This fall more than 90,000 students across the United States and Canada are pursuing graduate theological or ministry training. Twenty years ago such students had one big decision: which school to choose. Then you typically had to relocate and enroll in a residential program for two to four years of full-time study.
Fast-forward two decades and the options have increased dramatically. Seminaries have been joined by Christian colleges and universities in offering graduate theological degrees. The Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree is now one of dozens of master’s-level options, including specializations in counseling, cross-cultural ministry, youth ministry, children’s ministry, worship leadership, and executive leadership, to name a few.
Meanwhile, the internet has radically changed the way education can be delivered. Distance education options include online programs, satellite campuses and extension programs, and hybrid programs that combine online interaction with on-campus instruction. These allow students to remain involved with their current ministries while earning an advanced degree or certificate. The growth of options has made further education more accessible but also more confusing. There is no longer one standard path for continuing education. The myriad choices can make it difficult to compare and decide.
So how should a ministry leader choose?
No one answer will apply to everyone. But let’s take a look at the stories of three leaders who faced this dilemma. Each chose a different path. Perhaps their experiences will equip you to make better decisions about educational options.
Going “ALL IN”
When Chris Shinnick began considering additional education, a distance program might have been the logical first choice. After all, Shinnick was entering his seventh year of full-time youth ministry in Hawaii, where there were no accredited seminaries nearby.
But Shinnick knew he did not study well on his own. He also knew he was ready for a short break from the pace of full-time ministry. Therefore, the best route for Shinnick and his wife was the traditional one: resignation from his job and relocation to Denver Seminary for a full-time M.Div. program. It was a move that Shinnick calls going “all in.”
“I wanted an immersive experience,” explained Shinnick, who now serves as connections pastor at Manna Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina. “I lived on campus, I worked on campus as a janitor. I once went 10 days without leaving the campus. I soaked it all up.”
While some leaders want to continue in ministry while pursuing additional education, Shinnick felt the exact opposite. “I felt a borderline conviction to not do anything ministry-wise at least the first two years; we just attended church,” Shinnick said. “It was a great season. I would sometimes think, There are others out there feeding the poor and I have to work on a paper about James, but I knew that school was part of a bigger picture call on my life.”
Shinnick concedes that for some, disengaging from ministry while in seminary isn’t the right move. But he viewed his situation differently. “I had done 50-plus hours a week for seven years straight. I felt as if I had completed a healthy season of ministry. I knew that’s what I would do the rest of my life. A little time in the library wasn’t going to hurt. It was part of my call.”
That big-picture perspective that led Shinnick to pursue his M.Div. degree. “It seemed like the most comprehensive approach for the pastor role I felt called to walk in,” he said. “In my sixth year of being a youth pastor, I finally realized: If I’m going to do this for the rest of my life, I should be as responsible as possible and learn as much as I can about this stuff.”
Shinnick said that responsibility toward his marriage also influenced his decision to pursue an immersive seminary experience. “My wife and I had been married three years and I felt like the pace of full-time ministry was putting a strain on our marriage,” Shinnick said. “All my mentors and especially their wives had mentioned how great their seminary experiences were, especially for their marriages, so that was an incentive as well. It was our first big ‘us’ decision.”
Having graduated with his M.Div. in 2010, Shinnick has no regrets about his path, listing a number of benefits: “We got away to a new and neutral location. It was great for our marriage and we started a family. My wife feels like it was the best season of life so far for us, and that’s saying a lot.”
Shinnick also enjoyed the intensity of the experience. “As a former college football player, being ‘all in’ was key. If I knew anything about myself by then, it was that I sure get focused on the task or season at hand. I can certainly multi-task, but having one ‘big idea’ for a particular season of life is where I flourish.”
Home Sweet Computer
Like Shinnick, Lisa Welter initially decided the best way to pursue additional education was to enroll in a residential M.Div. program, in her case at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. She chose Bethel’s evening degree program, moved into on-campus housing, and began attending classes two nights a week. But Welter soon realized the program was not the right fit.
“I had a call to ministry but I didn’t know what I was looking for,” explained Welter, who currently serves as the ministry director for the Blaine, Minnesota, campus of Eagle Brook Church. “I quickly found out that I did not have the time to sit in class like that. I struggled with the amount of time it took for discussion. I needed my education to be simple and streamlined.”
As a 28-year-old single mother at the time, Welter realized she needed to maximize the limited time she had available. “The best utilization of my time for school was a long-distance program where everything was funneled down for me,” she said.
Meanwhile, as Welter progressed through her first year of M.Div. studies, she also questioned whether the degree was the best fit for her. “I just thought if I jumped into a program that it would work, but that was not the case,” she said.
A spiritual gifts class Welter took at her church that year revealed that she had strong leadership gifts. As she considered other options, she was delighted to learn that Bethel offered a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Transformational Leadership and that the program could be completed primarily online with a few intensive sessions on campus—where she already lived.
“I lived on-campus, worked full-time at another job, and volunteered at the church,” Welter recalled. “I did [on-campus] intensives two times a year, one week at a time; everything else was online. Lectures were videos so I could rewind the professor and play it back. I could do my schoolwork in the evenings in my pajamas, when my kids were in bed.”
Three years after starting her first M.Div. course, Welter graduated with her M.A. in Transformational Leadership in 2008. Last summer she began working toward her Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree in Servant Leadership, also at Bethel.
While the majority of students in graduate theological degree programs are male, the gender ratio is growing more balanced each year. For Welter, the alternative delivery method of an online program provided an opportunity she may not have had ten years earlier. And Welter understands the tensions for a female seeking to juggle family, school, and ministry involvement.
“Your top priority is your family and kids,” she said. “Find a program that matches your family’s pace. Ask what they need and how you can fit them into that process, and what kind of time you can devote to school at this point in your life. However long this is going to take is how long it’s going to take.”
Sprint To The Finish
Michael Nieves began his ministry education in a traditional manner. After graduating from Lancaster Bible College (LBC) with a degree in Bible, Nieves moved to the Chicago suburbs where he enrolled in a full-time M.Div. program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). However, the financial expenses were more than he anticipated. In addition, Nieves was tired of school and eager to engage in hands-on ministry.
“My academic passion was fading compared to the thrill of actual ministry, which I was experiencing at Willow Creek Community Church,” Nieves explained. “I was having a tough time reconciling the educational minutiae with the urgency and excitement of seeing actual lives changed by the gospel.”
Nieves withdrew after two semesters at TEDS and he and his wife eventually moved back home to Buffalo, New York, where in September 2002 they planted CenterPointe Community Church. The next eight years were a blur of church-planting and child-rearing, as CenterPointe and the Nieves family both grew.
In 2010, Nieves decided he needed to finish his graduate education. “I didn’t want to look back at a life gone by in ministry and wonder what additional skills or insights might have been leveraged for the kingdom if I’d only had the gumption to push myself through school,” said Nieves. “Anything worth doing is going to be hard. I felt I had built enough margin in my life to take on the challenge.”
I can multi-task but having one ‘big idea’ for a particular season of life is where I flourish.
Nieves considered many options in light of his life situation. “First of all, I had to come to terms with my age,” he said. “I had just turned 40 and the option of being able to put off degree completion indefinitely was becoming unrealistic. My youngest child was out of diapers so I knew there would be some relief of home responsibilities. In addition, church life had moved into a manageable rhythm.
“Programmatically, I looked for ministry relevancy,” Nieves continued. “After attempting a program with a lot of theory and academic rigor, I wanted a program that addressed the needs of ministry professionals ‘in the trenches.’ I knew that in order to balance the needs of church life and family, I would need an accelerated program that could accommodate those factors.”
Nieves found what he was looking for at his alma mater, Lancaster Bible College, which was launching a Master of Arts in Ministry (M.A.M.) “Fast Track” program designed to be completed in one year through a combination of online coursework and five intense, four-day on-campus residencies.
“As an LBC alumnus, I received regular mailings and one of those mailings included an advertisement for the brand-new Fast Track program,” Nieves said. “It was ministry-relevant, distance-learning based, compressed, academic without being strictly scholarly, and just geographically close enough that I could meet the on-campus requirements. It also passed the spouse test. My wife took one look and told me I should do it.”
In May 2011 after 12 months of intensive study, Nieves graduated with his M.A.M. degree. He remains the lead pastor at Center-Pointe, thankful for an educational experience that allowed him to complete a graduate degree while remaining engaged in full-time ministry.
As grateful as Nieves is that he completed his education, he has a caveat for other church leaders about the limits of classroom education. “Don’t expect any degree to make up for the learning that happens from every emotional and spiritual wound you will encounter in ministry,” Nieves advises. “No amount of education will prepare you for the maturity needed to respond as Christ would have you respond.”
Angie Ward is director of The Leadership Lab in Durham, North Carolina, and a pastor’s spouse. She is completing her Ph.D. in Ministry Leadership via a hybrid program at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
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