Church Update

For more than a century, seminary classes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have offered early-morning scripture study for teenagers around the globe. Every day, hundreds of thousands of young people rise before dawn to gather in chapels or classrooms, studying the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other scripture texts before heading to school.

But in 2025, something new has been added to the century-old program: Life Preparation lessons.

These lessons integrate topics like emotional resilience, physical health, educational success, and self-reliance into the spiritual fabric of seminary. The result is a curriculum designed not only to strengthen testimony but also to equip youth with practical skills for the complexities of modern life.

Brother Chad Webb, First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency and longtime leader in Seminaries and Institutes (S&I), explained the vision in our recent conversation:

“[The curriculum is] still centered on Jesus Christ, rooted in the scriptures and teachings of living prophets, but based on selected topics we chose after a lot of research with young people to know what their needs are so that we could better meet them.”

The shift reflects both practical and spiritual urgency.

In a world where youth face rising levels of anxiety, uncertainty, and social pressure, seminary is no longer only about becoming more familiar with and memorizing scripture—it is becoming a training ground for resilient, faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who are prepared to succeed in school, church, and life.

Aligning Seminary with Life

The recent changes build on a decade of innovation within seminary. A few years ago, the curriculum was realigned with the Come, Follow Me study calendar, uniting personal, family, church, and seminary scripture study. This brought consistency and clarity, ensuring that students were not juggling multiple scripture tracks at once.

Now, seminary has shifted again: instead of five straight days of sequential scripture study, three days each week remain dedicated to Come, Follow Me, while two days are devoted to thematic Life Preparation lessons.

The life-focused lessons include topics such as:

• Coping with sadness and depression
• Managing financial resources
• Preparing for tests and challenging projects
• Using technology wisely
• Missionary and temple preparation

Each lesson, Webb emphasized, is not secularized advice but gospel-centered teaching: “Emotional resilience—what does the Savior offer you with that challenge? Education—yes, people talk about its importance, but we teach that it is a religious responsibility where you can have Heavenly Father’s help.”

The intent is not to replace professional training or therapy but to give youth scriptural frameworks and spiritual tools. Teachers are explicitly instructed not to serve as counselors but to “teach gospel principles” and point students toward professional or parental resources when needed.

Why Now?

The timing of the shift is significant. Around the world, youth mental health challenges are rising, with studies showing that more than half of young adults report lacking meaning or purpose. A recent global survey by Sapien Labs even found that countries with lower mental well-being scores often had lower levels of religious participation, and The New York Times expounded on this issue.

For Webb and other Church leaders, this created an opening: seminary can offer both belonging and purpose.

“We did extensive surveys and focus groups with youth and young adults,” Webb explained. “They want a relationship with Heavenly Father. They want faith and testimony. They want to belong to a group of people with common goals that help them on the covenant path. They want to see how the gospel is relevant to meeting their needs and answering their questions.”

The answer, leaders believed, was to fold life preparation into the seminary fabric, giving youth a gospel-based way to address the very issues so often troubling youth in their generation.

Early Reception: Relevance That Resonates

The results?

Encouraging so far.

Students frequently report that lessons are “exactly what I needed.” Some say a lesson helped them take school more seriously. Others point to improvements in relationships, anger management, or coping with anxiety. Parents and teachers have also praised the relevance and resonance of the curriculum.

And enrollment reflects this momentum. Seminary participation is at a record high, with more than 460,000 enrollments worldwide in 2025—a 10% increase from just three years prior. Institute, the Church’s program for college-age young adults, has seen parallel growth, with a combined over 233,000 new enrollments in Seminaries and Institutes in the past 4 years (and almost 107,000 in just the past year).

Webb credits both inspiration and practical programs for this growth: “The Life Preparation Lessons are bringing more young people to seminary and making it more impactful. Seminary and Institute are remarkable. Even if we weren’t growing, there’s a remarkable story of just the impact on young people’s lives.”

In addition to this growth, it is interesting to note that during the 2024-2025 school year, more than 71,640 “friends of the faith” enrolled in seminary or institute classes worldwide (credited in part to the “Invite a Friend” initiative).

Cultural Flexibility Across 180+ Nations

Rolling out a new in-person curriculum across more than 4,000+ seminary programs in 124 countries, while also reaching over 180 countries through online means, is no small task. Brother Webb noted that while the core lessons are standardized, local leaders and teachers have flexibility.

For example, in parts of Africa, teachers opted not to use a lesson on coping with depression, reasoning that it was not a pressing issue in their cultural context. Instead, they focused on other life skills more directly relevant to their students.

“We hope our teachers will know the students, know their needs, and seek the Spirit in trying to meet those needs instead of just covering material,” Webb said.

This balance—standardized gospel teaching with localized adaptability—has been key to worldwide adoption.

Beyond Seminary: Succeed in School

One of the most striking life-prep innovations isn’t part of the standard seminary hour at all, but an after-school program: Succeed in School.

Launched in 2016 and now serving nearly 30,000 youth in 16 countries, Succeed in School provides tutoring in reading, writing, math, and study skills. It helps students prepare for national exams and provides access to further education, including BYU–Pathway Worldwide’s online degrees and certificates.

But it isn’t just tutoring. Every class begins with prayer, devotional thoughts, and reminders that God cares about education. “We talk a lot about how Heavenly Father wants to help them in their lives, including in their education,” Webb said.

The results are jaw-dropping: in Africa, 98% of participating students passed national exams. Enrollment in seminary in those regions increased by 65%, as families who valued education allowed their children to attend both Succeed in School and seminary.

Crucially, about 30% of participants are not Latter-day Saints.

A Continuum of Faith and Learning

For Webb, Seminary and Succeed In School are not isolated programs but part of a larger educational and spiritual ecosystem.

• Seminary anchors high school youth in scripture and life preparation.
• Institutes of Religion provide doctrinal depth and community for young adults.
• Succeed in School supports academic success in areas where school systems are under-resourced.
• BYU-PathwayWorldwide bridges young adults into higher education opportunities.

Together, these form a continuum that blends spiritual growth with real-world success.

“The education plan is not to build new schools,” Webb emphasized. “It’s to find ways to reach more people within the educational environment in which they live.”

The Bigger Picture: A Rising Generation

The real story, Webb insists, is not simply curriculum design but transformation in the lives of youth.

He points to growth—107,000 new students added this year alone—as evidence of momentum, but he prefers to focus on the individual: a student who found courage to face anxiety, a teen who decided to take school more seriously, or a young person prepared to enter the temple with deeper faith in Jesus Christ.

This, he believes, reflects a generational shift. Despite headlines about declining religiosity, Webb sees youth turning to faith: “There is something wonderful happening, and they are turning to Heavenly Father. Not everyone, but increasingly this generation is turning.”

For seminary students waking up at 6 a.m. around the globe, that turn is becoming a daily practice: opening scriptures, deepening testimony, and now, learning to navigate life’s challenges with gospel-centered confidence.