Seminary students are getting younger nationwide — and for them, the ministry isn’t just a career option, it’s a calling.
“Seminary training is what I’m most passionate about — learning to teach and preach the gospel,” said Johnny Burtka, a junior at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
Burtka, along with at least half a dozen other Hillsdale students, is considering attending seminary immediately or soon after college. He and the others would be part of a growing trend of young seminarians — a new study from The Center for the Study of Theological Education at Auburn Seminary shows that the median age of seminarian students has dropped from 34.14 in 1999 to 32.19 in 2009.
That’s a change from two decades ago, when the average age of seminarians was steadily rising, the study says, from age 31.4 to 34.14 between 1989 and 1999.
Keith LeMahieu, who visited campus on Oct. 28 to recruit for Mid-America Reformed Seminary, said in the past five years his school has enrolled more and more students who have just completed college. Previously, he said, more students attended seminary in mid-life after pursuing other careers.
Burtka was among the students who approached LeMahieu’s display in the Grewcock Student Union. But he already has another school in mind for his theological training – Reformed Seminary in Aix-en-Provence, France, which he visited this summer while working in a pastry shop and vineyard in France.
He’s not sure whether he wants to be a missionary or a pastor or take over his family’s vineyard in Michigan, but he knows he wants to pursue ministry.
He’s not afraid of being young.
“It could be a big responsibility, but if that’s what God has called me to, He’ll provide what I’m lacking,” he said.
Junior Trevor Anderson is also not intimidated by his youth. He hopes to attend Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, Minn., with the aim of pastoring a church.
He, like others considering seminary, is tentative about his plans.
“The Lord could tell me different, and the church could tell me different… but the way things are now, that’s what I want to do,” he said. “I can’t see myself doing anything other than teaching God’s word.”
Anderson plans to take a year off after college to intern at Countryside Bible Church in Jonesville, where he attends church now.
He said several people recommended the gap year to him.
“Just so you can learn life lessons, and you’ll get more out of seminary that way, they said.”
Zach Howard ’10 may be in his gap year now. He is teaching at Mars Hill Academy in Mason, Ohio, but is considering attending seminary sometime in the near future. He said he wants to confirm that he is called to pastoring and given the gifts necessary before he decides to enter ministry.
For Howard, seminary will mean bringing along his fiancée, Betsy Peters ’10, after they marry Nov. 20.
“That has a huge role in it… You’re not just taking yourself into it – you’re also taking your family… That increases the variables,” Howard said.
Sophomore Eric DeMeuse has a seemingly completely opposite question to ponder when considering seminary. As a Catholic, he must determine whether he is called to take the vows of chastity required of priests, as well as whether he is called to enter ministry.
He said he’s still praying about it, as all Catholic young men should.
“It’s something I’ve been praying about my whole life,” he said. “Some guys don’t know until their nose hits the marble on ordination day. At the end of the day, it’s just He calls, and we answer.”
He sees the decreasing age of seminarians as a good sign for the church.
“I think it’s a fabulous trend. It’s a sign of renewal in the church. After the sex revolution in the ‘60s, there was a huge decline in vocations to the priesthood. But John Paul II called for new evangelization, and you see that now,” he said. “I think it’s a beautiful thing for the church.”
Elizabeth Essley is the editor-in-chief of the Hillsdale Collegian. She is a member of the Student Free Press Association.
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