Moody Bible Institute lays off roughly 9%, as small religious schools nationwide struggle with enrollment

Chicago Tribune

5 days ago

Moody Bible Institute's mission made 26-year-old Jarett Hamby feel grounded in a greater purpose.
Alongside a team of students, Hamby led marketing campaigns for 'Today in the Word,' the school's monthly devotional publication. It was his passion as much as his job — and a steady paycheck for nearly two years.
He heard rumblings among staff over the past months that the bible college might be tightening its belt. But at employee town halls, leadership assured employees that Moody was in good financial health.
Then, Hamby was laid off in May.
'I was gutted,' he said. 'I was completely caught off guard.'
Between 8 to 9% of staff were quietly let go that month as part of a broader restructuring at the River North theological institution. Moody officials say the school's revenue streams remain steady. Its enrollment numbers, though, show a steep drop in matriculating students over the past decade.
Just 141 freshmen attended Moody in 2023 — down from 400 eight years prior.
It's a flashpoint of the challenges facing some small faith-based colleges nationwide, as they grapple with demographic shifts, surging day-to-day costs and a looming enrollment cliff. Many of the schools sit in America's heartland, acting as a vital anchor for their rural communities. Still, urban colleges like Moody aren't immune to those stressors.
'There's an arms race in higher ed, and the smaller schools that spend the money often have the house collapse on them, because they just aren't financially able to compete,' said Silas McCormick, former president of now-shuttered Lincoln Christian University, about 30 miles north of Springfield.
Moody serves about 1,000 undergraduate students on its red-brick campus. Founded in 1886, the private Evangelical college is often overlooked in the city's rich higher education landscape. But for students pursuing ordained ministry or theology, it's known as one of the nation's premiere bible colleges.
Layoffs were necessary to offset rising costs of inflation and evolving ministry needs, according to a statement from a college spokesperson. Impacted staff span all of Moody's ministry divisions, including its publishing and media arms.
Some experts say close-knit, faith-based institutions like Moody may become few and far between. The past decade has dealt a series of swift blows to the higher education sector — including the COVID-19 pandemic, rising costs and recent freezes to federal research funding.
Perhaps even more pressing: a looming demographic cliff. As birth rates plummet, there's a projected net decrease of more than 300,000 traditional-age college students by 2030, according to higher education consulting firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz.
Those numbers have already begun to shrink, and it's often tiny religious schools that are first hit. More than half of the 79 nonprofit colleges that have closed or merged since 2020 are religiously affiliated, according to an analysis from The Hechinger Report. Seventeen of those are located in the Midwest, including three in Illinois.
Faith-based colleges tend to be smaller, which leaves little buffer for enrollment changes, according to higher education consultant Ricardo Azziz.
'They carry a lot of costs to support their students, to educate their students, to provide infrastructure … but they have very few students to distribute those costs across,' Azziz said.
There are other factors at play, too. Church attendance has been dropping steadily since the 1950s, along with the percentage of religiously-affiliated Americans. The number of adults who identify as Christian has dipped to roughly 63%, though that decline shows signs of leveling off, according to the Pew Research Center.
Some of that is tied to growing institutional distrust. High-profile scandals have rattled the Catholic, Southern Baptists and United Methodist churches, sowing widespread outrage. Though most people still hold some level of faith, they may be less inclined to engage with organized religion, said Scott Paeth, professor and chair of religious studies at DePaul University.
It's also why, in part, fewer teens may choose to attend a bible college like Moody.
'There's a general decline in trust in institutions — in our political institutions, in our social and civic institutions and in our educational institutions,' Paeth said. 'It's no surprise that the institutional church is suffering from that same loss of faith.'
Moody has seen its own share of controversies, too. In 2021, a sex discrimination lawsuit alleged that the school had fostered a hostile environment for LGBTQ students. In another suit in 2018, an instructor claimed that she was fired after challenging the school's doctrinal stance that women should not serve in ministerial roles. Students and staff are required to sign Moody's doctrinal statement.
To be sure, not all faith-based institutions are struggling. Many larger schools have even reported recent enrollment gains. Schools like DePaul and Loyola University Chicago have recentered their religious identity to be mission-driven and inclusive, appealing to a diverse pool of students. Others, like Wheaton College and Liberty University, have carved out distinct niches in the market, experts say.
'Across the country and, I'm sure, across Illinois, the percentage of kids who are choosing a bible institute has dropped dramatically from 50 or 100 years ago,' said James Fraser, a professor emeritus at New York University who specializes in religion and higher education. 'On the other hand, a school can thrive catering to a small but very focused group.'
Not all schools, though, make it out. McCormick served as president of the tiny Lincoln Christian University until it shuttered its doors last spring. It came just two years after the closure of Lincoln College, a predominantly Black school just a few miles away in the town of 13,000.
Stepping into office in June 2020, McCormick inherited an uphill battle. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the university lost about 170 students — nearly a quarter of its student body. The school's 80-year-old buildings were in desperate need of upgrades, but it was already $9 million in debt.
'We probably made mistakes along our whole 80-year run, but I think the margin got thinner and thinner over the last 20 years to survive,' McCormick said.
LCU made the difficult decision to close with dignity, he said, prioritizing students and allowing for the transfer of its endowment to the nearby Ozark Christian College. After the school ceased its academic operations, it rebranded as Lincoln Christian Institute and continues to offer bible classes.
'There's something to be said about embracing the fact that, sometimes, a season ends,' McCormick said. 'You can treat an institution that has to change, or even die, like a loved one who's taught you well.'
Moody is debt-free, with healthy cash reverses and a 'commitment to sound stewardship,' a spokesperson said. The school's most recently-available audited financial statements, which cover the 2023-24 school year, show that it was operating at a $6.8 million deficit. But the school achieved a balanced budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, officials say.
'When we talk about strategic alignment, we're really saying, 'Where's our growth? … Where do we need to put additional resources to be able to better serve the communities that are growing in those ways?' Provost and Senior Vice President Timothy Sisk said in an interview with the Tribune.
Part of Moody's realignment includes revamped course offerings, such as a new three-year, online bachelor's degree in business. The college is also expanding its degree in missionary aviation technology at its Spokane, Oregon, campus. The school's total enrollment hovers around 2,200, accounting for its other campuses, graduate students and online programming.
The numbers offer a more nuanced portrait: Total undergraduate enrollment has dropped more than 60% in a decade. The school has a 98% acceptance rate, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
School officials maintain there has been growth for in-residence enrollment over the past four quarters.
'We did have a dip there, but I think we've gone back up. So yeah, it has caused some realignment … We've sought to do that as painlessly as possible,' Sisk said.
Notably, the school is tuition-free for students who live on campus. A network of donors cover the cost of classes, while students pay for room and board — totaling around $8,000 per academic year, plus fees. The low price tag makes Moody accessible for a broad slate of students.
Adrian Gear, a 19-year-old biblical languages major, opted to attend the school in part because of its price. He first set his sights on Moody in middle school, when he heard about its seminary program from his youth pastor.
Now the president of the school's Student Theological Society, Gear leads weekly discussions on scripture with his peers. It's a community rooted in faith, that he's not sure he would have found anywhere else.
'Those are the kind of people that I want to be around. The people who are so excited about their faith, that they're like, 'Okay, I want this to be my career as well,'' said Gear, who lives in Sugar Grove.
More religious schools in the Midwest, squeezed by financial woes, will close this year. In April, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield announced that it would relocate to Canada, merging with Trinity Western University in British Columbia. Fontbonne University, a Catholic school in St. Louis, said it will officially shutter in August.
Despite its restructuring, the fiscal challenges at Moody are far less existential, Sisk said.
'We don't owe a single dollar anywhere. We have healthy cash reserves, and our enrollment is looking better in places,' he said. 'We feel like it's those three factors that many of our sister schools have struggled with … We're positioned to be able to serve for decades.'
For many students, that legacy is essential. Twenty-year-old Cheyenne Thomas was homeschooled throughout much of high school, and wasn't sure if she'd feel at home at a more traditional college.
At Moody, the theology major found purpose leading weekly devotionals in her dorm, guiding her peers in prayer.
'All of my classes revolve around who Christ is,' said Thomas, a Des Moines native. 'Everywhere you go, Moody is just so formative.'