God’s hope and favor is shining on New Orleans. By His grace, He calls us to His mission.
NEW ORLEANS BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND LEAVELL COLLEGE EXIST TO PREPARE SERVANTS TO WALK WITH CHRIST, PROCLAIM HIS TRUTH, AND FULFILL HIS MISSION.
hen I first stepped onto campus as the then candidate for the role of President of NOBTS and Leavell College, I saw the beauty of the place. I immediately recognized the iconic Leavell Chapel silhouetted against the evening sky. There is a timelessness that is given off by the distinctive New Orleans feel of the buildings on the Quad and aged oaks that line the streets of campus. While there is a fresh look to the campus today as buildings are remodeled, our alumni and friends will still recognize the place. That old charm remains.
Even as I walk around campus and see construction crews busy at their work, I am reminded that the beauty of this great school isn’t just found in a newly remodeled Luter Student Center, or in fresh paint and new furnishings. The real beauty is found in something more significant and lasting—God’s favor to this school through His people.
The NOBTS and Leavell College story is a long history marked with trials and blessings, challenges as well as achievements. God has faithfully worked His will to bless this school using those simply willing to follow and do as He led. When I describe to others what God is doing here at NOBTS and Leavell College, two words come to mind: hope and favor.
I have hope because I see with my own eyes what God is doing here. I sense His favor to us as an institution in the provisions He brings and the people He calls here to serve and prepare. As I look across this seminary family, I see them flourishing and thriving. Each semester I watch as students I have come to know and love walk the graduation stage and take their place in service to the Lord around the world. I have hope because of God’s favor. I see every day what our first president meant when he called us the School of Providence and Prayer.
We invite you to come and see. We ask also that you pray that God will grant us the ability to see what He wants us to do and that He will provide us the resources and the opportunity to accomplish it. God has been faithful. Pray that all we do here will bring glory only to Him.
Dr. Jamie Dew President New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College
From the first-ever Crossover evangelism event in Las Vegas in 1989, Dr. Preston Nix has been a staple of the initiative that shares the gospel prior to the SBC annual meetings, in the host cities.
Pastors may wonder if they have influence in a shifting, unstable culture. Long-time pastors share here to show that the pastor still matters and his influence can be “limitless.”
Human hearts around the world share the same needs. NOBTS counseling students saw hearts open in a hard place as they counseled others in an international setting.
SPRING 2023
Volume 79, Number 1
DR. JAMIE DEW President
DR. LARRY W. LYON
Vice President for Business Administration
DR. CHRIS SHAFFER
Associate Vice President of Institutional Strategy
CLAY CARROLL
Director of Alumni Engagement
JOSEPH DUKE
Director of Communications
MARILYN STEWART
Editor
MADELYNN DUKE
Art Director and Photographer
GARY D. MYERS
Contributing Writer
BRANDON ELROD
Contributing Writer
JONATHAN SKINNER
Additional Photography
VISION MAGAZINE
is published two times a year by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College.
3939 Gentilly Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70126 (800) 662-8701 | (504) 282-4455 contact@nobts.edu www.nobts.edu | www.leavellcollege.com
All contents © 2023 New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. All rights reserved.
Please send address changes and alumni updates to the office of Alumni Relations at alumni@nobts.edu. NOTE: Alumni updates will be used for the publication of the VISION magazine and on the Alumni website.
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is a Cooperative Program ministry, supported by the gifts of Southern Baptists.
On the cover: Photo Illustration by Madelynn Duke
C. S. Lewis once wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The light of God’s hope and favor is shining on this city of “charms and challenges,” and by that light, all things become clear. In His light, we see His hand, His unflinching faithfulness, and a boundless love that compels us to take up the towel and basin and serve others in His name.
Long before our inception in 1917, Southern Baptists recognized the need for a seminary in New Orleans. In 1946, our school received a new name and soon moved to a new campus. A transition from the Baptist Bible Institute in the Garden District to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at 3939 Gentilly Blvd. may have ushered in a new era, but it did not change our mission. Today, we hold firm to the commission Southern Baptists gave us more than a hundred years ago, a commission that continues @3939.
By Marilyn Stewart
Mark Johnson, Assistant Professor of Evangelism and Pastoral Ministry, goes to the busy, franchised grocery store next door to the seminary every day. On purpose.
“Anybody need toothpaste?” Johnson asks his wife and four children. “Somebody’s got a headache? Okay. I’m going.”
Johnson has been making the daily trip for three years, almost from the day he joined the NOBTS and Leavell College faculty in 2019. His daily ventures in “shopping evangelism,” as he calls it, have paid off. The store managers and employees call him “Pastor” as he ministers and shares the gospel.
“I’m broke, but …” Johnson quips. “I know everybody there. I know the store.”
The six-foot-five former international pro basketball player knows the store layout so well that one day when an employee couldn’t locate an item for a shopper, Johnson chimed in. “Aisle Five,” he offered.
Each trip begins with prayer that God will use him in whatever way He wants, knowing some days no opportunity
may come. “He may call you just to go get bananas,” Johnson explained. “It’s that simple.”
One day, Johnson decided his trip to the store was simply to buy a new pair of socks for his son. God had other plans.
“It turned into a 15 to 20 minute conversation with someone who was contemplating suicide,” Johnson explained. “If I hadn’t gone to get socks that day, it could have been a different outcome.”
At first, Johnson went alone on his “shopping evangelism” trips next door, drawing from a previous ministry he had led when he served as senior pastor at Liberty Hill Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio. There, a rapid transit line outside the church door went directly to the mall and church members’ “shopping evangelism” sprees were easy and saw fruit.
In New Orleans, students frequently join Johnson to pray, minister and share the gospel.
Johnson feels free to pray inside the store with individuals, but when students join him, they defer to the store’s wishes and pray outside. As the team prayer walks the “four corners” of the parking lot, they stop at each corner and pray for one of four groups: neighborhood children, mothers, fathers, and store employees.
Often, as Johnson’s teams walk from one corner to the next, they find opportunities to listen, comfort, and share the gospel with others. During Covid, as many experienced isolation and anxiety, the prayer walkers continued to share.
“We found ourselves hugging, holding, and saying, ‘It’s going to be all right,’” Johnson said.
On Johnson’s birthday, his wife Heather was shopping at the store when an employee recognized her. Knowing it was Johnson’s birthday, the employee took Heather to the card aisle, picked out a card and insisted she buy it.
The next day, Johnson found the employee. “You couldn’t even buy a card for me? You made my wife buy it?” Johnson teased. “That’s the kind of relationship we have.”
While some employees have a church home, many do not. Tragedy struck two years ago when a targeted shooting left one person dead inside the store. Johnson arrived to find the store cordoned off.
“He’s Pastor,” the employees told police, and Johnson was welcomed inside. As Johnson ministered to hurting family members and employees processing grief, God opened many doors for Johnson to share the gospel.
“Shopping Evangelism” is easy, Johnson said.
The biggest change for students is their fear of evangelism is dropping,” Johnson said. “When they do this, they say, ‘Oh, that was easy. We prayed and waited on God.’”
While spiritual warfare is real and the people he meets have pressing needs, Johnson sees that God is at work despite the challenges around them.
Johnson stressed that God will open doors as believers allow Him to work.
“God has given us an easy mission field that doesn’t take a plane ticket. You don’t have to catch a bus to get there,” Johnson said. With the engaging smile he is known for, he added, “He’s not asking you to do anything but shop. Just go get socks. Be a willing vessel for Him.”
Originally named the Baptist Bible Institute, the seminary began with a ready-made campus when it purchased a women’s college in New Orleans’ Garden District in 1918. But before it was a campus, the main building had been the extravagant, antebellum Robb Mansion. Today, the Robb Mansion gates adorn the entrance to the NOBTS “Quad” at 3939 Gentilly.
After the move to 3939 Gentilly (1953) and before Leavell Chapel was completed (1959), chapel and graduation were held on the second floor of Bunyan in a room with a vaulted ceiling, 700 opera seats, and a slightly elevated stage.
NOBTS launches a fully accredited undergraduate program, later named Leavell College.
P. I. Lipsey, editor of Mississippi’s paper The Baptist Record, helped ignite the movement that brought the dream of a New Orleans seminary to life with his 1914 editorial calling for the school. Lipsey, and others, kept Mississippi Baptists engaged with this new school to provide support, guidance, and direction. Perhaps symbolic of this close friendship, the fountain between the Frost Administration building and the library was donated by alumni from Mississippi.
First, it was The Baptist Bible Institute News. Then it became The B.B.Eye, a play on the school’s initials. By 1946, the magazine that brought news and items of interest to students became Vision, in a nod to its former self, The B.B. Eye.
hen Kay Bennett looks back on the ministry she has devoted her life to, one moment stands out above others. It was the moment she told God, “I can’t do this.”
Bennett (MDIV ’89, DMIN ’08), a Send Relief missionary and director of the Baptist Friendship House (BFH) for 25 years, retires this spring after more than three decades of service in New Orleans.
As a student at NOBTS, Bennett fell in love with compassion ministry through her work at the Brantley Center, the former six-story, Southern Baptist rescue center on Magazine Street. The center provided overnight housing for the homeless and a four-month treatment program for those dealing with substance abuse. Bennett joined in, and never looked back.
“I tell people that I found my home with the homeless,” Bennett said.
But one night on the women’s unit, a little girl talking to Bennett fingered a screwdriver lying nearby and then asked her a disturbing question, “Why did my daddy hurt me?” The question sent Bennett to her knees with the realization that the ministry was more than she could handle. “I can’t do this,” she prayed. God’s answer came, though, “as if it were an audible voice,” Bennett said.
“‘You’re right, Kay,’” Bennett recounted as God’s answer. “‘You cannot, but I can. I can do it through you.’”
That night, Bennett learned a lesson that reshaped her thinking and molded her thoughts on ministry.
“I change nobody. It’s God who changes them,” Bennett said. “I’m not there to rescue someone, but to give them tools to move forward in life. Jesus is the person who gives them strength and the courage to do it.”
As the need to provide greater care for women in New Orleans became clear, the Home Mission Board (today the North American Mission Board) repurposed the now almost-80year-old ministry of Baptist Friendship House. With a move to the edge of the French Quarter, BFH became a sanctuary for women and children in transition providing basic job and computer skills, and help in securing a job and a home.
One day, an Uber driver who arrived at BFH to pick up his hire told Bennett he had lived there as a child. The man told Bennett, “I just don’t know if I’d be here if Friendship House hadn’t been there,” Bennett recounted. On a different day, another man rang the doorbell. Now an engineer, the man told his story of living at BFH as a child. “It saved my life,” he told Bennett.
Bennett has answered the doorbell countless times and seen as many lives changed.
After losing his entire family in a house fire, a man called T. J. bitterly told Bennett that “God is dog spelled backward.”
Over time, as Bennett and other ministry workers patiently showed him God’s love, T. J.’s heart softened and he came to faith in Christ.
T. J. lived his final years in a nursing home a state away. When he died, the nursing home staff sought out Bennett to tell her that T. J. had often shared that Bennett and her co-workers had been like family to him.
The patience and endurance to love others comes from learning years ago that only God can change a heart, Bennett explained.
“I can tell tons and tons of stories for the 35 years I’ve been in New Orleans of how God has worked in people’s lives to change them,” Bennett said. “It’s been the most fulfilling thing I could ever have done. It’s been the adventure of a lifetime.”
Though Bennett never “went looking for” the Brantley Center or BFH, God used her years as a student in New Orleans to clarify His will and prepare her for a ministry she loved.
While Bennett is retiring to care for her aging mother, she will continue to stay involved on a limited basis.
“When God calls you, He never uncalls you,” Bennett said. “I don’t feel uncalled. I feel like it’s a new season in life. It’s bittersweet, and it’s exciting. It’s just a journey with Jesus.”
Bennett points to Henry Blackaby’s charge to “Find where God is working and join Him” to describe BFH’s ministry to women, the unhoused, and more recently, its work with the FBI to help those escaping human trafficking.
“If you know you’re called and you come here, and if you get out in one of the ministry centers in our city, it helps you get experience. It helps you discover what God’s calling you to do,” Bennett said.
For students, ministry opportunities are abundant in New Orleans, from chaplaincy, ministry to internationals, counseling and compassion ministries, as well as service through churches and church plants, Bennett pointed out.
“Whatever doors He opens, you walk through,” she urges young believers. “He always knows everything before it happens. Just walk with Jesus.
New Orleans has everything, they say. They’re right. That is, if you are answering God’s call to the ministry.
In this city, you find people who have never heard the gospel. Some who no longer respect the Christian faith. Others who dabble in strange ideas.
And, you find an open door.
Jesus showed grace and mercy to others regardless of circumstances. We are called to do the same. As we serve in this wonderfully unique city, we see hearts warm to the gospel. We see God changing lives.
I am constantly in awe at what the Lord is doing in and through the college students of the Leavell College House System.
The House System is not a living quarters assignment for students but rather a community to which they belong. The impact the House System makes on our students’ lives can be seen both on and off campus. On campus, students are encouraging one another in the classroom, the residence halls, and around the lunch table. Off campus, students are out serving alongside one another.
One Saturday morning I was driving in the city when a familiar face caught my eye. It was one of our House students out with his House serving together in a homeless camp.
The students I see here are called by God and come because of the NOBTS and Leavell College mission—to prepare servants. I see students who would not have it any other way than to be in a classroom setting saturated with what it means to be a servant of Christ, and then going outside the classroom to live it out.
Leavell College prepares servants to walk with Christ, proclaim His truth, and fulfill His mission. We believe that servanthood, devotion, proclamation, and mission should underlie all that we do.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO APPLY NOW SCAN THE QR CODE OR VISIT LEAVELLCOLLEGE.COM.
Contend, a first-ever apologetics event for high school students at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College, Jan. 7, 2023, brought together 250 students for a one-day conference on apologetic issues impacting youth today.
Frank Turek, president of CrossExamined.org, a popular speaker and the author of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, headlined the event.
“Cliché Sunday School answers are insufficient to address the realities of our contentious culture,” said Greg Wilton, Leavell College Dean. “Apologetics helps students wed biblical fidelity with intellectual resolve to present hope and truth that can only be found in Christ.”
By Jeff FarmerAs Associate Director of the Caskey Center since January 2015, I have had a front row seat to what God is doing as His people intentionally share the gospel. Here are a few observations on what I’ve learned from the gospel conversations our students have reported.
While these conversations possibly could have happened at some point, the fact remains these 60,000 conversations occurred because each student intentionally engaged in a conversation and prayerfully guided the conversation towards the gospel. God is ready to grant His mercy and grace. We must be intentional in looking for those divine appointments.
Accountability Helps. Many students have commented that the weekly requirement to share the gospel helped motivate them to be intentional in having gospel conversations. Finding a partner who will ask about your gospel conversations regularly is helpful. Pray together for the people you encounter.
Of the thousands of gospel conversations each semester, there is no single location where the gospel was most effective. Our students have shared the gospel at church, at home, at the store, at the post office, at schools, at the park, at restaurants, at sporting events, on the street, in the air, on a boat, and many other places. Anywhere and everywhere is ideal for engaging in gospel conversations.
Don’t Be Afraid to Share with Loved Ones.
Engaging a loved one in a gospel conversation felt intimidating to many of our students. But once they did, they found the fear of rejection from their family member was largely unfounded.
It’s Harder to Transition to the Gospel Than it is to Start a Conversation, but it’s Necessary.
Striking up a conversation is not too difficult. This is true even for introverts. Finding a good way to transition the conversation to a spiritual discussion and ultimately to the gospel is not as easy. As you begin every conversation, pray for God to speak through you. Don’t worry about being smooth or effortless in your transition. Simply look for conversational connections. They will be there.
This is not an encouraging observation since we know what that rejection ultimately means for that person. However, 87.6 percent of the 60,000 gospel conversations resulted in either outright objection or an expression of unreadiness. We should remember this decision is between the hearer and God. If God does not force them to be saved, neither should we. Our response to rejection should always be prayer and follow up. Continue to love the person. Pray for the person. Find opportunities to share the gospel in the future.
There is an old Emily Post saying, “never discuss politics or religion in polite company.” This rule of etiquette is to help avoid conflict. I think a better rule would be to learn how to talk about spiritual matters with an attitude of love. People are more than willing to tell you what they believe about spiritual matters, as well as to hear what you have to say.
I am excited to see what the next 60,000 gospel conversations reveal. I pray that future gospel conversations make much of Jesus, and I pray you would join us in intentional personal evangelism every week.
The Rev. Steve Caskey invested his life in faithfully serving small-membership churches as pastor though his financial resources limited his education. While his churches were small, the impact he made was not.
The Caskey Center for Church Excellence, honoring Rev. Caskey’s ministry, provides resources for ministers serving the majority-sized Southern Baptist Churches in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. There are also Caskey Partner scholarships available in Montana, Wyoming, and Indiana.
• A full-tuition scholarship for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College students who qualify.
• An annual conference to encourage and equip pastors.
• Church and ministry resources for evangelism and growth.
LEARN MORE: CASKEYCENTER.COM
“We at the Caskey Center have as our guiding mission 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, particularly verse 19 in which Paul clarifies his mission statement. We exist and work in the words of the Apostle, ‘to win the many.’ That is our goal. Everything we do, all we are, and the direction we are headed are focused on our goal ‘to win the many.’”
– Dr. Blake Newsom, Caskey Center for Church Excellence Director
W. Andrew “Ted” Williams has been appointed Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services and Assistant Professor of Expository Preaching. His wife DeeDee Williams is a current Ph.D. student. Williams joins the faculty from his position as lead pastor, Galilee Baptist Church, Zachary, Louisiana.
Williams previously served Bluegrove Baptist Church, Henrietta, Texas, as senior pastor. Since 2018, he has taught as adjunct faculty in the NOBTS and Leavell College prison extension center.
Professionally, as Williams earned his M.Div. and a Ph.D. in preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he worked as assistant director of housing, overseeing and assisting in major construction projects and renovations.
Don Wilton, recently retired from 30 years as senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, South Carolina, returns to NOBTS as ministry-based Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Ministries.
Wilton’s (THD ’86, MDIV ’82) long ministry of preaching and teaching has spanned continents, making an impact for the kingdom from behind the pulpit as well as through print and broadcast media. Known as Billy Graham’s pastor, Wilton was close friends with Graham and served on faculty for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Schools of Evangelism and The Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove for many years. Prior to his tenure at FBC Spartanburg, Wilton taught evangelistic preaching for eight years on the NOBTS faculty.
As president of The Encouraging Word television ministry, Wilton’s sermons have reached into millions of homes both nationally and globally. As noted at the FBC Spartanburg website, Wilton continues to live out his conviction that “evangelism is incomplete until the evangelized become the evangelists.”
SCAN THE QR CODES TO HEAR WHAT OUR FACULTY HAS TO SAY IN EXPLORE OUR MISSION
- Dr.
- Dr.
“Our
- Dr. Greg Mathias
“Missional DNA”
- Dr. Alan Bandy “A Theology of
- Dr. Tyler Wittman
"Being Conformed to Christ"
Ethan Jones
“Preaching from the Old Testament”
Cory Barnes
Motivation & Purpose”
Servanthood”
Empowering and encouraging women to lead is vital to a growing church. Women are gifted for ministry and are called by God to serve. This book is a resource for the complementarian church and focuses not on leadership titles, but rather intends to help women discover and develop leadership skills for serving in whatever leadership opportunities in ministry they may encounter. [Lifeway, forthcoming June 1, 2023]
By Adam Harwood
Biblically faithful and historically informed, this book provides a fresh synthesis of the essential doctrines of the faith: revelation, God, humanity, Christ, the Holy Spirit, salvation, the Church, and Last Things. The church has been entrusted with God’s revelation and to steward the word of truth. With readable prose, suggestions for further study, and discussion questions, this book will equip pastors and students to clarify and articulate what they believe and why. [Lexham Academic, 2022]
By James K. Dew Jr.
Let This Mind Be in You explores God’s call on our lives to servanthood. Aimed specifically at ministers of the gospel, this book argues that servanthood is essential to every form of Christian service. When we consider the teachings of Scripture and the example of Jesus, we simply cannot be who we are supposed to be without taking the posture of servants. [B&H Books, forthcoming June 6, 2023]
The question of when Christians came to believe Jesus was the divine Son of God is the central focus of this book. Ehrman holds that early Christians believed very early that Jesus was divine although neither Jesus nor the apostles believed Jesus was divine during Jesus’ lifetime. Bird maintains that the early church from the beginning saw Jesus as the preexistent Son of God, human, Israel’s Messiah, and the exalted vice-regent to God the Father. Stewart provides a helpful historiographical primer and analysis to help readers navigate the positions held by Ehrman and Bird. [Westminster John Knox, 2022]
Two New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary professors drew top honors from The Gospel Coalition and from the Southwestern Journal of Theology for books published in 2022.
Tyler Wittman, NOBTS Associate Professor of Theology, garnered The Gospel Coalition’s top award in the category Academic Theology for his work, Biblical Reasoning: Christological and Trinitarian Rules for Exegesis, co-authored with Robert B. (Bobby) Jamieson.
Adam Harwood, NOBTS Professor of Theology, received the Book of the Year award for Christian Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Systematic marking it as the top pick overall in 12 categories.
Cree! (Spanish for “believe”) drew more than 500 Hispanic pastors, staff members and lay leaders to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary July 15-16, 2022 in a first-ever gathering to encourage and equip Hispanic church leaders.
Representatives from churches across Louisiana and Mississippi attended the two-day event hosted by NOBTS, the New
Orleans Baptist Association (NOBA), and Louisiana Baptists. Pastor Otto Sanchez, long-time pastor and director of the Dominican Baptist Theological Seminary in the Dominican Republic, was the keynote speaker.
Fabio Castellanos, event coordinator and director of the Spanish Online Education Programs at NOBTS, said the conference was well received.
“There is a great thirst for the Word of God in the Hispanic people,” Castellanos said. “God is using his tools such as the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, NOBA, and Louisiana Baptists to prepare His servants to walk with Christ, proclaim His truth, and fulfill His mission.”
Alumni - $50 | General Admission - $65
GROUP RATES AVAILABLE
Southern Baptists were venturing to Las Vegas in 1989 for the SBC’s Annual Meeting, a controversial location due to the city’s negative reputation. Many reportedly threatened to boycott the meeting, but others recognized the intent—to emphasize evangelism and make an impact for the gospel in the host city.
“The intent that is being made to witness to the people in Las Vegas is a unique feature of this convention,” John Wright, chairman of the SBC Committee on Order of Business, said at the time. “One of the justifications for choosing Las Vegas is the influence we might be able to [have] on the unbelieving community. Our desire is to strengthen our work in the area through our presence.”In that spirit, the Home Mission Board, now the North American Mission Board (NAMB), worked to encourage what was then labeled an “evangelistic blitz” during the week leading up to the meeting. The event became an annual effort called Crossover hosted by NAMB in conjunction with state, associational and local church partners. Following the inaugural Las Vegas outreach, it has taken place every year the meeting has been held, and an estimated 40,000 professions of faith have been recorded in its history.
Preston Nix, Professor of Evangelism and Evangelistic Preaching, was a part of the very first Crossover and has participated in the outreach effort more often than not since then.
“We were out there in Las Vegas and the churches needed help, encouragement, and here were Southern Baptists coming to Sin City, to Las Vegas,” recalled Nix. “So, it was set up so that we would have evangelism training in the morning and then go out sharing the gospel. It was over 100 degrees, and I think that’s the most I ever sweated sharing the gospel.”
As Crossover has endured several different permutations, Nix has been an eager evangelist throughout its 33-year history and looks forward to welcoming Southern Baptists back to New Orleans ahead of the 2023 Annual Meeting.
From 2009 onward, Southern Baptist seminary students have been able to come together and spend the week learning
about and practicing evangelism as part of their coursework, and Nix has been a key figure who’s helped facilitating what’s affectionately called “evangelism boot camp” by those who attend.
“The churches are enlisted through the associations and the state conventions, and they partner with us,” Nix said. “We connect with those churches, and we go into their neighborhoods and share the gospel door-to-door and on the streets where we meet people. We get the word out that there is a church there that cares for them, but the biggest thing is sharing the gospel and seeing people come to faith in Christ and making sure those churches have the contact information to do the follow-up after we’re gone.”
Crossover provides opportunities to learn lessons about doorto-door evangelism that encourages both seminary students and other participants about how to engage their own communities when they return home.
“I’ve learned that God still uses street witnessing. Paul said, ‘I’ve declared to you publicly and from house to house,’ in Acts 20. Naysayers have said it doesn’t work, but I’ve said it doesn’t work if you don’t work it,” Nix said.
As a seminary professor, Nix needs to get outside the walls of the seminary and the church in order to engage with those who don’t know Jesus, and continually engaging in evangelism helps him better teach evangelism in the classroom. That same impetus is needed for vocational pastors as well.
“We’re called to be fishers of men, and if you want to catch fish, you’ve got to go where the fish are. So, I say you’ve got to get off your seat, on your feet and out into the street to get out there and share the gospel,” Nix said. “Most people will be open to talking with you if you’re kind, caring, not bombastic and not terribly aggressive but assertive, you can share. People will know if you care for them and care for their soul, and they’ll respond.”
Ultimately, Christians need to have faith in the power of the gospel and recognize that the message still has the power to save.
“We project on them that they will not receive what we have to say,” Nix said, “but most of the time, the issue is not that they don’t want to hear but that we don’t take the time to share.”
Two new Ph.D. majors were approved in the Fall trustee meeting: Philosophy of Religion, and Ethics. Reinstated was a major in Missiology, formerly known as “Missions.” A name change was made to one major: the Biblical Interpretation major was renamed Biblical Theology.
At least three professions of faith resulted as 185 students, staff, faculty members and trustees—joined by SBC president Bart Barber, his wife and daughter—shared the gospel and served in the community in Serve Day, April 13. The group represented the largest number of participants to date for the once-a-semester event.
After Barber preached in chapel, evangelism teams shared the gospel on the streets and door-to-door while others prayer walked, ministered to the homeless community, served at a nursing home and at the Baptist Friendship House, a home for women in transition.
Two New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary doctoral students won top prizes in a paper competition sponsored by the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
• Micah Chung, NOBTS doctoral candidate in theology, won first place in the second annual paper competition in conjunction with the SEBTS Exploring Personhood annual conference.
• Alex Wendel, NOBTS doctoral resident in the counselor education and supervisor doctoral program, took third place.
A professional degree designed to produce a high level of excellence in the practice of ministry and in a wide variety of specializations.
For more information about the DMin program, please email dmin@nobts.edu or scan the QR code.
STORY
BY
MARILYN STEWART
PHOTOS BY MADELYNN DUKE
IN TODAY’S SHIFTING CULTURE, CAN A PASTOR MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN HIS CHURCH?
IN HIS COMMUNITY?
The answer might be surprising. This feature series explores what a church needs, why a pastor stays, and what it means to be a “success” in ministry. As pastors from varied contexts share their experiences and thoughts here, it becomes clear that a pastor matters as much today as ever. And, for the pastor who is faithful and true to God’s Word, his influence can be LIMITLESS.
Steve Horn
Mike Walker (pastor) showed me the big picture of ministry by giving me opportunity to preach, helping me get ready, supporting me. All of that prompted lots of opportunities to preach throughout college. Jeff Fritscher (youth pastor) invested in one-on-one discipleship with me, teaching me how to memorize scripture, how to share my faith, how to have a meaningful quiet time, all those matters of discipleship. Both of those men influenced me incredibly.
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Michael Wang
During difficult times and big decisions, Pastor Chad Gilbert (First Baptist, New Orleans) has always guided me toward Scripture and prayer. His steadfast love for God and his desire to study Scripture are what make him a wonderful leader and pastor.
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Pastor Luter [Fred Luter, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church] has made a significant impact on my life. He has set an example for me to follow with regards to how he’s paved a way and served in ministry within the Southern Baptist Convention. He was the first African American to serve on the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Executive Board and years later I became the first African American woman to serve. I felt like I was following in his footsteps.
Bro. Ken [Ken Taylor, Gentilly Baptist Church, New Orleans] is an extraordinary pastor who puts Christ’s love into action. He is willing to go the extra mile to meet physical needs as well as spiritual needs. He is a bold witness for the Lord, and an excellent mentor to followers of Christ. Bro. Ken inspires me to love others unconditionally and to be bolder in sharing the gospel in my everyday experiences.
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Many men influenced my life, including a youth minister named Gregg Bennett, another minister named Eddie Robertson, and a college minister named Franklin Scott. Most influential, though, would be Jim Shaddix. Dr. Shaddix not only taught me in the classroom, but mentored me with his life. He showed the high calling and humble privilege of teaching God’s Word and shepherding God’s people, and my life is the fruit of God’s grace in and through him. #pastor_McLeanBibleChurch
3 hours ago
Rex Butler
@ProfessorofChurchHistory&Patristics_NOBTS
During my formative years as a young adult, Bob Utley was my pastor at Trinity Baptist Church, Lubbock, Texas. He influenced me greatly to dig deep into the Bible, to ask hard questions, and then he taught me how to interpret the Bible correctly for answers that would guide my spiritual growth and my ministry as a teacher, both in the church and the seminary.
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hurches come in all sizes. Their locations span the globe. With this much variety, is it possible that churches share anything in common when it comes to choosing a pastor? In other words, what does a church need from a pastor?
Waylon Bailey, chairman of the NOBTS board of trustees and pastor of First Baptist Church, Covington, Louisiana, knows from his 34-year tenure at the ever-growing church—one of the largest in the state— the needs of churches at various stages and growth levels.
“Leadership, but especially godly servant leadership, is priority number one,” Bailey said. He then added a qualification: “There are lots of number twos under that.”
A phone call years ago shaped Bailey’s thinking regarding the importance of the pastor as leader. The woman on the line confided that her church was struggling though her pastor was a good preacher who cared well for members. His failure was leadership, she said.
Bailey recounted her words. “She said, “‘Our pastor is a really good minister, but he is a bad ‘ad-minister.’”
Her next statement is one Bailey has never forgotten. The woman told him, “It makes us feel that he doesn’t love the church.”
Leadership is one way a pastor shows love to his congregation, Bailey said. The apostle Paul urged believers to imitate him, Bailey pointed out, not from arrogance but from understanding that people need to see what it means to live out the gospel.
“Paul was simply saying you need somebody to help you know how to live the Christian life and the best way to learn that is by seeing,” Bailey said. “That’s what Paul said: Watch what I do; pray like I pray; witness like I witness.”
Leadership is not simply about being the person in charge, but about relationship and love, Bailey said.
“You can lead a church, but you can’t drive a church,” Bailey said. “Nobody wants to be driven, but everybody wants to be led in some kind of relationship. I think churches very much need that, and want that.
“They need somebody who loves the church, who cares for it, who is going to hang in there with them through the hard times,” Bailey added. “All of that is what I mean by leadership.”
THE GREATEST GIFT I CAN BRING TO THIS CHURCH IS MY PERSONAL HOLINESS BEFORE GOD.
Anyone who knows Robby Gallaty (MDIV ’07, THM ’10, PHD ’11), pastor of Long Hollow Church, Hendersonville, Tennessee, knows that Gallaty leads his church to prioritize discipleship so that every believer is discipled and prepared to disciple others.
While making disciples is crucial, Gallaty reminds his staff members that nothing comes before their relationship with Christ. Everything else—living out the Great Commission, leading the church, and living faithfully in relationships with others—depends on that.
“The tide that raises all of the ships in the port is indicative of the spiritual life or the spiritual fervor of this group here,” Gallaty tells his staff. “If we’re not sold out to Jesus, if we’re not following God, if we’re not anticipating a move of the Holy Spirit in our congregation, then how can we expect our people to?”
Being “sold out” to God requires personal holiness, Gallaty said. While pastors fall spiritually or morally for many reasons and under varied circumstances, Gallaty wonders if those who falter allowed their charisma or competency to “outpace” their character.”
“Character counts to God. Godliness counts to God,” Gallaty said.
He tells his congregation, “The greatest gift I can give you as pastor is not my preaching ability, my counseling expertise, my discipleship acumen, my education. The greatest gift I can bring to this church is my personal holiness before God.”
Shepherding a church that reflects today’s culture means the pastor stands each Sunday before people of mixed political and social views, backgrounds and generations, and varied levels of spiritual maturity. Helping each to grow in the faith may seem daunting.
David Platt (MDIV ’02, THM ’03, PHD ’04), pastor of McLean Bible Church, Vienna, Virginia, pointed to Isaiah 66 as a reminder that a pastor must preach accurately, but with humility.
“The pastor must be able to teach what God’s Word says and help people apply it to their lives,” Platt said. “When God’s Word does not speak clearly and directly to a particular issue, he must help people apply God’s Word as wisely as possible, recognizing that other Christians and church members may discern wisdom in different ways.
“He must be attentive to pastoring all types of people—from different ages and ethnicities—instead of people who are just like him. All of this requires Isaiah 66-like humility before God and others.”
At Long Hollow Church, Hendersonville, Tennessee, shifting trends in how families “did life,” particularly after Covid, made it clear they needed to change their approach to discipleship, especially with children.
Robby Gallaty pointed to studies showing that 30 to 40 years ago the average church member attended church on Sunday about three times a month. Before Covid, the number was down to about twice a month, Gallaty explained, but dropped further post-Covid to about once a month.
For children, the 30 hours of discipleship training they received at church per year was also far short of the 3,000 “teachable hours” parents spend with their children during the year, Gallaty explained.
While “scripture is clear” that believers must gather in person regularly, it became clear they needed to find ways to “complement” members’ busy lives and empower parents to disciple their own children at home.
“If our ministry is only, ‘You come and see us and we’ll do the ministry for you,’ and not, ‘When you come we’ll equip you to feel confident and courageous in discipling your family and kids at home,’ then I think we’re going to be ineffective,” Gallaty said. “If you’re only building-centric … then the church will be ‘outdiscipled’ by the world.”
“I always say to our people that they are either going to be discipled by the world or by God’s Word, and I’m zealous for them to be discipled by God’s Word,” David Platt said.
Personal daily commitment to Bible study and prayer is vital, but Platt pointed out that believers must help other believers grow.
“We need to cultivate a Deuteronomy 6-like culture in their lives, homes, and in the church where they are talking about and listening to God’s Word all the time,” Platt said. “Otherwise, they’re inevitably going to be discipled by the world.”
3h
As close as cell phones, social media and internet platforms pipe in information that is shaping worldviews, informing important beliefs, and making disciples.
Staying in the pulpit when other opportunities come along isn’t always easy to do. Coming up with reasons to leave, especially on Monday morning, might seem right.
The bigger question might be, Why stay?
Fred Luter Jr. (’82), pastor of New Orleans’ Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, had opportunities to leave after Hurricane Katrina, 2005, devastated the city and made a future in New Orleans look bleak. Other job offers came along also after Luter served two terms as SBC president, 2012-2014. Yet, each was an offer he turned down.
“The offers were tempting,” Luter said. “I just felt my work was not done here, not necessarily because of the congregation but because of my commitment to God, first and foremost, that I would give everything I had to this church, 110 percent.”
From a small church of 65 members in 1986 to today’s member count of more than 7,000, Luter led the church through changes, adjustments, and growing pains to keep the church steady while keeping focused on reaching the lost.
Reaching the lost requires relationship, Luter said, which often comes down to him putting on his jeans and tennis shoes and going out into the neighborhood to meet the neighbors and meet needs, whatever those needs might be.
One day, Luter watched from his third floor office window as young boys behind the church shot basketballs into a milk carton they had tied to a tree. The next day, Luter and the church recreational director showed up on the street with a brand new basketball goal the church had purchased for the boys.
The gift opened the door to friendship and soon, some of the families began to attend.
“I think the key to reaching the unchurched is just building relationships with them,” Luter said. “Let them know that you’re concerned about them, concerned about their families and what they’re going through.”
Luter stays committed to Franklin Avenue Baptist Church out of deep gratitude to the Lord for his salvation, but also from gratitude to the church for the faith they placed in him 36 years ago, he said.
“It was my first church. I had never pastored before. I was just excited that these people wanted me to be their pastor,” Luter said.
His prayer when he first stepped into the pulpit was, “Lord, help me be faithful to this church.”
“It was my commitment to God that has kept me here,” Luter said. “That’s why I’m still here, still committed to it.”
While some might feel that the role of pastor doesn’t garner the respect it once did, the opportunity to impact others beyond the church walls remains real.
“I think the influence of the pastor is still very, very great,” said Steve Horn, Louisiana Baptist Convention Executive Director. “My word is ‘limitless.’ If a healthy relationship exists, I think there’s still incredible influence. I think it’s limitless.”
A long-time pastor, Horn (MDIV ’94, PHD ’98) now serves as a “pastor to pastors” in his role as executive director for a fellowship of more than 1500 churches. Looking back, he recalls opportunities to be a pastor to the community at large.
The day that stands out most in Horn’s mind is Sept. 11, 2001, the day the World Trade Center in New York City was attacked. At the time, Horn was pastor of Highland Baptist Church, New Iberia, Louisiana, but on that day he was a pastor to all.
“The phone just kept ringing. People said things such as, ‘I just had to talk to my pastor,’” Horn said. “That happened all day long.”
Tragedy once again brought a community to Horn for spiritual care during his tenure as pastor of First Baptist Church, Lafayette, Louisiana when a shooter stormed into a movie theater and left three people dead. Residents, many unconnected to his church, turned to Horn for help in processing the event.
“When those public things happen, lost people or not, they want to be involved and have pastors involved,” Horn said. “If you’ve worked hard to establish a rapport with officials and the community at large, you’re likely to be invited into those circles.”
Though difficult, Horn finds those moments of caring for those in deep need to be some of the most fulfilling of ministry. It is the reason a pastor’s influence can be “limitless.”
“To know that God can use you in the midst of those circumstances is meaningful,” Horn said. “It may not be enjoyable, but it’s meaningful.”
The church Waylon Bailey, pastor of First Baptist Church, Covington, Louisiana, grew up in was not what most might pick as a place that would inspire a young man to be a pastor.
“It was a small church, but it was full of pain,” Bailey said.
Being a pastor never entered his mind nor his parents’ minds though both were active leaders in the church. Who would want their son to face such turmoil?
But one Easter Sunday night, as Bailey sat on the back row of church, God called him to preach. The day-and-night change was so dramatic that Bailey used the term “violent” to describe it.
“In an hour’s time I went from, ‘I wouldn’t do this for any amount of money,’ to ‘This is all I want to do,’” Bailey said. “And it’s still all I want to do.”
Bailey stays because he loves being a pastor. He adds quickly that his wife Martha’s love and giftedness for ministry complements all he does. “There’s nothing in the world that makes me feel like this,” Bailey said recently to her.
Bailey stays also because he sees a world in desperate need of the gospel.
“As long as God allows me to be effective,” Bailey said, “I’m going to do just what I’m doing.”
“
“WHEN THOSE PUBLIC THINGS HAPPEN, LOST PEOPLE OR NOT, THEY WANT TO BE INVOLVED AND HAVE PASTORS INVOLVED.
Chip Luter intended to be an architect. As the son of Fred Luter Jr., Chip never dreamed of being a pastor and his father never asked him to consider it.
At church, he was “Chip off the old block,” but at the Catholic boys’ high school he attended in New Orleans, he was Fred Luter III. Being Black and being Baptist at a Catholic school made him doubt his ability to make an impact on others, but an unexpected compliment from an older white woman one day changed everything.
“It shattered my preconceptions about the influence I could have,” Chip Luter said.
As Luter looks back, he cringes when he remembers what he said to God as a teenager as he considered a call to the ministry. Luter recalled, “Lord, okay. Evidently you want this because I don’t. So, I’ll go into ministry, but Lord, if this doesn’t work out, it’s your fault.”
Years later, Luter was surprised again as pastor of the Sulphur Springs campus of Idlewild Baptist Church, Tampa, Florida when a white woman joined his church, choosing him to be her pastor.
“Once again, what God continued to show me was ‘I’m bigger than your ethnicity; I’m bigger than your age; I’m bigger than your upbringing,’” Luter said.
Now as associate pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, serving alongside his father Fred Luter Jr., he recognizes that God still leads, often in surprising ways. And at age 39, Luter knows his ministry depends on God. “It’s still on Him,” Luter said. #associatepastoratFranklinAvenueBaptistChurch
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Gabriel Mirabal
Pastor Lema (retired, Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel, New Orleans ) has been a pastor, friend, guide, counselor and teacher, and an irreplaceable blessing to me and my family. We have found a refuge in his home whenever we have needed it. He was the first person God used to get me to think about the idea of being ordained as a pastor. #NOBTSstudent
3 hours ago
Abel Rodriguez
Pastor Lema has been my pastor, friend, and mentor. He is an example of Christian leadership to all around him. He has been an inspiration for me regarding the call of the ministry. I received the call to the pastorate in his church, and his example influenced my decision to obey that call.
8:00 AM
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t’s Monday morning and a discouraged pastor drives up to his church office. Things are not going well. By every standard he knows, his ministry is in trouble.
Miles away, another pastor stares down at his latest retirement account report. The hint his deacon chairman dropped yesterday rings in his ears—Maybe it’s time to retire. What bothers him most is a question that sometimes keeps him up at night: Has my ministry been successful?
Measuring a pastor’s “success” is difficult, if not impossible.
“The reality is there’s just no data reason to think about,” said Steve Horn, Louisiana Baptist Convention Executive Director. “Decisions and baptisms can be a false data point.”
Other vocations thrive on tangible measurements such as profit margins and sales, Horn pointed out, but ministry is different. Even judging by the explosive growth of the church in Acts 2 can be deflating, he added.
“It’s easy for the pastor to sit back and say, ‘That’s not happening to me, so there must be something wrong with me,’” Horn said.
The question then is, How can success in ministry be measured?
The quiet, reserved man that walked the aisle one Sunday to clasp Steve Horn’s hand at the front was someone Horn didn’t know well. But his words to Horn that Sunday were something he never forgot.
“He said, ‘Pastor, I know you probably stand here Sunday after Sunday thinking is this doing any good?’” Horn recounted. “‘I need to tell you that last Sunday I came here with the intention of coming to church one more Sunday with my wife and then going home and taking my life.’”
Horn couldn’t see how his message the previous Sunday could have altered a man’s life so dramatically, but he did remember what he thought as the man returned to his pew that morning.
“Okay, God,” Horn recounted praying as he stood there that day. “This invitation is for me and I’m never going to stand here again thinking, ‘Well, this was worthless because no one came forward.’ Thank you for teaching me this lesson today.”
Horn recounted that countless times someone has thanked him for a sermon that was “life-changing” though he couldn’t even remember preaching that particular sermon.
How God uses His servants is up to Him, Horn explained.
“How do you judge success? … Even when we think we know, we don’t,” Horn said. “As you look back, you just have to ask yourself if you’ve been faithful to the Lord.”
Joe McKeever, a long-time pastor, author, and well-known cartoonist, served many years as executive director of the New Orleans Baptist Association (then the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans), including through the difficult years following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Throughout his ministry, McKeever (THM ’67, DMIN ’73) often reminded pastors that God works in ways humans cannot see or measure.
“Many a pastor has felt a revival, ministry, or effort was fruitless but later found out differently, that the one person touched went on to do incredible things for the Lord,” McKeever explained.
A woman once approached McKeever as he drew cartoons at a church to tell him, “You baptized my husband.” McKeever did not recognize her husband’s name, but was moved when she explained that her husband, Mark Byrd, was pastor of First Baptist Church, Ridgeland, Mississippi.
When McKeever met Byrd a week later, he made the connection and realized he had been Byrd’s pastor when Byrd was a child. McKeever had never heard that Byrd had answered God’s call to the ministry.
“I was thrilled, of course,” McKeever said. “But without this little encounter with his wife, I’d have no idea.”
McKeever turns to a football analogy when reminding pastors that God knows all they do.
No football player keeps track on his own of his yards gained during a game, McKeever pointed out, because a statistician is watching and recording. When the game ends, the stats will be posted for all to see.
“You are not the judge of your own work,” McKeever tells pastors. “You must assume if you have been faithful, you have been a success. That alone is the criteria.”
If there is a “scorecard” for success in ministry, it might be Matthew 28:19-20 and the command to “make disciples,” said Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Church, Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Making disciples, though, is not about numbers, Gallaty explained.
“At the end of your ministry, God’s not going to gauge your effectiveness by how large your congregation was, how big the buildings you built were, how far the reach of your ministry. Those are things God does,” Gallaty said. “What He will gauge the success of your ministry by is your faithfulness to Him.”
Gallaty recalled a Scottish pastor from years ago speaking to a class of graduating seminary students. The pastor recognized that the students seated before him dreamed of preaching to many and pastoring growing churches, Gallaty explained.
“‘And that’s a worthy prayer,’” Gallaty recounted as the Scottish pastor’s words. “‘But most of you are going to pastor smaller churches. God is going to expect you to be faithful with the few you have. And when you stand before Christ on the day of judgment you will realize that the people you had were enough.’”
A growing church is something only God can produce, Gallaty said, and for the pastor who has been faithful to make disciples, regardless of how many, “They will be enough.”
Pastor David Lema Sr. had escaped Communist Cuba after being imprisoned as a young man for his Christian faith, but he could not escape God’s call to be a pastor.
Lema’s long journey took him from Cuba, through Madrid, Spain, and finally to New Orleans where he was asked to begin a new work among a growing Hispanic community. The dilemma came when the Bible study class Lema led began calling him “pastor” and looking to him for spiritual needs. But Lema never wanted to be a pastor. His wife Esther –now married 62 years—never wanted to be a pastor’s wife.
Lema knew he had to go to the Lord. He told Esther he was going into his office at the couple’s apartment to pray, read his Bible, and fast from food and water, but would not come out until he had heard from the Lord.
Four nights and three days later, Lema emerged and announced to his wife, “You are married to a pastor.”
But while Lema was sequestered inside the office, something else happened. Lema agreed he would be a pastor—if that’s what God wanted—but he asked God to give him a big church. Weeks later, after more soul-searching and prayer, Lema came to a different conclusion.
“Who am I to say to the Lord, ‘I’ll be a pastor but You need to do this,’” Lema explained. “He’s the Lord. I am nothing. I went to pray again. [This time] I said, ‘Lord, I will be a pastor. If you want it to be a small church, okay. That thing I said, erase it. You are the Lord.’”
Lema’s Bible study class became Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel, the first Hispanic church in the area, which Lema served as pastor for 39 years. Today, several Hispanic churches thrive in the New Orleans area that are beneficiaries of Lema’s wisdom, encouragement, and prayerful support.
#pastorofNewOrleans’FirstHispanicAmericanBaptistChurch
#servanttotheNewOrleansHispaniccommunityfor50 years
Fred Luter Jr. didn’t consider himself a pastor when he preached out on the street corners of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward each Saturday in 1978. His goal was simpler than that.
“I got radically saved,” Luter said. “I wanted all the guys I ran the streets with to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Five years later, Luter sensed God calling him to ministry but wasn’t sure what “being called” meant. He turned to three pastors he admired and respected for guidance, though each answered differently. After talking it over with his wife Elizabeth, he fasted and prayed, asking God to confirm his calling, saying, “God, I don’t want to play with this thing. Ministry is too serious to just play with it.”
God did confirm it, through a dream. While Luter was content with teaching in Sunday School and preaching opportunities as they came up, God had other plans. Three years later, he was elected pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church (65 members at the time). This year Luter marked 36 years as its pastor.
#pastoratFranklinAvenueBaptistChurch
As Dr. Paul Chitwood, President of the International Mission Board, says, “The greatest problem in the world is summed up with one word: lostness.” While our seminary mission begins @3939, it does not stay there. Our mission extends to local churches, to parachurch organizations, church plants, international mission fields, unreached people groups, and others. Our mission’s target: people. Our motivation: Christ and His kingdom. Our scope: Beyond the Gates.
Imagine stepping into another country where dozens of worldviews and cultures co-mingle, and sometimes clash.
Now imagine being there to help those where trauma has left open wounds.
Three NOBTS counseling students served through an eight-week counseling pilot program last summer in the Mediterranean region working with internationals from 15 different countries. The students worked as interns alongside Kip and Janet Dwyer, international workers and NOBTS alums who operate a non-profit center providing food and other services to internationals in the area.
Fleeing home to find shelter elsewhere opens many to abuse and trafficking. Their journeys may leave them with “layers” of trauma, Kip said.
“They endure hit after hit,” Kip explained. “Your uncle tries to recruit you into a terrorist group, you get kidnapped, you escape to a boat, the boat sinks and you swim to shore. There, nobody speaks your language and you’re homeless. Then you have to find a way to get a job. The stress never stops.”
After Kip and Janet arrived in the region a few years ago, Janet volunteered her counseling services as a Ph.D. and licensed professional counselor. The response was overwhelming. This was a need NOBTS counseling students could meet, the couple recognized, and after approaching the NOBTS faculty and administration with the idea, the partnership program began.
Being sent out from NOBTS to a challenging international setting is one thing. Being prepared is another.
“Because NOBTS counselors get such excellent training, it’s not a problem,” Janet said. “Our NOBTS students are totally prepared.”
Jacqueline Owens knew that being an American from a different culture could actually be an advantage in the counseling room on foreign soil.
“As an outsider who doesn’t live there, as someone who isn’t from a client’s friend group or family, we could speak pretty openly about what was going on, and that felt safe to the clients,” Owens said.
Displacement, grief, abuse from people they might not know, all were sources of stress for clients. Owens said her goal was to help them find coping skills that lead back to good mental health.
While navigating cultural boundaries may involve challenges, the return was great, Owens explained.
“Hands down, the experience was completely worth it,” Owens said. “To see on their faces relief from being able to tell their story and know it is confidential and will be handled with care, that is very meaningful.”
Charyle Goines felt grounded in her theology and prepared for a multi-cultural setting before the trip, but what happened when she met with clients the first time surprised her.
“Every client I worked with, and some I met while doing ministry there, had stories packed full of traumatic experiences,” Goines said. “In the very first session, they walked me through their entire life experience.”
Severe persecution, war, being displaced from home, and other events had shaped their lives in ways most of Goines’s American clients had not experienced. Goines said she grew as a counselor to a “different emotional capacity” in order to process that amount of information quickly.
Clients grew, as well.
One day, a client voiced questions about God and confusion about how to make life decisions. As Goines helped to bring clarity, she found an open door for explaining the basics of the Christian faith.
“Once I walked through that with her, she said it became clear to her that she hadn’t known what she believed,” Goines said. “She said, ‘Now I know. Now I want to accept. That’s what I want to believe.’”
Hayden Jernigan wondered if the “hope of Christ” would be enough to sustain him through the challenges of serving others with “overwhelming needs.”
Jernigan discovered something “beautiful,” he said. God used him to help others even as God grew him spiritually. When one session took an unexpected turn, the door opened for Jernigan to explain God’s grace.
“When clients ask, ‘What do you think?’ I am able to tell them, ‘As someone who believes in the gospel, this is what I know to be true,’” Jernigan said.
A simple gospel presentation led to a simple moment of clarity for the client and Jernigan led the young man to faith in Christ.
“The experience was a gift,” Jernigan said. “Looking back, I’m just amazed at how God was growing me and stretching me, but also using me for His purposes.”
The team offered professional mental health services and maintained all professional and ethical standards, Janet stressed. But, when questions arose that only the gospel could answer, the team was ready.
“Existential questions are always going to come up. It’s just a part of who we are as human beings,” Janet said. “It is extremely ethical as a Christian counselor to say, ‘As a Christian, I get my values from scripture. This is how I organize my life. You don’t share the same beliefs as me, so where do yours come from?’”
The counselor’s open door can lead to gospel conversations. As the team has learned, God can be trusted to lead other believers into their clients’ lives to nurture the seeds they planted and bring a harvest only He can bring.
NOBTS received key CACREP accreditation for its licensure-track master’s programs in counseling and for the counseling doctoral program, Feb. 22, a signal to the program’s quality and professionalism.
Accredited were the Master of Arts in Counseling (Clinical Mental Health Specialization and the Marriage and Family Specialization); the Master of Divinity, Specialization in Marriage and Family Counseling; and the Doctor of Philosophy in Counselor Education and Supervision.
“This accreditation means our graduates will be able to take their biblically-saturated training in counseling and serve in a multitude of contexts to be salt and light in a broken and hurting world,” said Jamie Dew, President.
According to the CACREP website, CACREP accreditation means “the program has been evaluated and meets standards set by the profession.” The website notes also that CACREP-accredited programs meet the required educational training for counseling licensure in most states, “making CACREP-accreditation a pathway to portability.”
“Southern Baptists can rest in the knowledge that when they send us students for training in counseling they will be sent out with a biblically-based training that has prepared them to serve anywhere God calls them,” Dew said.
The voices of 1200 women from 15 states and 150 churches—a soldout crowd—filled the chapel at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College as they gathered to praise, learn, and fellowship at the third annual Abide Women’s Conference, headlined by Kelly Minter, Tara Dew, and Stephanie Lyon. This year’s theme, “Women Living Missionally,” challenged the attendees to live on mission in their workplaces, neighborhoods, and homes.
“This conference truly meets a need for women,” Tara Dew said. “The women who come each year are hungry to know God and to be like Him. We count it such an honor to serve them, to encourage and equip them, and then to send them back out into their churches and communities.”
Church and college groups from as far away as Oregon and Canada attended the Defend 2023 apologetics conference, Jan. 2-6, that featured top Christian apologists and more than 100 breakout sessions.
“We are living in a post-Christian culture that is rapidly becoming an anti-Christian culture,” said Robert Stewart, NOBTS apologetics program director. “People are still fascinated with Jesus but are biblically illiterate, and thus are easily led astray without knowing it.”
Plenary speakers included Jamie Dew, NOBTS president; Paul Copan, Palm Beach Atlantic philosophy professor and author of 40 books; Gary Habermas, top resurrection scholar and NOBTS visiting professor; Douglas Groothuis, author and Denver Seminary philosophy professor; David Calhoun, Gonzaga University philosophy professor; Craig Hazen, Biola University professor of comparative religion and Christian apologetics, and others.
Evangelism professor Jeff Farmer’s 18-week “motorcycle sabbatical” took him across 46 states to research growing churches. But along the way, he “bunked” several nights with fellow motorcycle enthusiasts—all of them unbelievers. Conversations about faith came up naturally as Farmer answered their questions about where he was going, and why.
Farmer practiced what he teaches his students to do—sharing the faith with grace and kindness.
“If you’re humble, loving, matter-of-fact about your beliefs, and friendly, people will talk to you about anything,” Farmer said.
In this episode of #ExploreOurMission, Dr. Tara Dew speaks about the importance of proclaiming His truth in the way we live our lives.
In this episode of #ExploreOurMission, Dr. Bo Rice considers the topic of “Proclaiming His Truth” in light of 2 Timothy 3.
Foreign Mission and Domestic Mission Boards are formed. China is opened as SBC’s first mission field.
Rev. and Mrs. C. O. Dunkin’s letter from Alaska noted the high cost of living where they served: “Gasoline is 75 cents per gallon and matches are 25 cents a box.” They noted also how God was at work.
“Greetings from the most northern Southern Baptist mission in the world—150 miles from the Arctic Circle. We have had the mission at Fairbanks since. At present we have 12 members counting us and two awaiting the thaw for baptism.”
The annual Christmas Offering renamed Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
B.B.I. deploys two buses bought with money donated by students and friends to take students out to 40 sites twice a week to preach. Other buses and vans are added later.
The often overlooked workers caring for the race horses “behind” the track face real life problems that can include addictions, broken dreams, and language barriers. Ph.D. student and “backside” chaplain Brian Davis pointed to the word “Jesus” in scripture and used hand motions to share the gospel with a man who didn’t speak English.
“It was amazing,” Davis said. “He really understood me because the Holy Spirit was translating for us.”
Home Mission Board missionary forces fall from 1,600 to 106 due to the Great Depression and debt.
NOBTS celebrates 50 years. One in 11 graduates is serving on the foreign mission field. The J. D. Grey Missionary House for furloughing missionaries opens.
Tim and Brenda Searcy served in Cali, Colombia, home to the Columbian drug cartel. Danger frequently touched their lives, and one day Searcey was abducted at gun point. But danger is not the full story.
“Colombia is full of wonderful people who are very open to the gospel … we saw students grow in their skills at the International Baptist Theological Seminary, a church planted in the northern part of Cali, and many hundreds came to know Jesus as personal Savior. These experiences far outweighed any problems or persecutions that we may have experienced.”
The Chester L. Quarles Chair of Missions, established in 1967, is revitalized.
Home Mission Board is renamed North American Mission Board. The Foreign Mission Board became the International Mission Board.
“Go ye—Baptizing—Teaching” seal, with Matthew 28:19-20, is installed at the Bunyan classroom building.
The Send Network is established for church planting with five regions and 32 Send Cities. New Orleans is named a Send City.
Chris and Katie Nalls serve in Tete, Mozambique, the “hottest place in Mozambique.” A Send Relief project to provide reliable, clean water to the area provided also opportunities to share the gospel.
“This is a hard place spiritually speaking, and it is a harsh environment,” Chris Nalls said. “As we worked on the project, we continued to share the Gospel with the local workers and three of those professed faith in Christ. But there are just so many people here who remain in spiritual darkness.”
NAMB center opens in Luter Student Center in unique partnership with NOBTS to engage and mobilize students.
Newly-renovated Global Mission Center relaunches and opens in the Luter Student Center.
Deep waters and a strategic location make the Port of New Orleans a global gateway. Ocean-worthy carriers leave port carrying products that meet the needs of nations on the far side of the world.
FROM HERE, THEY GO THERE .
GO, THEREFORE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE EVERYTHING I HAVE COMMANDED YOU. AND REMEMBER, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, TO THE END OF THE AGE.
MATTHEW 28:19-20 CSB
Our strategy is similar. At NOBTS and Leavell College, we send out mission-ready servants devoted to Christ who take the gospel where the need is great.
From here, we go to the ends of the earth.
In case you missed it, here are stories you will want to read. Or, read again!
Prisoner to Pastor: Radical Grace in an Unlikely Place Life was empty and dark for former prisoners Robert Hyde and Paul Will, until they found Christ. In chapel, Jamie Dew talked with these men about their journeys from prison cell to pulpit.
Timely NOBTS Chapel Sermon and Incident Leads Student to Call for Prayer
James Thomas, student and church planter, knew God was calling him to action on behalf of the Gentilly community after a timely chapel sermon.
PhD Student DeAron Washington Shines Gospel Light through Counseling
DeAron Washington, Ph.D. student in counseling, discovered in college that the gospel filled in the gaps that were missing in his psychology major studies.
Swimming Pool Gives Church Plant Inroads for the Gospel
Scott Fortenberry (MDIV ’07) leads Soul City Church, Jackson, Miss., a unique urban church with a unique outreach ministry.
McKeever Donates Comics And Sermon Archives To NOBTS
Joe McKeever (THM ’67, DMIN ’73) donated his extensive archive of cartoons, sermons and other writings produced during his 59-year ministry to the NOBTS John T. Christian Library.
NOBTS mourns with ‘gratitude’ beloved professor Jeanine Bozeman
Jeanine Cannon Bozeman, a beloved New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary professor whose life and teaching impacted the lives of countless students preparing for ministry, passed away Oct. 18, 2022 at the age of 93.
On the bench or off, Justice Jay McCallum sees life grounded in grace Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice Jay McCallum (current MDIV student) sees his career in law as an act of worship and praise.
To the Ends of the Earth Vision, Summer 2022
Today’s world is not the world Lottie Moon knew. But God continues to call His people to live out the Great Commission, even in unexpected circumstances.
A Good and Faithful Servant Vision, Fall 2021
No job is too small, no task insignificant for those working quietly behind the scenes, faithfully serving, and leaving the results to God.
Hero’s Welcome: Adam Harwood, NOBTS Professor and Military Chaplain, Returns Home after Year-long Deployment
As a military chaplain, Dr. Adam Harwood served military personnel facing difficult situations overseas. He returned home to NOBTS a hero.
Stephanie Friend Earns Doctor of Ministry at age 72
Stephanie’s passion for reaching the women in a diverse community that includes Muslims, Vietnamese, Indian and Hispanic neighbors inspired her doctoral research project.
From Dig to Classroom to Campus Maintenance, Jim Parker is in a job he loves
Some might think Dr. Jim Parker’s skills in engineering, construction project management, and archaeology wouldn’t fit together, but his talents benefit NOBTS in invaluable ways.
“I believe that the very best degree you can earn while you are in seminary is the Master of Divinity degree. Our MDiv is custom-tuned to give you everything you need to do ministry in the 21st century.”
- Dr. Jamie Dew President of NOBTS & Leavell College
The Master of Divinity at NOBTS is the best combination of educational rigor and practical relevance with 22 different options for specializations.
Greg Mathias, Global Mission Center Director, got his first taste of missions during college when he spent a summer in the Middle East.
“They say once the sand gets between your toes, you never want to leave,” Mathias said. “And God used that time to begin working in me about what I was going to do with the rest of my life.”
Mathias and his wife Page bring their rich experiences from serving overseas to the campus as they help others find their place in missions.
This week, and other times through the year, provide students one-on-one time with IMB missionaries.
MISSION TRIPS
Join a mission team and “go to the nations.”
MISSIONARY MENTORS
Study under experienced missionaries who have served around the world.
At NOBTS, there are many ways to explore the question of “Why not me to the nations?”
God’s call drew Noah (MDIV ‘19) and Tarin (MAMFC ’19) Madden to Massachusetts in 2020 to plant a church, and three years later, God’s call and His faithfulness sustains them.
“God has been incredibly faithful. We are here because God, in His radical grace, called us and is sustaining us,” Noah said. “He is doing things we could never do. We feel honored to be a part of His mission.”
In April, Life Community Church in Weymouth, Massachusetts, which Noah leads, celebrated its first full year of weekly services. Shortly after the launch, Noah and Tarin adopted their son Daniel. The three Maddens are now firmly established in Weymouth and planting roots for the long haul.
in Weymouth in January 2022. Weekly gatherings started on Easter Sunday 2022.
Weymouth, a 400-year-old town, is the second oldest European settlement in Massachusetts. Located approximately 16 miles from Boston, Weymouth has little evangelical witness.
Each Life Community Church location shares the same DNA, but each reflects the uniqueness of its immediate community. Values, theology and doctrine are consistent, but each parish has local nuances.
Noah believes that a hyper-local approach best suits their context. Lost people in Weymouth are much more likely to interact with a congregation in Weymouth than they are to drive 10 minutes to the next town. All of this is designed to put the church close to those who are lost and “spiritually disconnected,” as Noah puts it.
Noah comes from a church-planting family. After his dad finished seminary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the family moved to Canada in 1996 when Noah was two years old. For the next 12 years, his dad worked to plant a church in British Columbia. The next move was to Edmonton, Alberta, where Noah’s dad trained church planters for the Canadian Baptist Convention’s Start Team.
After the 15-year sojourn in Canada, Noah’s family moved to Washington, Georgia to be closer to a family member in poor health. Noah’s dad pastored a church in the town of 6,000.
The new church plant is a part of the Life Community family of churches, which also has congregations in Quincy and Braintree, each only 10 minutes from Weymouth. Life Community Church operates with a local parish model, and their goal is to plant 30 churches in the Boston area. Rather than building up one or two larger regional churches, they aim to start churches very close to the populations they are trying to reach.
When the Maddens moved to Massachusetts, Noah participated in a pastoral residency program at Life Community Church in Quincy. This time helped them adjust to the new culture and understand the Life Community Church model.
After the residency, Noah and a team of believers from Life Community Church began hosting monthly worship gatherings
After graduating from high school in Washington, Georgia, Noah studied at Shorter University, a Baptist college in Rome, Georgia. He met and married his wife, Tarin, who graduated from Clemson University. God called them both to ministry during their first year of marriage (also Noah’s last year of college). As they prayed about where to prepare for ministry, they sensed a clear call to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Because Noah’s father was a church planter, many assumed he would follow that path of ministry. Church planting was the last thing in ministry Noah wanted to pursue.
“I ran from church planning as hard as I could,” Madden said. “I said, ‘I’ll do anything but that.’”
God does not waste the stories or experiences of those He calls. Noah realizes that Canada played a huge role in preparing him for his work in Weymouth. However, in New Orleans, God grew his burden for the lost and softened his heart toward church planting. The city, his church (Lakeshore), and NOBTS played a role in his preparation for Massachusetts.
“I will never forget the moment that I realized that in the Lakeview community and the Bucktown neighborhood within a square mile of Lakeshore Church, there were 11,472 people and not one other evangelical church trying to reach them.”
That realization forced Noah and Tarin to wrestle with how they would spend their seminary years. It led to missional purpose in New Orleans and helped them develop the missional patterns they use each day in Weymouth.
“For us that was a game-changing shift,” he said. “We didn’t just come to earn a degree. It meant that if we came to seminary and did not do something about the 11,472 around our church, we were missing it.”
The Maddens learned how to get out into the community and find ways to build relationships with the people they were trying to reach with the gospel. The realization pushed them off the campus so they could invest in others.
“In the classroom, I learned all kinds of deep and rich realities about God that helped me understand who He is, again tools
that were incredibly helpful in my ministry,” Madden said. “What I learned at NOBTS continues to influence my ministry every day.”
Lakeshore Church and the mentoring Madden received from George Ross, Lakeshore pastor, NAMB missionary and NOBTS professor, was essential to his preparation for the task in Massachusetts. Ross not only taught and modeled pastoral skills, but he also pushed Noah out of his comfort zone—challenging Noah to take on leadership roles that required dependence on God. Most of all, Ross and the professors at NOBTS modeled gospel urgency.
“There’s an urgency in New Orleans,” he said. “Our gospel urgency was kindled at NOBTS and Lakeshore for Tarin and me.”
Noah describes his church-planting role as a hybrid between a missionary and a pastor. The missionary role is most prominent in the early phases of the plant, but in an unchurched context like Weymouth, the missionary aspect of Noah’s ministry will never disappear.
“You lean very heavily toward the missionary role when you begin because you don’t have any members to pastor,” he said.
The missionary task is critical in a place like Weymouth.
“There are thousands of people in our community who are apart from Christ and in many ways … they are without access to the gospel because no one is there to tell them.”
Noah and Tarin apply the missionary task in all areas of life. This impacts where he goes to study for his sermons, where they shop, the coffee shops and restaurants they frequent, and even the time he takes out the garbage. Everything in life serves as a vehicle to meet and interact with their neighbors. Everything is mission.
Part of the missionary task involves observing and learning the local culture. Noah deliberately seeks to know and understand the community in order to find ways to bring the gospel to his neighbors. Contextualization is key in an area without Christian background.
“Church planters will always be missionaries,” he said. “Hopefully, I will never neglect the missionary bent of being a church planter. I certainly want to lean into the opportunities to be a shepherd as well.”
As the Maddens lean into the missionary task, they remain amazed by God’s call and are sustained by God’s faithfulness.
Getting to know our alumni is the most rewarding part of my job. This year is providing larger opportunities to do just that.
As many of you know, we are in the midst of our “oral history project” where we are asking our alumni to update their contact information and reminisce with some stories from their time at NOBTS and Leavell College. Those stories will be compiled into a large, “coffee-table style” book that will be available for purchase. If you aren’t one of the thousands who have participated
in that yet, we’d sure appreciate it if you would. You should have received some emails and a postcard from us with the phone number to call. If not, let us know and we’ll be glad to help.
Also, mark your calendars for this year’s Alumni Reunion, Oct. 12, followed by the Prepare Here conference, Oct. 1314. The week will be packed with events and activities that you will want to be a part of. Watch for more information on this exciting week.
If you have not already done so, we hope that you will join the alumni association today. Your annual $50 membership gives you benefits designed to help you serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. Members receive discounts to certain special events.
It is an honor to serve you. Please let me know how our office can do that even more.
• $50 for an annual membership
• $600 for a lifetime membership (can be broken into monthly installments)
• MOST POPULAR PERKS: FREE class audits & access to the ATLA religious database
• NEWEST PERK: monthly webinars with faculty members
Paul Gregoire, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Registrar for 29 years, passed away March 21 after a brief battle with cancer.
“Paul Gregoire was a faithful servant who embodied what we are about at NOBTS, servants who seek to be faithful to His calling,” said Jamie Dew, president.
Gregoire joined the NOBTS staff in 1987 as a computer analyst as the seminary first ventured into the computer age. At that time, registration involved long lines of students snaking through the library with “four-part McBee slips” hand-signed by faculty members.
Registrar from 1993 until his retirement as Registrar
Emeritus in 2022, Gregoire superintended 134 graduations and signed an estimated 16,000 diplomas.
“Dr. Gregoire believed deeply in the ministry of the seminary and gave his life’s service to make us more effective,” said Norris Grubbs, Provost. “He served generations of students and faculty during his time as Registrar.”
Grubbs said Gregoire taught throughout his tenure as an adjunct professor and particularly enjoyed teaching in the seminary’s prison extension center.
Gregoire earned the associate, master’s and the Ph.D. degrees from NOBTS, all completed while pastoring St. Bernard Baptist Church in Chalmette, La. and raising two sons with his wife, Mae.
For some time, Gregoire held the distinction as the only Southern Baptist seminary registrar who served also as dean of admissions. Gregoire once said that his job began the moment the ink dried on a student’s application letter.
Gregoire was known for his faithful attention and care in helping international students navigate registration and graduation processes. For Gregoire, his greatest joy, he once said, was seeing students “through from application to graduation.”
Please click the QR code to see their names and class dates.
Friends and loved ones who have gone on to be with the Lord leave to us a legacy of faith and an example of service.
Early-Bird Registration | September 1, 2023
$60 / Students $45
General Registration | October 1, 2023 | $75
Through rich Bible teaching and worship, practical breakout sessions, as well as sweet times of fellowship, it is our hope that your walk with God would grow deeper as you learn the power and practices of prayer.
WORSHIP WITH: Nate
Jernigan
Assistant Professor of Music and Worship, Leavell College
Scan the QR code to learn more or visit PREPAREHER.COM/ABIDE
Early-Bird Registration Opens August 1, 2024
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