Since 1901, Central has educated persons from diverse backgrounds in preparation for a wide variety of ministry and service contexts. Convinced that all persons should have opportunity to pursue service for God and humanity as God’s Spirit might guide them, inclusivity has been a valued quality of this school throughout its history. This value still motivates us to expand our understanding of inclusivity as socially engaged persons. It helps us open our eyes to still others who are excluded, marginalized and in need. From its founding, Central has remained responsive to the educational needs of a variety of church, ministry, and service traditions. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s we evolved our curriculum, faculty composition, and focus to address the issues of Civil Rights, gender inequity, and the plight of Native Americans.
As we entered the digital age of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the emergence of remote learning expanded opportunities to make high-quality, postsecondary education more accessible and affordable. At the same time, economic realities made students rethink when, where, and how they could pursue ministry and service education successfully, while graduate students in ministry studies were in need of less campus housing and more web-based education.
Today Central has attracted a diverse and dynamic group of undergraduate and graduate students who are preparing their own unique and imaginative ministries in traditional church settings or for careers in non-profit services. Central is now among the fastest growing seminaries in the Unites States. We serve more students in 11 global locations with more innovative curricula, cutting edge technologies and instructional methods than ever before in our history.