Seminaries as Workforce Development: A Proposal

"It is easier to build strong children than to fix broken men" Frederick Douglass,

Are you a pastor or ministry leader who wants to transition into the corporate world to supplement your income and sustain your ministry long term? We are here to help.

Imagine your 22 year old, college senior son approached you on Christmas break and said, “Dad I want to pursue a Masters. It’s 3 years long, will cost around $50,000 and only has value in one industry that in its current form, has been shrinking for the last 2 decades. My earning cap is in the mid 60s, unless I can be one the rare few who make it to the big times - the most senior seats in the largest institutions, what do you think?”

For those who don’t get the joke. Your son wants to go to seminary.

Now I know, before the pitchforks come out, an education is more than a piece of paper and a ticket to higher paying jobs, I know, but hear read until the end before you send me an angry e-mail:

One study say that average a seminarian graduating with a Master of Divinity is in $66,000 of student loan debt, yet anecdotally through my work with I Help Pastors Get Jobs, I have had more than one pastor share with me they were $100,000+ in the hole following their educational pursuits for a career in vocational church ministry.

But at least you can get paid well, right? Well, sadly no. Numbers vary by geographic location, church size and time a person has been in ministry, but according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median income for a clergy is $58,920 annually.

From the pastors I work with, most would love to be at 60k a year as they are earning in the 40s or 50s, even as they approach middle age and career. There are the outliers, megachurches, denominational jobs, and churches in rich, white, suburban contexts that want their pastor to be… well rich, white and suburban. Those opportunities are extremely limited as that is where the bulk of pastors are strangely “called by God to go”

Now I know what you’re thinking, “But Eric… it’s ministry. It’s not about the money!”

You’d be correct, which is why I chose to become Covocational while pastoring in The South Bronx of New York City, the poorest congressional district in America in the most expensive city in the world.

Getting into ministry with the hopes of cashing in is a losing bet (wow, Eric, so profound). Yet, this isn’t about “getting rich” this is about “getting by”

You know, buying a house, starting a family, saving for retirement, going on a vacation that isn’t a road trip to your parents where you and your wife sleep in your childhood bed with Power Ranger sheets that smell like pee.

Which leads me to this: for those who feel called to church ministry and need to be trained, what are the options, really? Here’s some thoughts:

1. Should seminaries focus on training pastors to train pastors “in house” in local their churches at a fraction of the cost? Imagine a “train the trainer” model. This opens doors for pastors to be qualified and equipped to enter ministry without accruing the cost of a seminary education, under the supervision of their pastor. This option brings up questions of scale. Can busy pastors carve out time for that?

2. Should seminaries convert into fully online delivery models, cut costs drastically, which allows pastors to be trained while they serve in their local context, without requiring amassing 5 and 6 figure student loans to learn? This option brings up questions of quality. What type of education does this model truly provide?

3. Should denominations remove the requirements for a Masters (or even a Bachelors) for someone to be qualified for ordination? (I just heard some of you clutch your pearls). This options brings up questions of terrible orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Sure, it’s an option but does it tap into the critical thinking that a seminary provides?

4. Should training for ministry be repurposed from an academic pursuit into a workforce development pursuit? My proposal is yes, which solves for the shortcomings in points 1-3.

For the past 6 years, my W-2 job has been in the workforce development industry. For those unfamiliar, if you’ve ever heard of a “coding boot camp” or a trades-apprenticeship, these would be examples of workforce development. In short, it’s the transfer of skills into a person that position them to flourish in their roles, without the fluff that can come from a traditional 4 year (or 7 year) education.

The big point in Workforce Development is that employers should prioritize “skills first” professionals and not disqualify someone who doesn’t have a degree. It’s an uphill battle but more and more secular companies are recognizing they’re missing out on qualified talent because of the “paper ceiling” (immediately disqualifying candidates due not having a Bachelors).

How could Workforce Development come to church?

1. If you are a pastor, you can mentor people in your church in the skills and competencies of being a pastor. This doesn’t mean holding a Thursday night Hebrew for beginners night in your church office (though it could), but more practically, who can you bring to that hospital visit, or nursing home, or (wait for it) develop to preach a few times a year? These people are likely people in your pews right now who long for that level of development, and you as a local church pastor can provide that.

2. If you are a denomination or network (or even a larger church, which I think will replace denominations in years to come, I’ll write on that another day), offer low cost, practical and accessible pathways towards ordination that don’t require moving to a physical seminary and taking on student loan debt for quite frankly, a degree where a minimal amount of what is learned will help aspiring pastors flourish in the field.

3. If you are a seminary or Bible College, begin pairing your Bible and Theology program with marketable skills outside of ministry. I have seen this, a combined M. Div / MSW or MBA or dual majors in religion and business or computer science or nursing. Have a posture that communicates to your grads, “We want you to have practical, real world skills that can earn money outside of vocational ministry because we recognize for most of us, vocational ministry salaries can’t keep pace with a middle class life in America”

4. The Through line - Utilize Adult Learning Principles into training pastors. Think cohorts or learning communities as opposed to classrooms, self directed learning as opposed to lectures and PowerPoints that haven’t been updated since Bush was in office, simulations and case studies with a reverse classroom (First Baptist Church has an opinionated deacon who is sabotaging the board meetings, here’s how the pastor can address it vs. You’re the pastor of First Baptist Church and you have Deacon Paul who is sabotaging your board meetings, how will you address it?), microlearning (short videos, podcasts, articles vs. texts written 500 years ago that are 98% irrelevant), gamification (your assignment isn’t to write an essay on end of life care, your assignment is to shadow a hospice chaplain for a shift), coaching, mentorship and tight feedback loops.

None of these ideas are original. Many churches, denominations, networks and pastors are already doing what is outlined above, yet it’s still fringe for many, and I hope it becomes more mainstream in the years to come.

I aim to write positive, uplifting content that challenges but also inspires and I have to admit, for a lot of this, I am a theorist, not a practitioner. Yes, I’ve done #1, a little bit of #2 and I’ve done #4 in the corporate space. I have no idea the pressure and pains our seminaries are feeling right now. I am not in their seats. If you are, know that I look at you an NFL QB and I am the out of shape guy on the couch eating potato chips who thinks you should have ran instead of thrown on that play.

At the same time, I have spoken to enough of you to know that there are serious concerns of our current model, and in my limited vantage point, limited traction on how to actually enact change. I hope this short article can help.

Could Bible Colleges and Seminaries function as Workforce Development programs as opposed to Academic institutions? Time will tell, but I am hopeful.