“Southern Baptist Decline and God’s Bottom Line”
Read a Dec. 22, 2008, post by David Waters, editor of the “On Faith” site of The Washington Post, crunching the numbers and analyzing the SBC downturn.
Category: Clergy
“The Next Big Southern Baptist Debate: Purging the Membership Rolls”
Read a June 12, 2008, blog post at Christianity Today about the previous SBC convention, and the disputes over numbers and membership rolls. Ted Olsen lists several statistics chronicling the downturn.
“Theological Education Rebounds, But Fewer Students Enroll”
Read a Sept. 11, 2012, Insights into Religion article on the state of theological education.
“A new way to become a rabbi?”
Read an Aug. 24, 2012, article from The Jewish Standard about a controversial, one-year online seminary, the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute.
“Student-Loan Debt and the Future of Seminaries”
Read an Aug. 23, 2012, column in The Wall Street Journal about the debt problem for seminary students and what congregations and schools can do differently to address it. Russell D. Moore, dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., is the author.
“Ministers With MBAs”
Read an Aug. 7, 2012, story by Inside Higher Ed about seminary programs that combine master of divinity degrees with advanced business degrees.
“The high cost of service: Student debt burdens religious workers”
Read an Aug. 6, 2012, post by David Briggs of the Association of Religion Data Archives about how student debt is burdening prospective clergy members and in some cases causing seminaries to turn applicants away.
“Why Attend Seminary?”
Read a July 12, 2012 article by The Huffington Post by Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary, that promotes the seminary.
“For Schools of Theology, It’s Time to Bend Tradition”
Read a May 13, 2012, commentary for The Chronicle of Higher Education that urges seminaries to adapt to societal changes in order to thrive.