Yesterday, President Mohler had a “Presidential Briefing” with all the seminary students at Southern, and I was able to find some notes about the meeting from fellow Southern Seminary bloggers who are currently students. Here’s what was noted in the briefing:

• 1 out of every 4 seminary students in the SBC are studying through Southern.
• In 2006, Southern received $8 million dollars from the Cooperative Program.
• The tuition at other theological institutions (Fuller, RTS, Trinity, etc) is at least 3x more than Southern’s. (See below for the breakdown)
• While tuition here is increasing, it is not because the giving is decreasing. The growth in cost is rising faster than the increase in giving.
• On campus, Southern has about a 1:30, faculty:student ratio.
• The enrollment in church music is way down. When asked why, one of his answers was that in today’s churches, people are not looking toward the seminaries for music ministers. I thought this was interesting. Dr. Mohler went on to say that the trustees had this same question. He responded by asking them this question, “Which of you at your churches when you last needed to hire a music minister searched the seminaries?” He said no one raised their hand.

Tuition at various other notable seminaries compared to Southern:

• Fuller Theological Seminary - $13,146.00
• Trinity Evangelical Divinity School - $12,207.00
• Reformed Theological Seminary - $10,907.00
• Denver Seminary - $10,650.00
• Bethel Seminary - $9,210.00
• Southern Baptist Theological Seminary - $3,750.00

(Source: here, here, and here.)

Even as I am so far away from Southern right now, I am glad that God has ordained this seminary to be the place where I get trained, sifted and refined as a servant of His church and His word starting this August. It is indeed the place to be theologically educated in North America, the faculty is the best of the best and access to them is much better than any other school’s. Tuition is the lowest, if not one of the lowest, in the continent - a tremendous deal considering the faculty and facilities available! My heart is filled with joy knowing that God is using this school and calling servants of God to Southern so that we can get trained and educated in a rightly orthodox theological university.

Unfortunately, the point mentioned about music ministry is very disheartening. I am glad that my friend Shuling has been called by God and is pursuing church ministry in the area of Worship and music. (He spent 1 yr at Southern in the M.Div - Worship program, but now is back at Tyndale here in Toronto.) As Mohler exclaimed, it is a sad fact that few churches look to the seminaries for their next worship minister. With all the money, effort and practice that our young generation of “worship leaders” puts into their craft and their instruments, it is very disappointing to see that such low enrollment in these seminary programs. Few are willing to give up their careers and their American dreams to seek out their calling and pursue a life of ministry in the ministry of worship.

I wish there were more people like Shu — ministers of the Word through music — because we are living in a Christian church culture where not just the Gospel truths are being watered down in the pulpit but our worship of God is equally diluted in the songs that are sung before the sermon as well. I pray that there are and will be more and more seminary students studying for training in church music and worship — for if we know the revelation of God without responding to it appropriately, our Christianity would be incomplete.

May we be mature to the measure of fullness in Christ, that we may do all things for the Truth, for the Church, for the World, and for the Glory of God.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

-Ephesians 4:11-14