wfn.org | Commentary: Academic indebtedness and ministry

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Dec. 19, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-71B{576}

A UMNS Commentary
By Russell E. Richey and Anna Box*

A recent UMNS commentary addressed a crisis in the church occasioned by
extraordinary indebtedness that graduates of theological schools carry into
the ministry.  The author, one of Candler's graduates, spoke of burdensome
debt one-and-a-half times his base salary, of the hypocrisy in answering the
historic Disciplinary question, "Are you in debt so as to embarrass you in
your work?" and of the moral issue that such patterns of encumbrance pose
for the church.

How creative, risk-taking, prophetic can ministers be who carry mortgage
level exposure?  What will it mean for the church, for ministerial families,
for the ministers themselves to have their work, their energies, their
emotions tethered financially in this way?  Will persons with heavy debt
stay in ministry or flee to better paying professions?

The matter deserves United Methodist attention, research and remedy for the
reasons the author suggests.  However, our United Methodist schools have
been working diligently on student aid in recent years and we, Candler
included, are now able to do far better by our master of divinity (MDiv)
graduates than we could even five years ago.

When Anthony Ruger and Barbara G. Wheeler wrote Manna From Heaven:
Theological and Rabbinical Student Debt (Auburn Publications) in 1995, using
1991 figures, they did so presuming, as did many in theological education
and the church, that borrowing was pervasive and had indeed reached crisis
proportions.  

Schools and boards of ordained ministry knew anecdotally of individual cases
of horrendous debt.  Ruger and Wheeler discovered quite a range of
borrowing.  Some students, indeed about half, borrowed little or nothing.
The other half accumulated quite considerable debt, ranging all the way up
to over $50,000.  The average in 1991 for those in MDiv programs who had
borrowed was $11,043.  At Candler the patterns were similar.  In 1997, the
year when our author graduated, over half  (70 percent) did so without
borrowing and the average debt for all MDiv students was $15,268.   The
average debt of our master of divinity students graduating in 1997 who used
loans to finance their theological education was $25,660.   

Today, Candler offers massive programs for student aid, the result of
zealous fundraising by my predecessor deans, most recently Kevin LaGree.
These resources address a primary pressure towards indebtedness, tuition
levels that have continuously crept up.  Ours currently is $5,655 per
semester but unlike five years ago we now have significant scholarship
resources to draw upon.

Currently, for instance, a Sherman Scholar -- a participant in the aid
program offered to the greatest number of students and limited to United
Methodists preparing for parish ministry and committed to a biblically
based, evangelical ministry -- receives 90 percent of tuition.  

Of the 256 United Methodist MDiv students currently at Candler, some 236
showed need and were eligible for aid.  They received $2,306,878 in
institutional aid, an average of $9,775 per student or 87 percent of
tuition.   Consequently, students are incurring significantly lower debt
than in years past.  These 236 students borrowed an average of $4,222.16 for
the 2000-01 year.  We project that these students will finish the three-year
program with approximately $12,000 in educational debt, a dramatic decrease
from 1997.

The problem, one can see, is far from solved.  Further support for student
aid is needed at Candler, as at our other United Methodist schools which are
working just as hard on this problem.  All of our schools have been making
progress towards increasing aid and decreasing student indebtedness, but we
all need further assistance--new friends and more support from old friends.

The Ministerial Education Fund remains crucial to our effort to support
United Methodist students.  The fund provides a resource for individuals who
do not match endowment specifications, helps us hold tuition in check, and
leverages support we can draw from other aid sources. So even as we search
for new support, we express great appreciation to the church as a whole and
to the individual congregations who have worked so hard to insure
apportionment payments and to those individuals who make direct gifts of
scholarship for theological students.  These investments represent a
commitment to the church's future and to God's coming kingdom.  On behalf of
today's students and those to come, thank you for your gifts.   

# # #

*Richey is dean and Box is director of financial aid at United
Methodist-related Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

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