Another seminary closes its doors

[William Thornton]

I’ve long been a watcher of seminary trends and now see that . Been reading about the coming wave of seminary closings for quite some time.

The SBC’s six seem to be doing well now. Wonder where all those grad degrees are going. The SBC’s smallest, Gateway in Calif, made a fortune on real estate. Southern is thriving. Southeastern is as well. Midwestern has increased enrollment substantially. Southwestern, after almost being run into the ground, has recovered nicely. New Orleans has new leadership and is doing OK.

With church numbers declining I wonder where all these people find jobs.

Will be interesting to watch over the next decade.

[Dave Roberts]

There seems on intriguing trend among recent graduates. Not many want to pastor the traditional churches that have been the backbone of Baptist life. In conversations with interim ministers here in VA, many of us find our interims lasting longer than expected because candidates are few or of a poorer quality than the churches will accept. They also seem to want to live in urban areas and not serve small-town or rural churches. This seems across the board in both SBC and CBF churches. I talked yesterday to the mother-in-law of a recent SEBTS grad who does HVAC maintenance for income and preaches as he can. Don't know how this is shaping out for the future.

[Sandy]

Logsdon was an in-house program for the most part. Small schools like that are having a much harder time competing for students with all of the options that are now available, including on-line programs.

Is Southwestern out of the woods yet? Finances still seem to be a problem. Southern Baptists are still due an accounting for that.

[William Thornton]