Destinations
TRUSTEES: NOBTS adds Korean D.Min.
Dec. 15, 2009 | By Gary D. Myers
NEW ORLEANS - The executive committee of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary board of trustees approved a Korean-language doctor of ministry program and named new apartments in honor of Florida and Mississippi Baptists during their Dec. 8 meeting.
The new Korean doctor of ministry (D.Min.) program will initially focus on the training needs of Korean ministers serving in Korean churches in America. The coursework will be tailored to address the unique nature of Korean church ministry in the United States. However, the program is open to Koreans living outside the U.S.
Seminars for the Korean D.Min. program will be taught at the seminary's North Georgia Hub in metro Atlanta. Demographic studies reveal that Atlanta boasts the tenth largest Korean population in American. Atlanta's major airport also offers easy access from cities with large Korean populations such as Washington D.C., Baltimore and Chicago.
"We are thrilled to be able to partner with our Korean Baptist colleagues in providing a higher level of training for those who want to achieve excellence in their ministry," NOBTS President Chuck Kelley said after the vote.
In introducing the program, NOBTS Provost Steve Lemke pointed to the success of seminary's the Korean program, with Korean-language undergraduate and graduate programs in Atlanta. In just four short years the program has grown from a few students to an enrollment of more than 100. Last fall, NOBTS President Chuck Kelley appointed Deok Jae Lee, who directs the work of the Korean Program at the seminary's North Georgia hub to serve on the seminary faculty. The seminary has also recently begun offering online classes in the Korean language.
"To reach America for Christ, we must find ways to minister to our many ethnic populations," Lemke said. "We have classes in Haitian French, Spanish, and Portuguese to meet the needs of our ethnic churches. This program serves the leadership needs of the over 900 Korean churches within the Southern Baptist Convention."
Instruction will be given in Korean by Korean and American professors, either directly or by translation. All student coursework, including the final ministry project, will be completed in Korean.
The program will utilize the cohort learning model. Cohort groups of 10-15 students take all their courses together as a group. The program allows for a specialization in Korean church ministry.
According to Lemke, the Korean D.Min. plan is the fruit of a year-long study. During the process, a seminary task force met with Korean Baptist leaders and studied other Korean-language programs to determine the needs of Korean pastors.
The program will launch no earlier than August 2010 and must have an initial cohort of 15 students.
The seminary has a long history of training Korean students in its traditional English-based master's and doctoral programs. However, in recent years NOBTS created a number of initiatives designed to train and equip Korean-speaking ministers in their native tongue.
In addition to the 2005 launch of the Korean Program at the seminary North Georgia Hub, the seminary recently introduced Korean-language online courses. For more information about the Korean online classes, see http://nobts.edu/kti/online.html. For more information about the Korean D.Min. program, contact Deok Jae Lee at dlee@nobts.edu or email kti@nobts.edu.
During the October trustee meeting, the board approved construction of two new student apartment buildings. With construction well underway, the trustees voted to name the buildings in honor of Florida and Mississippi Baptists.
In naming the apartments, the trustees sought to honor two of the seminary's key partners. Kelley said that under the leadership of John Sullivan, the Florida Baptist Convention has invested more money in NOBTS than any other state convention. The school and the Florida convention partner in extension center education and Cuban and Haitian training programs.
The Mississippi Apartments will honor the state convention and a group of Mississippi Baptist laymen for their efforts to raise money to replace student apartments lost during Hurricane Katrina. Since 2005, Mississippi Baptists have raised $389,032 toward student housing.
"The apartments destroyed by Katrina were named for the states of the United States, we are delighted to preserve that tradition of naming our apartments for states," Kelley said. "These first two will be named for the Florida convention and the Mississippi convention."
"Both of these conventions have done much to help us recover from Katrina and have been great partners in our extension center education program," he continued.
In other action, the trustees approved First Baptist Church in Gonzales, La., and the North Shore (Louisiana) Baptist Association as certificate training sites. These certificate programs, designed to train church leaders, offer courses in Bible teaching, theology and ministry.
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