By J.A. Dunn

LAKELAND — The Rev. Kenneth Johnson watched as his peers at Duke Divinity School chose alternative paths with which to use their Masters of Divinity degrees, but for him there was never a decision to be made.

Johnson, 26, always knew he would enter the local church and focus on racial reconciliation. He graduated earlier this year.

“I had classmates who decided to seek out non-traditional ways to do ministry in either non-profit or faith-based institutions. I think their image, or idea, is that the church is not the most effective way to do what they want to do in ministry,” said Johnson, who is the associate pastor at the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach. “They see the church as outdated.”

Entering the halls of higher education is an emerging career option for some divinity graduates, according to Johnson.

“Academia is stressed at some schools,” said Johnson, a probationary member of the conference and part of the candidacy process. “I just knew what I wanted to do when I went into seminary.”

Other seminary students aren’t as sure.

Russell E. Richey, dean at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, said seminaries traditionally have been higher learning institutions where students have come to discover their calling, not confirm it. He said some students have reasoned their calling has led them to areas of ministerial service other than becoming pastors who “administer the word and sacrament.”

“Seminaries are places where people sort through the issues of identity versus vocation versus purpose,” Richey said. “Seminary is one of the best places to do that.”

Richey said some seminary graduates enter seminary after attending a highly personal and deeply meaningful spiritual retreat or study program, such as the Walk to Emmaus or Disciple Bible Study. He said those spiritual events are powerful enough to lead people to seminary, but not necessarily to the local church.

“I don’t think all seminary graduates should be going into the local church,” Richey said. “We United Methodists believe in both a person having the church call and the individual call into the ministry.”

Bruce Birch, dean of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., said where seminary graduates find their calling is directly tied to where they are in their ministries. He said it’s understandable students who enter seminary as a result of their involvement with campus ministries would return to those roots.

Jana Hart, executive director of the Florida Conference’s office of Higher Education and Campus Ministries, said some students who experience the call to ministry during campus ministry often want to return once they graduate. She said campus ministries have produced more than 160 seminary graduates in the past five years, but not all of them have gone into the local church. Those numbers reflect students who have pursued professions in Christian vocation.

Hart said a student’s decision to pursue Christian mission service is a personal choice for the direction of his or her life.

Birch agrees. “It comes down to taking stock in one’s own gifts and interests. It depends on where you are in your journey. I don’t think there’s a trend of seminary graduates not going into the local church. If there is, I think it’s less prevalent than it was in the 1970s.”

The denomination is turning a corner in getting younger people interested in the ministry, according to Richey. He said it’s going to take a few years to see the results.

“The church needs to do a better job of mentoring the best and brightest it has to offer,” Richey said, adding second career ministers are equally as important with the experience and talent they bring to the table.

“We need to reclaim our college programs,” he said. “We need to reclaim rebuilding conference churches.”

Charissa Jaeger Sanders and her husband, Chris Sanders, are part of that process. The two are student copastors at Fellowship United Methodist Church in Palm Bay and seminary students at Asbury Theological Seminary’s Orlando campus.

Charissa Jaeger Sanders said she feels her calling into the ministry has directed the couple to live out their ministry within a local church.