North Central Theological Seminary

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 1 historical complaint about North Central Theological Seminary, published in 2007. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

• Never received items I paid forPublished Nov 3, 2007 · Historical consumer allegation

Complaint Themes

Each tag reflects a complaint's single primary theme (not every angle it raised), and complaints outside any problem theme — a positive report, or one later retracted by its author — aren't tagged. Counts may total less than the full complaint count above.

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Contacts & Login

• Main office: 727-304-5529
• Official website: https://www.nctsmn.org/
• Fax: 727-545-7607
• Student login: https://www.nctsmn.org/login-here.php

Locations

What is North Central Theological Seminary?

North Central Theological Seminary is a non-denominational online seminary offering programs from Bachelor's level through Doctor of Divinity. It was founded and is led by Rev. Philip Jegede. The school originally operated out of Minnesota — its Facebook page and BBB history list a Columbia Heights, MN presence — but it dissolved its Minnesota corporate registration effective June 9, 2020, and now operates as a Florida-registered non-profit seminary.

Its current registered address, 7901 4th St N, St. Petersburg, FL 33702, is a Sasquatch Mail virtual-office facility that assigns individual suite numbers to different clients (the seminary's own site lists STE 8040 at that building). This is a legitimate way to receive mail for a fully online institution, but it means the address is not a physical campus.

The school describes its legal basis to operate as Florida Statute §1005.06(1)(f), which exempts religious institutions from the state's normal college-licensure requirements — it is a registration/exemption, not an academic quality review.

Is North Central Theological Seminary Legitimate?

North Central Theological Seminary is not accredited by any agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) — the recognition that lets a degree be broadly accepted by employers, licensing boards, and other schools. Its own accreditation page names three accreditors: the Association of Independent Christian Colleges and Seminaries (AICCS), the Accrediting Commission for Biblical Higher Education (ACBHE), and the Association of Christian Distance Education. None of these three appears in the U.S. Department of Education's or CHEA's lists of recognized accrediting agencies; the DoE/CHEA-recognized accreditor for this type of institution is the separately-named Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), which NCTS does not claim. The seminary's own site acknowledges this directly, stating it is "in the process of preparing to apply for regional accreditation from an agency that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education — a process that can take 5 years or more."

An anonymous, unverified write-up circulating online (reproduced on Answers.com and a personal blog) alleges that NCTS and a separately-branded school, Southern National Theological Seminary, share the same founder, nearly identical websites, and identical faculty rosters. USAComplaints.com could not independently verify this claim from a public record or either school's own material, so it is reported here only as an unverified allegation, not as an established fact.

BBB's profile also names Philip Jegede, Isaac Ozobiani, and Anthonia Okunpolor as the seminary's directors. In 2016, Jegede sued the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota after it gave the seminary an "F" rating and evaluated it as a corporation rather than a religious institution; a judge denied his request for a temporary injunction (see Court Records below). The seminary's current Florida BBB file shows an A+ rating and is not BBB-accredited.

On ComplaintsBoard, student feedback is genuinely mixed (2.5/5 average across 2 reviews and 3 complaints as of this writing): one reviewer questioned whether the school is a "diploma mill" and flagged its "Option III" honorary-degree track (75 multiple-choice questions plus 1–2 pages of personal narrative); a more recent reviewer (March 2026) who completed coursework called the administrative staff prompt and professional, found the material acceptable though wanting more rigor, and recommended prospective students wait until the school achieves regional accreditation and ATS membership before enrolling rather than calling it a scam.

What To Check Before Enrolling

• Ask NCTS directly, in writing, whether it holds accreditation from an agency on the U.S. Department of Education's or CHEA's recognized list — as of this writing, based on its own site, it does not.
• If you need the degree recognized by an employer, licensing board, church denomination, or another school, confirm with that specific body first; a religious-exemption registration with a state (like NCTS's Florida F.S. 1005.06(1)(f) status) is not the same as academic accreditation.
• Get tuition, refund, and honorary-degree terms in writing before paying — a ComplaintsBoard complainant reported an unauthorized second charge (bringing total payment to $1,500) for an honorary degree and difficulty getting billing issues resolved.
• If you already paid and have a dispute, you can file a complaint with the Florida Attorney General's consumer protection division, and with the Better Business Bureau serving St. Petersburg, FL.

Court & Public Records

Company Relationships

• Owned by: Philip Jegede Evangelistic Association

Frequently Asked Questions