and obedience, it is not a good financial decision. Don’t go into debt to do it! Trust God to provide for it, not the US government.
3) The whole system must change, and will change within the next five to ten years. Learn all you can while you can, because you may get to create something that changes it!
I know that seminaries are suffering right now, and I’m not unsympathetic. I wouldn’t trade my seminary education for the world. I use the tools I obtained there almost daily. But the fact of the matter is that seminary must change if the church of the 21st century is to have any real impact upon the world of the 21st century. The pain that seminaries are feeling right now is good pain because it will inevitably force it to change. There will also be a great many alternative programs that will fulfill the original purpose of a seminary education by actually preparing people for ministry, and I rejoice to see these arise as well. We need all of the above if we are going to win this thing, and we are indeed going to win this thing!
Hope these thoughts help. I’d love some feedback in the comments below. I’d be happy to answer any questions or hear any thoughts you may have in response. And if you are looking for a seminary alternative that more than a bible study and less than an arid academic process, check out the courses that I offer on Patreon.
