A student who stacks up thousands of dollars of student loans getting an MBA or going to law school may have a pretty good fourth-quarter plan: graduate and get a job that pays big bucks.
But a minister?
Studies show that students graduating from seminary are lugging away increasingly heavy piles of debt, and that in some cases concern over the money owed affects the type of position that person can consider taking after graduation. Someone who feels the pressure to pay off the debt may be reluctant to take a call at a small rural church that can’t pay much, as the pastor of a new church development, or doing missionary work for a nominal salary.
“Certainly if there’s a significant amount of debt coming out of seminary, that enters your call process with churches,” said Ann Clay Adams, the admissions director at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.
A new minister wonders: “Am I going to be able to pay my bills” on the salary that church can afford, Adams said. “The less debt that a student can graduate with, the more open they can be to all the calls that are out there,” including those in small towns or rural congregations.
But studies show that the debt load of seminary students is growing — including a new survey of students at Episcopal seminaries. That survey, from The Society for the Increase of the Ministry, found nearly six of 10 students who were to graduate in 2007 from 11 Episcopal seminaries had accumulated debt and, halfway through their seminary training, their average debt was $42,874.
How much debt seminary students incur varies from student to student — some manage to finance their theological education without borrowing.
A 2005 report from Auburn Theological Seminary, called “The Gathering Storm,” found evidence of greater indebtedness among more theological students. In 1991, when an earlier study was done, more than half of Master of Divinity graduates had not borrowed to finance their seminary education. But in 2001, only 37 percent of the seminary graduates had not accumulated debt.
The Auburn study reported, “student borrowing for theological education has grown steadily” from 1991 to 2001, “both in terms of the extent of borrowing and the level of borrowing,” i.e., more students were borrowing, and were borrowing greater amounts.
There are multiple reasons why, including increasing tuition prices; a greater availability of funds to borrow; and rising costs for living expenses. Students who are married with children may face the additional costs of supporting a family — but may also have a spouse who can work and help defray expenses. “Single students tend to borrow more than married students,” on average, said Anthony Ruger, a senior research fellow with Auburn’s Center for the Study of Theological Education and a co-author of the Gathering Storm report.
Recognizing the difficulties indebtedness can impose, seminaries are trying to respond.
More, for example, are beginning to offer options for part-time theological training or distance education. The University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, for example, is offering M. Div. classes online. Some schools offer half-time programs that could allow someone to pursue a seminary education while still holding down a job.
And “more and more schools are developing extension centers to bring theological education to students,” Ruger said.
That kind of flexibility can allow some students not to have to uproot themselves and their families in order to attend seminary, which can be particularly important if the spouse is employed.
A consultation is being planned for June to bring representatives of seminaries and others concerned about student debt together to talk about faith and finances, Ruger said. He is working with The Fund for Theological Education in Atlanta to recreate an online catalogue of financial assistance available to theological students and to prepare a resource publication giving seminaries ideas of cost-effective ways to counsel students about educational debt.
“The best defense is an educated consumer,” Ruger said, to “make sure that the students really know what they’re getting into” when they accept a financial aid package.
And seminaries are working harder to try to make sure students consider the long-term impact of student debt before taking it on. The Auburn report found that some students did not pay much attention when accepting student loans to what the realities would be for repaying them.
“One of the things we do is talk with prospective students in advance of their getting here about their financial situation and encourage them not to incur more debt,” said Vivian Hodo, Columbia’s director of financial aid.
“We do it because we know students coming out of seminary don’t necessarily make big dollars, and also because it is frustrating to them if they have significant debt and they do go to a church where they can’t pay it off.”
Sometimes financial issues get entangled with a student’s sense of call. Some students expect that God will provide. Others put off going to seminary until they can pay off earlier debt, feeling that the time won’t be right and the call won’t be true until the dollars add up.
Some students also show up at seminary with pre-existing debt — both from undergraduate education or other schooling, and from consumer or credit card debt.
“Not all debt is alike,” Hodo said. “There’s student debt and then there’s consumer debt. Consumer debt will tend to tell you more about someone’s self-discipline and boundaries, and is more of an indicator of how they may conduct themselves in all of life’s business. … There have been times when we’ve said ‘No,’ you’ve got to get rid of this debt before you think about seminary.”
The conversation about debt among theological students also needs to involve the whole church — it’s not just a private matter between students and their bank accounts, said Lee Hinson-Hasty, coordinator of theological education and seminary relations for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The Auburn report challenged Presbyterians more broadly to think about the difficulties that seminary debt imposes — and to become part of the solution. For example, it found that, in hindsight, nearly half of graduates surveyed from 1994 and 1999 felt financial stress from the debt they had incurred and wished they had borrowed less.
Congregations and committees on preparation for ministry are involved with inquirers — they can work to make finances part of that conversation, Hinson-Hasty said. Congregations trying to call a new pastor can make retirement of educational debt part of the salary package negotiations.
The Board of Pensions offers a Seminary Debt Assistance Program, offering a limited number of grants each year. Congregations and individual Presbyterians are encouraged to help support seminary scholarship education funds, or to provide financial assistance to particular students they consider worthy.
“Certainly if there is a significant amount of debt coming out of seminary, that enters your call process” as graduates consider jobs, Hinson-Hasty said. “The less debt a student can graduate with, the more open they can be to all the calls that are out there. It’s part of an interdependent system.”
