Complete Your Accelerated Master’s and Bachelor’s Seminary Degree in Five Years

Whether you’re about to start your theological education or you’re already scouting out graduate schools, you will probably face this question sometime soon: How fast can I get a master’s degree?

Attending seminary is different here at Grace.

Theological education for the last century has looked fairly similar: taking years of school, studying Greek and Hebrew, spending most of your day in a library, barely making ends meet, reading, writing, preaching, and sometimes enduring periods of isolation from others.

There are some aspects of theological education that may never change like the subjects taught and the gospel proclaimed, but as the landscape of education transforms, seminary schools must adapt to make education more accessible. One of our attempts to address these changes at Grace Theological Seminary is our five-year Accelerated Master of Divinity program.

Get a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in just five years!

One of the critiques of seminary education is that it takes too long. At best, traditional seminary education takes three years. As a seminary graduate, I speak from experience; my M.Div. degree took me three years, and at the time, it really worked for me.

There is nothing I would change about my theological education. However, if there was an option to complete both my bachelor’s and my accelerated Master’s of Divinity in five years — I would have gone with the accelerated ministry degree.

How we do seminary at Grace

At Grace, we are innovative thinkers. The way of Grace leads us to weigh questions and create solutions. We don’t settle for what has been, we forge ahead and ask about what could be. And so, we have come up with a solution that allows our students to use their time and money wisely. While they are working on their undergraduate degree over the first four years, they begin taking seminary classes in years three and four. By the time they finish their fourth year, Grace students are able to completely focus on their accelerated MDiv and finish during the fifth year. This shaves a full two years off of the time it would have taken to get the same degrees at a different school.

Grace is able to make this work because our undergraduate college and our seminary have partnered together to design an efficient program that a seminary alone cannot do. And before you start wondering — we are not cutting any corners to make this work. Our degrees are fully accredited programs; our bachelor of arts requires 120 credit hours and our accelerated Masters of Divinity requires 90. By reimagining the way we schedule classes and rearranging the existing program maps, we were able to make this decision a no-brainer for students and parents. 

Students, move through your programs more quickly to step into the ministry God called you to and save money as you do.

Parents, be assured — your child will be better prepared, more confident, and more financially free after coming to Grace for ministry training. This is just our way. 

Take a Look!

Take a minute to compare how the Blended Program at Grace stacks up against other strategies to earn your accelerated Master’s of Divinity. I think you’ll be impressed. If you’re interested in learning more, reach out, and let’s start a conversation.

Meet John Sloat

Blended Program Director