The future of ministry is passing into younger hands— at least at Duke.

The future of ministry: This year’s entering class was selected from the most competitive applicant pool in the school’s history. Nearly 4,000 inquiries resulted in 613 applications for fewer than 200 spaces.

Stefanie Pickett, 22, M.T.S. Home State: Alabama Denomination: Baptist Education: Samford University , 2004, A.B., English Honors/Activities: Co-captain & all-time leader in block assists, Div. I Volleyball Team; Creative Writing Award 2003; president, Sigma Tau Delta English honor Society; Fellowship of Christian Athletes; organized sports camp, Dominican Republic Mission Trip, 2002. “I looked at graduate religion programs all over the country. Duke stood out, at first, just for the quality of their faculty and programs. I liked the divinity school’s focus on being inclusive enough to consider and discuss many viewpoints, while still maintaining its orthodox Christian tradition. Between the excellence of the program and the personal care of the admissions department, I felt very connected to Duke from the beginning.”

Nationwide, virtually all denominations have seen a “graying” of the clergy as fewer students enter seminary directly from college. According to a national survey of clergy in 2001 by Pulpit & Pew, a research project based at Duke Divinity School, only 6 percent of pastors who entered ministry within the past decade were ordained at age 25 or younger. Nearly 80 percent were over 30 when they entered ministry.

Because older clergy have fewer years to serve, this trend threatens to worsen projected clergy shortages that are becoming a problem for congregations of all sizes and denominations.

Although students range in age from 21 to 68 and include many talented second-career men and women, Duke Divinity School’s student body has long been among the youngest in the nation. But both this fall and last, incoming students have been even younger, pushing the median age for all students from 26 to 25.

With a median student age of 22.5, these first-year students are a decade younger than most ministerial students at Association of Theological School (ATS)- accredited schools in the U.S. and Canada. The percentage of M.Div. candidates under 30 at ATS seminaries has remained stable at 28 percent since 1993.

Kent J. Dunnington, 27, M.Div. Home State: Kansas Denomination: Church of the Nazarene Education: Southern Nazarene University, 1999, B.S., philosophy; Texas A&M University, 2002, M.A., philosophy Honors/Activities: Magna cum laude ; 1998 exchange student, Oxford University; mission volunteer, summer 1997, Moscow, Russia; traveled through Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay; publications: Review of With the Grain of the Universe by Stanley Hauerwas, Direction 32, 241-43, 2003. “During graduate school at Texas A&M University, I re-committed my life to service in and for the church. This meant reconsidering what it would be for me as a Christian to study and teach philosophy. Stanley Hauerwas's Gifford Lectures were important to me in this respect essentially by counteracting the ‘false modesty’ and fear that contemporary theology and the church so often betray in the face of modern philosophical commitments.”

In addition to youth, the divinity school’s entering class brings an impressive combination of academic achievement, proven leadership in missions and other service, and commitment to local church ministry—all evidence of the school’s strategic plan to raise the bar for a new generation of pastors.

“We in theological education across the country have too often ‘settled,’” says Dean L. Gregory Jones. “Relatively passive patterns of recruitment weakened the prospect of attracting the most promising and gifted students, who have chosen other professional fields such as law, business or medicine, rather than ordained ministry.”

Identifying and equipping gifted young men and women to lead and sustain excellent congregational ministry— the centerpiece of the divinity school’s $10 million Lilly-funded Learned Clergy Initiative—is crucial, adds Jones.

“At Duke, we are committed to recruiting the most gifted people we can find,” Jones says. “We want to educate and form them in ways that nurture their passion for the Gospel and for pastoral leadership.”

Terence Edwin Hagans II, 22, M.Div. Home State: California Denomination: UMC Education: Stanford University , 2004, A.B., sociology Honors/Activities: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; Deans Award for Academic Excellence; Gates Millennium Scholar; Chaplain, Stanford University Gospel Choir; Cadet, U.S. Army Reserve; public speaking instructor, Technical Communications Program, Stanford. Terence Hagans says at Duke he found a school squarely in the theological center, a school that welcomed a deep and rich dialogue from across all viewpoints: “I could clearly sense that from the student body and from the professors, and I appreciated that,” he says. “I want to engage with all my brothers and sisters in Christ on a number of levels, all on the basis of love and scholarship.”

This year’s entering class was selected from the most competitive applicant pool in the school’s history: a record number of nearly 4,000 inquiries resulted in 613 applications for fewer than 200 spaces in four degree programs. As a result, the divinity school’s acceptance rate over the past two years has dropped to 50 percent. Previous years had been consistent with or higher than the ATS average of 80 percent.

The increasing number of applications led Director of Admissions Donna Claycomb D’00 to recommend an end to rolling admissions. Applications for fall admission now will be compared and contrasted with offers of admission made following three deadlines – November 1, February 15 and April 1 – for the M.Div., M.C.M., and Th.M. degree programs. January admission, typically a small class of around 20 students, has been discontinued. The February 1 deadline for August admission to the master of theological studies degree (M.T.S.) remains.

The goal, says Claycomb, who works with an admissions committee of faculty and students, is to “mold an exceptional class of individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds, denominations, life experiences, geographical locations, theological perspectives and learning environments— all of whom are ready to be transformed.”