Educational Effectiveness Statement

Updated August 4, 2025

(Click here to Download)

The uniqueness of Metro Atlanta Seminary is not that we strive to be different from all the other seminaries. Our goal is to always seek to learn if there is a better way to train students for ministry. Here are some goals:

1. Academic Studies: Goal: To Know = Head. The goal of every seminary is to impart knowledge. No one is capable of doing ministry without this. Seminaries have always struggled to know how much they can teach in three years. All agree, not enough. Some seminaries have even gone to a four-year program. But still, it is not enough. MAS knows there is never enough time to teach everything church leaders need to know, so, our goal is to impart everything we can. MAS uses what is called process curriculum instead of content curriculum. That is, we want our students to walk away from every class knowing how to be life-long learners and to be able to put into practice what they have learned.
   1. Academic Papers: MAS understands most pastors and church leaders don’t spend any time writing formal academic papers for their congregations. Therefore, MAS has made it a policy to not only have a course or two on preaching and teaching, but to incorporate into many of our courses the writing of sermons and/or Bible studies in place of a paper. Just as much research goes into this, but the student walks away with extra opportunities (in their practicum work) to use these sermons and Bible studies in their churches.
   2. Biblical Languages: Seminary training usually focuses on students learning the grammar and vocabulary of Hebrew and Greek. However, it has been known for years that 80-90% of pastors didn’t retain enough of what they learned to keep up their ability to use the languages in their studies. MAS has decided, instead of teaching students Greek and Hebrew, we would rather teach them how to use Greek and Hebrew by equipping them to be proficient in the use of Logos Bible Software, which already contains all the language helps they will need to do their research. We do teach basic grammar and vocabulary, but do not require as much memorization of paradigms, etc.
2. Personal Mentoring: Goal: To Be = Heart. From previous research, and very recent research done by Lifeway, we know that more pastors and church leaders leave the ministry because of personal issues than doctrinal issues. MAS did some early research into several PCA presbyteries asking how many of the pastors had ever been mentored. 40% was the finding. MAS decided to make this a focal point of our mission. Each student will spend all three years with a trained mentor who will get to know them personally and ask the difficult questions about their lives. We deal with how they spend their time, what they watch on the internet, their relationships with their spouses and children, their finances, their spiritual lives, etc. We want them to experience being mentored so they will also be able to start mentoring ministries in their own churches.
3. Practical work experience: Goal: To Do = Hand. When students are forced to leave their home churches to go to seminary, they lose contact with the people they need most to help them mature in their lives and develop their gifts for ministry. Students at MAS remain in their home churches where they can put what they are learning directly into practice, as well as being mentored by someone who already knows them. The sermons and Bible studies they write for class can be put into practice right away, helping them get better and better before they finish seminary.

The Charts

The charts below provide the reader with a sense of student participation and graduation rates. The “Rate of Completion Chart” shows how many students started the school year, the programs they were pursuing and the number of students who graduated at the end of the year. For example, in August 2023, 60 students started the academic year of which 7 were pursuing a Certificate, 6 the BTh, 18 the MDiv, etc.  The next column shows how many graduated that year. Of the sixty students that started on August 16 graduated in May 2024.

The next group charts how long it took students to complete their program. Of the sixteen who graduated in May 2024, 1 started the MDiv in 2021 which equates to 3 years.  For the other student who graduated with an MDiv and started MAS in 2017 it took 6 years. The Diploma in Biblical Counseling is a two-year cohort program which is why all eleven graduates started at the same time in 2022.

The reader should note that MAS is an evening school, and students range in age from the mid-twenties to the mid-sixties.  Some take two courses a week, while some choose to take only one. We do know from feedback that for many students, life (children, family, elderly parents) requires that from time to time they take a break from their studies.

Rate of Completion Chart  (Numbers that follow are based on the Atlanta Campus)