Ministry Today

While seminaries across the nation struggle with serious financial crises, a handful of theological schools are literally going the extra mile to reach new would-be ministers-via the Internet.

In an effort to improve already sagging enrollments, Gordon-Conwell and at least four other evangelical seminaries will offer Web-based preaching classes this fall as a part of expanding their reach into the homes of future pastors. The pilot program allows students to preach entire sermons to a webcam and receive feedback from teachers and fellow students they may never meet in person.

"My hunch is that the quality of feedback is going to be quite good," said Haddon Robinson, a professor of preaching at Gordon-Conwell. "Afterward, I think I could say to my colleagues who are teaching in other areas, 'Look, this worked with (preaching), which is difficult to conceive of teaching on the Web. So you should be able to teach any other subject on the Web.'"

Though online classes are nothing new, Web-based preaching courses aren't exactly the norm, particularly among higher-education institutions that until recently have kept the value of onsite theological training unique and intact. Recent studies, however, reveal a serious problem: 39 percent of the 175 institutions in the Association of Theological Schools are "financially stressed," with less than a year's worth of spendable assets-a 26 percent hike since last year. To add to the situation, student enrollment at these schools is down 4 percent since 2006, while 60 percent of Bible schools are suffering similarly declining numbers among undergraduates.

"This crisis has precipitated thinking the unthinkable-mergers, selling property, transforming the school, moving the school-all these things are on the horizon," said Anthony Ruger, a seminary financing expert at Auburn Theological Seminary's Center for the Study of Theological Education. "This may spur a faster evolution (among schools) as people have to ask themselves: 'Where is our growth? Where is our potential to serve in the future?'" [timesunion.com, 4/4/09; usatoday.com, 3/17/09]