Like Talbot, many people underestimate Regent University’s School of Divinity. Most of the schools on this list are better known than either Talbot or Regent. Finally, some of the seminaries that are not on the list will surprise some people, but several large seminaries have been experiencing decline over the last few decades.
Growth and Decline Over the Last Year
Like any other institution for higher education, seminaries are always growing or declining—few stay the same. Here’s the growth year over year. Keep in mind that a single year of growth or decline does not constitute a trend. A trend emerges when the data is charted over five to ten years (but that’s for another article). Here are the growth/decline charts:
Encouraging Growth and Surprising Declines
Obviously, we’re thrilled with our growth at Talbot, as you can see from the graph. That said, on this point it is worth noting that our growth was 6% year over year, not 17% if we’re comparing apples to apples. (We integrated Biola’s missions program into the seminary, which is why the figure shows 17%.) Most seminaries have missions in their school, and we do now as well. (I will write more on that soon as we hire two more missions professors in the next few months!)
While Liberty annual growth stalled in recent years, it has started growing again under the leadership of Troy Temple. Likewise, 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 (and much smaller than many non-SBC schools). 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. Finally, for this last chart, I added Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). TEDS has suffered a difficult few years, but I’m thrilled to see them growing. At Talbot, we want our gospel partners to flourish, and Trinity really matters.
Here are the raw numbers—note that Liberty dominates here.
Conclusion
Seminaries are not everything, but they matter. They help shape a future of ministry in many ways. While these are challenging times for seminaries, this year’s ATS report shows encouraging signs of vitality for the future of seminary education in the United States. 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.
