Pastoral Educational Debt Survey

students-loans2Brothers of John the Steadfast is again writing an article on the educational debt of Pastors.

A couple of years ago, Pastor Matt Richard posted some very good research on the cost of education and the reality of pastor salaries (found here). Conservatively, the total cost of education (not necessarily the amount borrowed) for a man who is married and has children to earn a bachelor’s degree at a state school and a Master of Divinity at Concordia Theological Seminary is somewhere around $158,104. The actual amount borrowed in student loans may be reduced by grants above and beyond the need-based 55% grant CTS offers its students (that grant is included in the $158K), scholarships, and other sources (hopefully including congregations around the synod).

We would like to do some research to find the size of debt that actual pastors come out of seminary with in preparation for another article. If you are a graduate of an LCMS seminary and are willing to participate in our anonymous survey, please take our survey by clicking here.

We guarantee your anonymity; you may give us your name or not, but we’d prefer some identification so we can validate the information that we receive. We’ve already received one comment that required us to contact the submitter for clarification, so again — we appreciate your providing your name or contact information.

**NOTE**: We’ve found the data from some older graduates to be informative as well, so even if you graduated several years ago, and are willing to share your approximate information with us, please go to our survey and fill in the information. Include the year with the information in the comments box.

Take our survey

 

 

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