Barely 4 in 10 MDivs Plan To Pastor Full-Time

Seminary grads who expect to pursue full-time ministry careers are down 10 percent over the past decade.

Today's seminary graduates still plan to go into ministry—but fewer than half of them say that means a full-time pastoral role.

According to The Washington Post, "skepticism about religious institutions (in recent years) has led to a broadened concept of what it means to minister."

As a result, seminary grads are taking their Masters of Divinity (MDiv) degrees elsewhere, outside the church context. The Post reports that only 41 percent of MDiv graduates plan to seek a career in full-time church ministry. That's "down from 52 percent in 2001 and from 90-something percent a few decades ago, according to the Association of Theological Schools, the country’s largest such group." Read more