2025 Best Lay Ministry Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Lay Ministry isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #610 in popularity out of 1232 majors in the country. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for lay ministry students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 91 bachelor's degrees in lay ministry during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on lay ministry students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of lay ministry students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized lay ministry related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for lay ministry students working on their bachelor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Lay Ministry Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.

To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Lay Ministry in the Great Lakes Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in lay ministry.

Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Lay Ministry

1

Grace College and Theological Seminary
Winona Lake, IN

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

13 Annual Graduates

Grace College and Theological Seminary is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in lay ministry. Located in the distant town of Winona Lake, Grace College is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.More information about a bachelor’s in lay ministry from Grace College and Theological Seminary

2

Grace Christian University
Wyoming, MI

Associate Degree Highest Degree Type

34 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat Grace Christian University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in lay ministry. Grace is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Wyoming.More information about a bachelor’s in lay ministry from Grace Christian University

Best Lay Ministry Colleges by State

Explore the best lay ministry colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	629	29
Illinois	558	2
Indiana	535	14

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Lay Ministry

Lay Ministry is one of 6 different types of Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries programs to choose from.

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Youth Ministry	78
Pastoral Studies/Counseling	68
Other Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries	14
Women’s Ministry	10
Urban Ministry	1

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.