2025 Best Lay Ministry Schools in the Great Lakes Region

When it comes to popularity, lay ministry sits in the middle of the road, ranking #630 out of 1506 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.

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 degree. Combined, these schools handed out 175 degrees in lay ministry to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

• Best Overall Lay Ministry Schools List

Pick Your Lay Ministry Degree Level

The lay ministry school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Lay Ministry Schools in the Great Lakes Region. If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

If you want to learn more about how we derive our rankings, see College Factual's Methodology.

Best Schools for Lay Ministry in the Great Lakes Region

If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the lay ministry degrees they offer, see the list below.

Top Great Lakes Region Schools in Lay Ministry

1

Grace College and Theological Seminary
Winona Lake, IN

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

59.1% Growth in Graduates

It's hard to beat Grace College and Theological Seminary if you want to pursue a degree in lay ministry. Grace College is a small private not-for-profit college located in the town of Winona Lake.More information about a degree in lay ministry from Grace College and Theological Seminary

2

Grace Christian University
Wyoming, MI

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

53 Lay Ministry Degrees Awarded

Every student who is interested in lay ministry needs to look into Grace Christian University. Located in the small city of Wyoming, Grace is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a degree in lay ministry from Grace Christian University

Best Lay Ministry Colleges by State

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Ohio	939	13
Michigan	915	87
Illinois	870	8
Indiana	737	17

View All Rankings >

Lay Ministry Related Rankings by Major

One of 6 majors within the Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries area of study, Lay Ministry has other similar majors worth exploring.

Majors Similar to Lay Ministry

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Pastoral Studies/Counseling	403
Youth Ministry	113
Other Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries	67
Women’s Ministry	9
Urban Ministry	8

View All Lay Ministry Related Majors >

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.