Alabama Baptists interested in seminary-level training without the commitment of attending seminary have a new way to make this happen.
With a biblical training site recently launched in Trussville, people in and around the northeast corner of Jefferson County can take advantage of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s (NOBTS) certificate in biblical teaching.
This brings the number of certificate-level sites in the state to three. The others are in Athens and Clanton.
A fourth site is being proposed for the Montgomery area.
Alabama is also home to a NOBTS extension center, located at The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, which offers master’s degrees through the main campus in Christian education and divinity, as well as an associate degree in Christian ministry. Doctor of ministry seminars are also held at the extension center.
More than 300 students are currently enrolled in the various NOBTS programs in the state.
The first class for the new certificate-level site at NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, began Sept. 11.
Each class meets once a week for eight weeks, and one credit hour will be given for each class taken.
The certificate of biblical teaching is an eight-class program.
Bob Hall, director of NOBTS’s Birmingham extension center, is overseeing the new teaching site at NorthPark Baptist.
“The focus of the leadership teaching certificate is for a more expanded audience,” Hall noted. “It is designed for laypeople as well as pastors and teachers.”
Hall, a member of NorthPark, and his son Stephen, minister to high school students at NorthPark, are co-teaching the first class — The Life of Christ, a study based in the Gospels.
Stephen Hall, a 2002 NOBTS master of divinity graduate, hopes the classes “will prepare students to teach from any part of the Bible and [will] enhance their teaching skills.”
Bill Wilks, pastor of NorthPark, agreed. He also expressed enthusiasm about the potential outreach to the community as well as the opportunity to be a resource for people seeking this type of coursework.
Edwin Jenkins, pastor of First Baptist Church, Athens, teaches at the Athens site and commended the certificate program because “it is inexpensive and time-oriented toward busy ministers.”
Nancy Gillespie, a student at the Athens site, said the classes have helped her in the singles ministry that she is involved with at Autumnwood Baptist Church, Decatur.
“It is really exciting for me, and it gives me an opportunity to work with my peers,” she said. “I get to put what I am learning to good use at the church.”
For more information about the NOBTS programs in Alabama, call Bob Hall at 205-516-4535.
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