A pastor considering graduate study rarely has a free evening to think it through. Sunday sermon prep, hospital visits, a board meeting, a child's homework, a spouse who also works — the question of online seminary while working full time is not abstract. It is a calendar problem before it is an academic one. Before looking at curriculum, it helps to look at the math.
What the Degree Is and Is Not
South Geauga Theological University is registered with the Florida Commission for Independent Education under Florida Statute 1005.06(1)(f) as a religious institution authorized to confer religious degrees for religious vocational purposes. That registration is not accreditation, and it is not a state endorsement of academic quality. SGTU is not regionally or nationally accredited.
Degrees in grief counseling or group wellness counseling from SGTU do not qualify a graduate for state licensure as a clinical counselor, therapist, psychologist, or social worker. They do not lead to an LPC, LMHC, or LCSW. Credits earned here may not transfer to a regionally accredited college or seminary; that decision belongs entirely to the receiving institution, not to SGTU.
What the degree is built for is narrower and, for many working pastors, more relevant: bereavement care, lay and pastoral support, chaplaincy-adjacent ministry, and group facilitation inside a church or faith community. A graduate sits with a grieving family, trains volunteers, or leads a support group under the authority of their ministry role — not as a licensed clinician treating a diagnosed condition.
The Weekly Arithmetic
Most graduate courses here run eight weeks and ask for six to eight hours of work per week — reading, a discussion post, a written assignment. That is roughly one hour a day, which sounds survivable until it collides with a funeral on a Tuesday and a sick child on a Thursday. The honest answer is that some weeks will not have six hours to spare, and the course has to flex around that, not the reverse.
A master's track is typically ten to twelve courses. At one course at a time, that is close to two years. At two courses, closer to one. Doctoral work runs longer and adds a research project near the end, which behaves less like a weekly assignment and more like a second part-time commitment for several months.
What Tends to Break First
- Reading gets skimmed instead of read, which shows up later in writing that has no depth to draw from.
- Family time gets protected at the expense of sleep, which is not sustainable past a semester or two.
- Sermon prep gets compressed, which a congregation notices before anyone admits it out loud.
Naming these in advance does not prevent them. It just means a pastor can choose which one to protect rather than discovering the choice has already been made for him.
A Realistic Weekly Pattern
Pastors who have managed this well tend to describe a pattern closer to a rhythm than a sprint: a fixed block, often early morning before the house wakes or one evening after the children are down, protected the same way a counseling appointment would be protected. One course at a time, not two, during any season that includes a building project, a capital campaign, or a new baby. Reading done in order, even if slower, rather than reading backward from the deadline.
None of this is dramatic advice. It is closer to how a pastor already manages a sermon calendar, a visitation list, or a budget cycle — blocked time, realistic load, and permission to go slower in a hard month without quitting.
Cost and Time, Plainly
Courses run $380 each at SGTU, a figure worth comparing directly against a traditional seminary's per-credit cost before enrolling anywhere. Over ten courses, that is $3,800 before books or fees — a number a family budget can actually plan around, which matters as much as the content when a mortgage and tuition are competing for the same paycheck.
Questions Worth Asking Before Enrolling
- Does the ministry role actually call for bereavement care and group facilitation, or does it call for licensed clinical training that a different, accredited program would be required for?
- Is there a fixed six-to-eight-hour block available most weeks, not just in theory but on the actual calendar?
- Has the family — spouse, older children — heard the plan and agreed to the trade-offs out loud, rather than discovering them in October?
- Is there a named person, a staff colleague or elder, who can cover a pastoral emergency during an exam week?
A pastor weighing this is not choosing between ministry and study. He is choosing how to sequence two things that will both keep demanding attention regardless of what he decides. The degree will not license him to practice clinical counseling, and it was never built to. What it offers is a structured, affordable way to deepen bereavement care and group ministry skills he is likely already providing without formal training. The question that remains is simpler than it first appears: which single course, this term, fits the hours actually available?