http://bibletruthchatroom.com/2011/08/the-financial-times-part-1-the-servitude-of-debt/
http://bibletruthchatroom.com/2011/08/the-financial-times-part-2-the-spiritual-reality-of-debt/

The MDIV is still a great degree - but it is less affordable than it once was.

More and more students are choosing MA degrees simply because they are more affordable and they would rather have some training than none. I know many students at Bethel Seminary who are supported by their local churches through internships and tuition reimbursements. This definitely has taken a hit (like all budgets) the past few years after the economy took a nose dive.

I know Bethel Seminary is pressing into leaner and meaner degrees as we are in the process of revising our curiculum. This is in part an effort to continue to make what we do accessible to as many as possible. It is challenging no doubt.

One person mentioned placement and we do have a placement website that helps students get connected to job opportunities - it is located here:

http://seminary.bethel.edu/placement/

Thanks again for this article and discussion.

I’ve come to see the issue similar to marriage: when we gather at a marriage, we, by our very presence, affirm some things. (Think: “We are gathered here in the sight of God and these witnesses…” and “if anyone has any reason why this man and woman should not be married, speak now…”) We affirm that the couple is mature enough to marry. We affirm that the couple is ‘right’ for one another. And, more, we affirm that we, as the community of believers, will hold them accountable to their vows. They are making promises to one another, to God, and to those present. It seems that a call to ministry should involve the same sorts of commitments from both parties–churches and seminarians.

This story doesn’t quite fit this mold, but it’s a fantastic solution:
I know of one church who recruits at a seminary. They hire newly minted seminarians as fellows for two years. Students make out well: a stipend, the last year of seminary paid, no job hunting during their last year of seminary (a major plus!), and, most valuable to them, on the job training and mentoring that will set them on the path for their entire ministry.
The church, too, makes out well. They can be choosey; their program is, for obvious reasons, highly competitive. They select new folks who are excited about ministry. These students, in many ways, are on top of their game, even if a little green. Not only can the church staff their ministries, but they also minister to the seminarians and other churches where their fellows will serve in the future. They, in effect, create a network of ministers. Their selection process is manageable: it’s contained to a few visits to campus each year for advertising, interest meetings, and interviews–rather than flying candidates around, they fly to (all of!) the candidates. Finally, they often hire their fellows as full-time staff members after their fellowship is complete. So, in some ways, their program is a kind of extended interview. This is such an exciting program! I’d love to see other churches do it even if on a smaller scale.

There was a day when the denominations paid for their future pastors education and we need to get back to that.

If a guy gets an M.Div.he has effectively earned a PhD is other fields but will not receive the wages those fields will in order to pay back their loans in a much more reasonable period of time.

Thank you for the article. I think that one of the issues is that most lay people have no idea that this is such a significant problem. Even a very knowledgeable Elder that I spoke with recently was stunned to discover how expensive a seminary education has become.

The issue is actually pretty straightforward. We pay for graduate education primarily in one of two ways:

1. Some professions pay really well. So, I student can reasonably borrow a lot of money to go to a good law school or business school because their increased income makes this a reasonable choice financially.
2. In many fields such as English and History, students receive teaching assistant-ships or students work as RA’s.

Regretfully, evangelical seminary students face high costs and lower future salaries. This is simply dishonoring to the LORD. God, His word, and His people deserve the best training that we can provide for pastors.

David

As you point out, we American Christians should be deeply concerned with the problem of economic debt and what to do about it. But it is a sad irony that we ignore the massive ecological debt we are running up against God’s creation as we continue to dump billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, deplete ocean fisheries, degrade soils and lands, destroy God’s ecosystems and creatures, consume resources and then waste them by failing to recycle – all in the relentless pursuit of ever-increasing wealth, convenience, and power.

You rightly point out that “the rising cost of theological education is ultimately unsustainable.” Likewise, the rising cost of our self-indulgent lifestyles and “prosperity” is also ultimately unstainable. Where this will all lead, I do not know. But it may turn out that a “day of reckoning” in which our ecological debt comes due (probably for our children or grandchildren) will be far more painful than the day when our economic debt comes due.

I think one concern - from the student perspective - is that not enough thought goes in beforehand to assess the cost of undergrad & graduate degrees and how those loans will be paid off over time. I think too many seminarians go to school to get their M.Div without having a clue as to how they are going to pay back $70k+ in student loans, esp. on a pastor’s salary. Churches are complicit in this, as they normally require such a degree as a prerequisite for hiring in many positions, yet take no action to either subsidize the education or provide a salary that allows one to pay off those debts and still provide a reasonable income to live off of. Some churches may provide stipends or scholarships towards a degree, but a few thousand dollars is really just a drop in the bucket when compared with the overall cost of a graduate degree.

I don’t think the seminaries themselves are really to blame - there is a fixed cost associated with providing education, and they still have to pay for the buildings and salaries of their staff. In a sense, they’re selling a product - and it’s the responsibility of the “buyer” to do their due diligence to determine if they can afford the cost. Even if Bethel were to cut the cost of a degree in half, that would still leave $35k in loans that one would assume - so we’re right back to figuring out a way to pay those loans off.

I think a better alternative would be for churches to hire more interns - pay their cost of living and educational expenses in return for a guaranteed job at that church for a set number of years. If the individual church cannot afford to do so, then perhaps the denominational headquarters (like the Baptist General Conference/Converge Worldwide) would be able to either provide the funding and/or assist the individual in job placement with a church who could make use of their willingness to serve. Currently, I don’t believe that Bethel Seminary or the BGC offers any sort of placement for seminary grads, other than a small binder in the office upstairs listing church openings (which are usually limited to youth pastors or worship leaders). I know that I found it surprisingly difficult to find any sort of pastoral job once I graduated; most churches, in addition to the M.Div requirement, also want their candidate to have 3-5 years of pastoral education before hiring them. The military also requires a minimum of 2 yrs *post-graduate* pastoral experience before accepting them for the chaplaincy. Where are we to get the experience if no one is willing to hire us?

So that’s nice.

I really appreciate your insight on this one, what I am curious about is the individual implications of this ethical standard. Are you arguing that the Church is acting in an unethical manner by not supporting their students and seminaries, that the seminaries are acting in an unethical manner by requiring a tuition so high that it requires students to take out loans, or that the students are acting in an unethical manner by taking out loans in order to provide for their education? All of the above maybe to some degree?

The ethical standard you have pointed out suggests that the current system needs to be reformed. As a seminarian with debt from educational loans I may be a little bit biased toward your point of view, however; I also feel stuck in the current system. What suggestions do you have for breaking the Church/seminary/student of this cycle of debt?