Enrollment is open for the first Substack Seminary cohort!
$600/year → Join by December 1 for $395 ←
It’s not your grandparents’ seminary
First of all, we’re not preparing you for ordination. And we’re not studying the Bible, church history or theology.
Think of Substack Seminary as the place you learn all the things they didn’t teach you in seminary!
And no, we don’t mean budgets, boilers, and building maintenance. How to manage church finances and church conflicts.
In fact, we believe all those things are signs and symptoms of a dying institutional model.
We mean how to share the Gospel in a world that is agile and networked, individualized and technology-driven.
We mean ‘bringing church to people’ in an era when bringing people to church is over.
In fact, it is shocking to us that students are still being prepared for ministry today in a way that presumes this model - even though most churches no longer work this way (or struggle to hold it together if they do), and most clergy serve outside of - or tangential to - this model.
Substack Seminary was born from a conversation about supporting and connecting ministers who are already finding ways to build the future of church.
And it grew into a place where we work together to build a roadmap for individual ministries, and a place of collaboration and connection for all of us learning to thrive in ‘Cage Free’ ministry (the ‘cage’ is the 20th century institutional system that is collapsing around us).
If you are a congregational minister who wants to spend more time in the care of souls and less time in meetings.
If you are an entrepreneurial minister who is a specialist in sharing the Christian faith.
If you are juggling multiple ministries (and income streams) and trying to make it all into one cohesive ministry.
If you’re sick of the term ‘bi-vocational’ when it means ‘you’re not getting paid for your ministry’, and ready to build ONE vocation out of different ways of serving God and your neighbor…
… then Substack Seminary is waiting for you!
This is not academic seminary.
It’s not books and papers. We’re not preparing you for ordination.
It’s open to lay ministers, ordained ministers, retired ministers. It is specifically about Christian ministry - but if you find things here that are helpful for what you are doing, you are welcome.
It’s practical, project-based, collaborative.
Quarterly admission. Rolling cohorts. Everyone doing the same work but starting where they are.
Q1: GET UNSTUCK - Vision & Systematic Change
The big picture of institutional collapse and the focused picture of where your ministry fits in - and thrives.
Q2: CREATE SUSTAINABILITY - Structure & Business Model
It may be hard to picture your ministry as a business. But using small business practices: What is your ‘why’? How are you bringing transformation? How will this be paid for? - will help you clarify your calling.
Q3: BRING CHURCH TO PEOPLE - Theology & Community
How is your work Gospel-centered ministry? What part of Christian tradition are you bringing forward in a new way?
Q4: CONNECT IN AGILE NETWORKS - Technology & Collaboration
How do we move beyond denominations and siloed congregations to create flexible partnerships and multi-layered engagement?
You’ll work alongside:
Other innovative ministers on the same journey
Guest practitioners sharing what they’ve learned
A community that stays with you beyond the year
It’s building your ministry with the support of ministry colleagues with our faces pointed towards the future of church - and following Jesus there.
Cost: $600/year (Early bird: $395 if you join by December 1)
Alumni community: $5/month to stay connected
First cohort begins: January 12, 2026
