Seminary extensions offer education at local level

And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” New Orleans Seminary (NOBTS) has made Paul’s directive to educate preachers their number one goal since its inception in 1917. In keeping with this goal and the changing needs of seminary students, NOBTS began opening extension centers throughout the Southeast in 1978, including one in Birmingham (1978) and another in Huntsville (1995). Bibb County Correctional Facility Chaplain Eddie Smith also hopes that NOBTS will see his prison in Brent as an ideal location for an extension center. Other Southern Baptist seminaries offer similar extension centers in other states.
   
Why branch out? It’s costly, inconvenient and an administrative nightmare.
   
But seminaries do it “because,” dean of extensions Jimmy Dukes explains, “over half of our ministers in churches do not have seminary training. The extension centers make it (seminary training) accessible and affordable to those who cannot leave homes and jobs.”
   
Alabama extension centers run on cycles and class times that are tailored to fit “nontraditional” schedules.
   
The prison-based extension would be another “nontraditional” learning environment. Inspired by the success of NOBTS’s first prison extension center in Angola (one of Louisiana’s maximum-security prisons), Smith saw the potential for accredited seminary training in his prison.
   
“There are a lot of inmates who truly do get saved and feel the call into ministry,” Smith said. “The extension center would help prepare them to be Christian workers who can make a difference in their communities when they get out.
   
“Although we’re not at the point where I can say we’re going to start one, I believe we will eventually get it. The warden and the prison commissioner (NOBTS graduate Michael Haley) are in full support of the project,” Smith said, adding they hope to have at least one class going by September.
   
As far as the two current extension centers in Alabama are concerned, the Huntsville center, located at Southside Baptist Church, offers associate degrees and the Birmingham extension, located at Lakeside Baptist Church, Hoover, offers undergraduate and graduate degrees.
   
The Huntsville-based program features associate degrees in pastoral ministries and Chris-tian education that run on three-year cycles. The training is provided Thursdays 2-10:30 p.m.
   
In Birmingham, students can complete a master of divinity or a master of arts in Christian education in about four years by attending one day a week (Mondays 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.) or two days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays 5-8 p.m.). Students must also complete a residency requirement on the New Orleans campus. A bachelor of arts in Christian education, which runs on a similar schedule, can be obtained in approximately six years depending on educational background.
   
Graduating the second largest class of master’s students in the extension network, the Birmingham Center has educated countless youth ministers, missionaries, church planters, church administrators, education ministers and, of course, pastors.
   
Take for example Mike Rester, who graduated with a masters of divinity in May. Rester, pastor of Ryan Baptist Church, Cullman — a full-time supervisor, husband and busy father — didn’t have a lot of educational options. “The daytime route was impossible for me. Without the extension center I don’t think I would have gotten my master’s degree. I would have certainly had to make some major life changes. More than just my secular job, I would have had to give up my bivocational pastorship.”
   
Twenty years into his pastoral calling, Rester said, “It’s (the extension center) not only impacted the lives of the students but the congregations where they serve. I feel that this has made me a better pastor.”
   
Kristy Carr, copy editor for GA (Girls in Action) magazine at national Woman’s M-issionary Union and graduate student in Bir-mingham, also chose the extension center because of its one-of-a-kind class schedules.
   
“A master’s degree in Christian education will open a lot of doors for me in the future,” Carr said as to why she chose to return to school. “I am very missions minded and geared toward children. If seminary means I’ll be better equipped to serve, then I am willing to do that.”
   
While some students go to only one of the extensions, others will graduate from the Huntsville extension and continue their studies at the Birmingham extension center.
   
For example, Mark Smith graduated from the Huntsville program and will pursue a bachelor’s degree at the Birmingham extension this fall. Smith, who was already serving as a full-time minister of students at Concord Baptist Church, Russellville, when he started attending the Huntsville extension, admits that relocating to New Orleans was not an option for him and his wife. For Smith, the center’s location and convenient class times were “an incredible answer to prayer”.
   
“(The classes and professors have) given me something in my ministry that I can use from this point on,” Smith said.
   
Students are quick to testify that there is nothing second rate about the classes.
   
Students can contact Ben Hale (256-837-9140) in Huntsville or Bob Hall in Birmingham (205-681-1138) to register. Classes begin at both locations Aug. 17.