Covenant Seminary Welcomes Largest Incoming MDiv Class Since 2012
Covenant Theological Seminary is pleased to announce that its incoming class for fall 2026 includes the largest number of first-year Master of Divinity (MDiv) students the school has seen since 2012. Of the more than 60 new MDiv students who started classes this fall, 85 percent are what the Seminary classifies as “pastor-minded”—those seeking to serve in ordained pastoral ministry as local church pastors, church planters, campus ministers, missionaries, and other pastoral roles. This constitutes a year-over-year increase of 38 percent in pastor-minded students.
Additionally, the number of hybrid students in the MDiv and other degree programs who began courses through online or hybrid education but transitioned to on-campus studies this fall was a record-setting 21 students.
The faculty and staff of the Seminary praise God for these encouraging enrollment gains as by his grace and for his glory he continues raise up new leaders to be trained for service to his church, both in the Presbyterian Church in America and beyond. We are also grateful to the Seminary’s enrollment team, led by Rev. John Chung, Vice President of Enrollment, and Stuart McClure, Director of Admissions, for their tireless efforts in identifying, recruiting, and walking with potential students through the application and admissions process, which have borne such good fruit.
The upward trend in the Seminary’s enrollment numbers in recent years is evidence of the Lord’s blessing as the institution continues to implement the various elements of its 2024 Strategic Plan, Centered on Christ’s Mission to Train the Next Generation (read the complete strategic plan here). One of the chief pillars of that plan is a renewed emphasis on the prioritization and recruitment of pastor-minded students, an emphasis intended to build on and further strengthen the Seminary’s foundational commitment to pastoral training as highlighted in its purpose statement: “The purpose of Covenant Theological Seminary is to glorify the triune God by training his servants to walk in God’s grace, minister God’s Word, and equip God’s people—all for God’s mission.”
Seminary President Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Gibbs commented, “I could not be more excited about this new academic year. While we are certainly thankful for these numerical markers of success, we are even more heartened by the way God is moving in and through our student body. He is raising up servants for his church, and by his grace we get to participate in that work. Thanks to the dedication of our faculty and staff and the persistent prayers of the church, more gospel laborers will be able enter the harvest fields to participate in Christ’s work of redemption. Please give thanks to God with us!”
