April 17, 2009 | By Michael McCormack
NEW ORLEANS -- In his annual State of the Seminary address, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley cast an innovative vision for the future of theological education at NOBTS. He titled the address, delivered April 16 at the seminary's Leavell Chapel, "Seeing Through a Glass, Darkly."
Kelley borrowed the title of his address from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. Though discerning the future of theological education is comparable to "seeing through a glass, darkly," Kelley boldly described the innovative, accessible and technology-driven future of ministry training at NOBTS.
He started with an assessment of the present situation.
"People have always been interested in the future, but never more so than now," Kelley said to start the address. "The financial uncertainty that has gripped our lives, our nation and the entire world makes all of us hungry to know what lies ahead."
Kelley, NOBTS administrators and the school's Board of Trustees met April 14-15. A main focus of that meeting was charting the course for the seminary in light of both current economic conditions and trends in higher education. In his address, Kelley highlighted both cost of education and technology as transforming factors for the seminary.
"The cost of traditional approaches to education and the preparation of ministers has put enormous pressure on seminaries and colleges to change in order to find some new models for equipping the next generation of leaders," he said.
The second transforming factor, according to Kelley, is technology, which is pushing the limits of the traditional classroom.
"A physical classroom is still useful but not necessary for professors and students to interact," Kelley said. "They can come together in physical space, media space or the virtual world of Internet space."
The impact of technology on education is sweeping.
"Technology is the golden thread binding all of these spaces together and making a ‘one size fits all' approach to ministerial training no longer necessary, possible or even desirable," he said.
The ever increasing cost of traditional education combined with the wide-range of opportunities available through technology "have resulted in students insisting on new models for training," Kelley said.
His conclusion: "To fail to explore new paths for theological education will further unmake our identity as Southern Baptists when students have to look outside the SBC for the training they desire."
This shift in educational models coincides with a crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Kelley offered a frank assessment of the condition of the SBC and its churches. Front and center is the health of individual Southern Baptist churches.
"Our churches are struggling," he said in reference to a study published in 2004 by the NOBTS Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health. "Only 11 percent of our churches are experiencing healthy, evangelistic growth."
A corollary of the church health issue is giving to the Cooperative Program, which provides funding to missionaries and SBC entities.
"The Cooperative Program is slowly losing strength. Its growth is not keeping up with the needs of the ministries it supports, much less their opportunities," Kelley said. "This trend started well before the current recession."
Kelley said New Orleans Seminary is especially sensitive to lagging Cooperative Program giving because of how those funds are distributed among the seminaries. Traditional, on-campus students receive the most funding from the Cooperative Program.
However, Kelley pointed out that one of New Orleans Seminary's strengths is its extension centers and distance learning programs. These avenues for ministry training, while not as well funded by the Cooperative Program, are nonetheless a crucial part of New Orleans Seminary's strategic vision.
After surveying the facts, Kelley concluded that the situation is urgent, and the road ahead is uncertain. But he reminded those in attendance that uncertainty does not equal impossibility.
"Leaving home and family for a journey without a map or a destination was uncertain for Abraham, but the result was becoming the father of a people as difficult to count as the stars," Kelley said. "Planting churches in a world completely dominated by a pagan culture was uncertain for Paul, but as a result the church spread to every corner of the world."
Of utmost importance to New Orleans Seminary, then, is not the presence of uncertainty but the response to that uncertainty. Kelley announced that the seminary intends to respond as Esther did.
"We believe this is an Esther moment," Kelley exclaimed. "All that has unfolded in our 91-year history, including Hurricane Katrina, has been preparing us for such a time as this."
Armed with the conviction that theological education, while not essential, is definitely crucial and with the goal to make that training as accessible as possible, seminary leaders are launching what Kelley calls a "cafeteria" for ministry training.
"This is the path we are choosing for our future," Kelley said.
This path, Kelley promised, will include accessibility for students, academic credibility and economic efficiency.
Students will be able to choose from a variety of approaches to ministry training. The first, a traditional immersion approach, will involve the student moving to the New Orleans area and becoming a full-time student.
"This is the fastest, broadest and deepest [approach] to preparing for any form of ministry," Kelley said. "Students who are making the transition from another vocation into the ministry, who have had little ministry experience, or who have an interest in advanced study programs often find this approach particularly helpful."
This approach often requires the largest lifestyle change and financial commitment from the student, while also offering especially intense and in-depth training as well as deeper relationships with faculty and other students.
A second approach available to students is the marathon approach. This most often involves studying via a seminary extension center. Obtaining ministry training this way may take longer and offer fewer specialization choices to the student, but it also bring ministry training to students who are not able to relocate.
"This path is most popular with those who are in a full-time ministry position they believe God wants them to maintain while they get seminary training," Kelley said.
He followed that with a third approach to ministry training: the "as needed" approach. This approach is made possible by both the Internet and the seminary's ever-growing certificate programs. The Internet offers students increased flexibility with regard to study time and location, while certificate programs allow students to build focused knowledge in a specific area of interest. Certificate classes will be easily applicable to baccalaureate and master's degrees.
Kelley said that many students will take advantage of all three approaches according to their needs and interests. The result is the ministry cafeteria.
"One of the most attractive features of the ministry cafeteria is the ability it gives students to either choose one basic approach or combine any or all of the approaches as they go through the process of preparation," he said.
The result is ministry training made as accessible as possible.
Kelley said one of the most exciting facts about the ministry cafeteria is that so many of the pieces are already in place. But he also named some challenges he sees.
One challenge is identifying the best faculty possible. Kelley said the ministry cafeteria will require teachers who are both vigorous scholars and innovative teachers.
A second challenge is funding. While Internet, extension center and certificate classes have the potential of being more efficient than traditional models of education, those avenues for education are not currently well funded by the Cooperative Program. Kelley proposed four ways of giving to help prevent costs from being passed on to students.
The first option is giving to the Annual Fund, which goes directly to the seminary's operating budget. A second effective way for supporting the mission of NOBTS is providing a scholarship for an individual student.
"Funds for student assistance have never been more important," he said.
Kelley also highlighted endowment gifts as a much-needed stream of funding. These interest-bearing gifts have a perpetuating impact on the school.
A final kind of gift is one given to support specific, one-time projects.
"For instance, we still need to replace the tennis courts and the apartments destroyed by Katrina," Kelley said.
"All four of these kinds of gifts are, and ever will be, important," he said.
Kelley closed by calling for faith and determination. This vision for an innovative "ministry cafeteria" demands both faith and determination.
"We are going to reinvent seminary in light of the needs, opportunities and mission facing Southern Baptists in the 21st century," he concluded.
Movement toward the ministry cafeteria began when Dr. Landrum Leavell, Kelley's predecessor, launched the school's first distance learning programs. Kelley has continued that movement in his 13 years as president. And according to Kelley, Hurricane Katrina served as a source of confirmation.
"Katrina was for us an affirmation of where we are headed, not a detour," he said, referencing the faculty's innovative use of the Internet following the hurricane.
Now, with the support of the Board of Trustees, the seminary is moving forward, full force, as it makes the ministry cafeteria available. Kelley said the pieces are in place and the cafeteria is open to students. And though the path forward may not be crystal clear, Kelley trusts that clarity will come in time.
"Growing clarity always follows bold obedience," he said.
-30-