Seminary Enrollment Is Up, But Some Big Seminaries Are Stalled
Seminary enrollment is up, according to data collected by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), an accrediting agency for seminaries.
For more than three decades, ATS has been releasing its annual data about what is happening in the world of graduate theological education.
ATS reported that total enrollment in fall 2024 across the reporting seminaries was up by 1.7% over fall 2023. Fifty-five percent of the schools reported year-over-year increases, while 45% reported decreases, according to Chris A. Meinzer, senior director and COO for ATS.
The increase in enrollment is attributable to growth in the Master of Arts (MA), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), and Doctor of Theology (ThD) programs, with the doctoral programs growing by 4.3%, Meinzer pointed out.
Master of Divinity (MDiv) enrollment was down, a trend that has been broadly true across ATS schools, though mostly in the mainline denominational schools where it declined by 4%. In 50% of evangelical schools, MDiv enrollment actually increased.
It is clear that evangelical seminaries are the largest in the country.
Liberty Theological Seminary, which is Baptist but not an official Southern Baptist seminary, leads the way with over 6,100 students enrolled in seminary courses. It has been steadily growing, with 4,849 students in 2018-19 and 5,723 students in 2021-22.
As the largest seminary on the list, Liberty offers 10 Master of Arts programs ranging from Christian apologetics and biblical studies to church planting and pastoral counseling.
All six of the Southern Baptist seminaries are in the top 10, despite the scandals that have plagued the SBC over the last few years: Southern, Midwestern, Southwestern, Southeastern, Gateway and New Orleans. However, these schools aren’t necessarily growing.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has been embroiled in its fair share of investigations and financial difficulties over the past several years. In 2000-01, it had 3,094 students enrolled, and now it has just 2,278.
Southern Seminary, in Louisville, Kentucky, has had fairly flat enrollment over the last few years, with 3,237 in 2018-19 and now 3,371.
Midwestern Baptist has grown substantially since 2000-01, when it had just 486 students, to an enrollment of 2,909 this year.
About the Southern Baptist seminaries, Dean of Talbot Theological Seminary at Biola Ed Stetzer wrote, “Two things stand out about the SBC seminaries. First is the remarkable growth of Midwestern under the leadership of Jason Allen. Midwestern was consistently the smallest or close to the smallest SBC seminary. But that has changed dramatically.
“Second, Southern Seminary and Gateway Seminary have experienced decline over the last year — Gateway had the largest numeric decline, and Southern the largest in raw numbers,” Stetzer wrote.
Several evangelical seminaries not affiliated with a particular denomination make the top 25 list for enrollment, including Dallas Theological Seminary at No. 4 and Fuller Seminary at No. 8. Others in the list include Talbot, Gordon-Conwell, Kairos, Denver, Master’s, Western, Moody, and Columbia Biblical Seminary.
Stetzer is thrilled at Talbot’s growth, saying, “I think we’re offering a uniquely helpful educational experience. We take our role as a global provider of theological education very seriously, and I can’t wait to share more about our plans soon.”
While Reformed Theological Seminary (No. 16) serves the church “in all branches of evangelical Christianity,” it tends to feed pastors into Presbyterian and Reformed denominations.
Enrollment at one of the oldest evangelical seminaries in the country, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, has been declining in recent years. In 2000-01, Trinity had 1,402 students; in 2018-19, it had 952 students enrolled; and for the 2024-25 school year, it has 813 students.
Duke Divinity School is the only mainline denominational seminary that makes the top 25.
As part of its data collection, ATS also looks at the number of students enrolled, also called head count, in comparison to full-time equivalents.
Meinzer explained that full-time equivalent (FTE) indicates how much of a full-time load the enrolled students are taking. For example, if 100 students are taking 1,500 credits and a normal full-time load is 30 credits per year, then the 100 students would equal 50 FTE students (1,500 divided by 30). Another way of looking at this is that, on average, these students are taking a 50% load.
The table shows that when it comes to FTE percentage, Duke is at the top with 98% of its students taking a full course load. Next is Liberty at 74%, followed by the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary of Andrews University at 68%.
While Meinzer said that online education courses do have some impact on the FTE percentage, ATS member schools have always had a large percentage of part-time students.
He said that percentage has hovered between 62-65% over the last 20 years across all ATS schools and fell to 61% this year.
When In Trust Center for Theological Schools examined the growing seminaries in 2021, it found seven factors they seemed to have in common: a strong, engaged president; active, scholarly faculty; innovative programs; emphasis on spiritual growth and discipleship; professional admissions strategies; doctrinal foundation; and affordability.
The “graying” of the American pulpit has been the subject of much discussion as people consider whether there is a clergy shortage or not.
According to Lifeway Research, the current age of the average pastor is 57 years old, compared to age 50 in 2000. In 2022, Brandon Langley pointed out in an article that one-third of the SBC churches in Mississippi, 600 churches in North Carolina, and 17% of churches in Louisiana are without pastors.
In the fall of 2023, about 44% of clergy told the Hartford Institute for Religion Research that they had seriously considered leaving the ministry since 2020.
Research by the Barna Group in 2023 found that a quarter of all pastors plan to retire by 2030.
The “graying” of the American pulpit seems to demonstrate the need for more pastors, but more churches are closing than opening in America each year. According to Lifeway Research, 4,500 Protestant churches closed in 2019 while only 3,000 opened.
“We need flourishing, gospel-focused seminaries to train pastors for ministry and mission, for the sake of the mission, the good of the church, and the glory of God. I’m encouraged by many of the positive signs of growth from the ATS report, and I’m praying for the areas of decline and discouragement. I hope you will join me,” Stetzer said.
This article has been republished with permission from Ministry Watch.
Kim Roberts is a freelance writer who holds a Juris Doctorate with honors from Baylor University and an undergraduate degree in government from Angelo State University. She has three young adult children who were home schooled and is happily married to her husband of 28 years.