New Orleans Seminary receives anonymous $7.5M

New Orleans Seminary receives anonymous $7.5M

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary trustees accepted an anonymous gift to broaden the Caskey Center for Church Excellence scholarship program during a meeting Oct. 6.

In April $1.5 million was given anonymously to launch the Caskey Center at the seminary and offer 100 full-tuition scholarships to bivocational and smaller membership church ministers from congregations that cooperate with the Louisiana Baptist Convention. The seminary interviewed more than 130 Louisiana ministers who met the scholarship qualifications and the donor agreed to fund the entire group for the 2014–2015 school year. 

As of October, the donor had given a total of $7.5 million to the Caskey Center and decided to offer scholarships for up to 50 Mississippi ministers.

Seminary President Chuck Kelley announced that the gift will enable Mississippi bivocational and smaller membership church ministers to be able to apply for full-tuition scholarships at New Orleans Seminary.

The scholarships, up to $6,000 per year, are available for certificate, associate, undergraduate or master’s degree study at the seminary and study in any of its delivery systems including the main campus, Louisiana and Mississippi extension centers, hybrid courses, workshops, conference-based courses and online programs.

To qualify for the new program in Mississippi, students must be serving as paid staff at a smaller membership church (up to 150 in worship) in cooperation with the Mississippi Baptist Convention or as a biovocational minister at a Mississippi Baptist church. In addition, scholarship recipients are required to affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, available at the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood website (www.cbmw.org).

The Caskey Center is receiving applications for the Louisiana and Mississippi scholarships at www.nobts.edu/CaskeyCenter.