It is not uncommon for clergy to graduate from seminary with over $60,000 in loans from seminary and undergraduate education.  Couple the debt from education with the financial needs of establishing a new home, obtaining a reliable means of transportation, marriage and a new family, and the financial obligations can be daunting. 

Pastor Jeff Lathrop has been serving the Plankinton / White Lake United Methodist Church and attending seminary since 2012, and shares the story of his financial and family struggles.

Photo: Courtesy of Lathrops: Noah, Pastor Jeff, Izaiah, and Holly Lathrop catching a family selfie.

The cost of an undergraduate degree

College graduates of the class of 2015 are reaching new highs as soon as the day they graduate. Unfortunately, that high is often their average student loan debt amount. The Wall Street Journal also reports that the average 2015 bachelor’s degree recipient will have to repay more than $35,000 in principal. That makes a career start difficult for those completing a four-year degree, but for occupations requiring additional study such as seminary, additional debt can be expected.

According to Time Online, graduate students make up just 14% of university enrollment, but account for 40% of student debt. One might expect that debt to be easier to repay when that master’s degree recipient lands a high-paying job, but that’s not always the case. Service careers such as teaching or ministry offer salaries that lag far behind the debt incurred to get there. Teachers, on the lower end of the master’s degree pay scale, average $57,830. The odds of paying off that kind of debt, raising a family, saving for their children’s college costs, and saving for retirement are disheartening, at best.

Seminary debt

Now take a closer look at seminary students, who also need to finance at least three or four more years of even more expensive graduate courses after completing their bachelor’s degrees. Jodi Cataldo, who served on the United Methodist Global Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM), said it was not uncommon in her position, to encounter seminary graduates with $40,000 in student loan debt just from seminary, not counting their undergraduate debt. Cataldo said, “It’s tough to have that kind of debt and then support a family on $32,000 annually.” She went on to say that our Dakotas Conference is one of the best at assisting with seminary costs, both on the front end through grants and loans, and on debt reduction grants, allowed according to specific guidelines, but there is still a long way to go.”

New findings from the GBHEM’s Seminary Indebtedness Task Force reveal that the average educational debt for United Methodist seminary graduates has reached $49,303.   

“Based on median annual conference compensation for new clergy, we now know that many of our clergy are well beyond the nationally recognized critical level (10% of income) for manageable debt,” said Allyson Collinsworth, executive director of GBHEM’s Office of Loans and Scholarships.

The Dakotas United Methodist Foundation plays a major role in providing scholarships to our pastoral candidates in seminaries across the country. According to Foundation Director Sheri Meister, $80,000 in scholarships have been awarded in 2015, in varying amounts, between 10 seminary students from our conference. The funding for these scholarships comes from a variety of sources, but mainly from endowments, thanks to those with a bold vision and generous hearts for the United Methodist churches in our Dakotas Conference. The future of our Conference is bright, and these seminarians are a crucial part of that light.

Lathrops are one example

Pastor Jeff Lathrop, Sioux Falls seminary student appointed to Plankinton and White Lake, SD, and his wife, Holly, are incurring high student loan debt like many seminary students, but what they never expected was the wave of life-threatening illnesses and accidents their family has endured. Jeff and Holly’s son, Noah, born in September 2011, had complications which caused large medical bills after he was born. Later, Holly was the victim of a serious farming accident and their youngest son, Izaiah, was born in May of 2015 with critical health issues, such as silent reflux, a lack of lining in his stomach, Coombs Disease, and a failure to thrive. These ongoing complications require extensive testing and trips to the Mayo Clinic. Izaiah is still in the bottom 5% of his expected growth chart, and will require expensive medical care for an undetermined amount of time. Photo courtesy of Lathrops: Baby Izaiah during one hospital stay.

Jeff and Holly’s parents have helped with the early bills, but after a typhoon wiped out Jeff’s parents’ home and all their belongings in 2014, they have been unable to assist. Jeff has taken out loans to cover their emergency healthcare costs, in addition to his seminary loans. The Cabinet has committed to helping the Lathrops, and the Conference and General Board of Pensions is also providing grants to cover up to $4,000 of these expenses.

How you can help

The Lathrop Family Fund has been created to allow churches and individuals to help this young family deal with this string of financial hardships… especially the medical problems facing 3-month-old Izaiah. If you would like to donate to the Lathrop Family Fund contact JoAnn Schlimgen at the Dakotas Conference Office by e-mail or phone 605-996-6552.  You can mail your donation to the Dakotas Conference Office at P.O. Box 460, Mitchell, SD 57301.  You can also donate via the Finance Office page on the Conference website. Click on “Make a Payment” and please mark your donation as “Lathrop Family, Fund 707” under "Other Remittances." If you are interested in establishing a new endowment or contributing to an existing endowment to help others with seminary debt, contact the Dakotas United Methodist Foundation. Photo courtesy of Lathrops: Izaiah sitting up... with a little help.

Above all, please continue to keep the Lathrops and all of our United Methodist students and their families in your prayers.