Christian Higher Education

Let me preface this little rant by saying that I owe much of who I am today to my experiences in Christian higher education. So I am not in any way trying to condemn it overall, I just want to ask some questions - and since I have come through that system, I feel that I have a bit of a right, if not a responsibility, to question it. The main question I want to ask is simply this: Is Christian higher education accomplishing what it is trying to accomplish?
Currently I work at a Christian University and I am fully aware of the fact that we are graduating wonderful students each year and sending them out into the "real world" with a good education. But is that really out goal? This may vary depending on the program that a student is in, but at our school, a high percentage of the students are here to prepare for ministry. Maybe that is pastoral ministry, or overseas work as a missionary. So they come to a school like ours, study for four years, and graduate with a degree in an applicable field such as biblical studies, pastoral studies, or cross cultural studies. So far the process sounds pretty good. I suppose we could talk about how well the degrees actually prepare the students for the ministry they hope to engage in, but that is not my big hesitation right now.
The part that is very hard for me to reconcile is the fact that many of these students graduate from here with an enormous amount of debt. A college education is expensive. Those expenses only multiply when you are going to a private Christian school. The dilemma is a big one. Students who want to be trained in these fields cannot simply choose to go to a more affordable public college because they don't offer the specialized "Christian" programs that private Christian schools do. On the other hand - if a student does spend four years at a private Christian school, they often end up with a debt that actually keeps them from entering the ministry that they studied for! The truth is that ministry jobs don't often pay well. That is not necessarily a bad thing always, but if we are requiring applicants for these jobs to have college training (which we often do) then we are putting them in a really tough spot.
In the end, maybe it is not a problem specifically with the Christian Higher Education system, but more of a problem with how we train Christian leaders. If our denominations and our churches require college degrees for those in ministry, they are often requiring people to go into debt. Maybe I am mistaken, but that seems to be in conflict with what God talks about in the bible. As a financial aid advisor, I have seen firsthand the crippling effects of debt. I know of several students who are gifted, passionate about God and others, college graduates, and yet cannot afford to do what they are passionate about because they have too much debt. Some mission organizations also require people to have no debt before going overseas with them. While I think that this is a wise requirement, it also becomes less attainable when those groups also require a college degree with a "Christian" specialization.
There is much more to say about this, but a critique without an alternative is about as useful as a pastoral studies degree with $50,000 in debt. So what is my alternative? Higher education in general has not been around all that long. For most of the worlds history, people learned from others in an apprentice / mentor type of relationship. Jesus himself gathered together a group of men to learn from him over the course of several years. During that time, he taught them, encouraged them to try things, rebuked them, and spent his life with them. What better learning experience could a person get? Instead of four years of classes that last for a few hours a day, and often only go for about two thirds of the year, what if we had a model where people were actively mentored for four years and trained by others? I would truly love to see more churches, denominations, and missions organizations embrace this type of an idea and validate it. It could look many different ways, and would not necessarily have to exclude formal education altogether. My point is simply that there must be another way. If we are seeking to train and prepare people for ministry, how can we do that in a way that actually allows them to do ministry when their training is complete? We need to develop alternatives and we need to think creatively. It is time to rethink the way that we as Christians are training our leaders. Again, I am not saying that a formal college education is in any way wrong, but it is becoming less attainable for many students. For these students, we should have an alternative. That is all I will say for now, but truly this is a huge topic that could keep me going for quite some time.