By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
PINEVILLE – Louisiana College students soon will enjoy access to a fast track for earning a graduate degree at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
NOBTS President Chuck Kelley and LC President Rick Brewer signed a memorandum of understanding, Oct. 29, to create a partnership that grants seminary-level credit for hours successfully completed by students in LC’s Missions and Ministries program.
Brewer said he hopes the agreement will be finalized by the start of the spring semester in 2019.
“This partnership agreement will be a win-win-win,” Brewer said, noting that the students and both institutions will reap rewards from cooperating. “Louisiana Baptist churches will profit, too, because more graduates will be on the field sooner than usual.”
“We are exceedingly grateful for Dr. Kelley’s leadership throughout his long tenure at the seminary, and as well, his vision for the future of the seminary and Louisiana College,” Brewer said. “We look forward to a long and beneficial relationship with another Southern Baptist institution whose curricula are built upon a Christian worldview and that has a burden for both the Lord’s people and lost people.”
Kelley said the agreement allows for students to receive their degree at the seminary more quickly as they pursue God’s calling in the field of ministry.
“We just think partnerships are stronger than flying solo,” he said. “We look for those synergies.
“We look for things that we can do together. And there is enough compatibility between these two institutions with our call and commitment to Christ and the Gospel, our call and commitment to Louisiana Baptists, that we are delighted to enter into this memorandum of understanding and to look for those ways that we can keep the education preparation process seamless for students at both of our schools and let students take advantage of what each of us does very, very well for the maximum benefit of the students,” he added.
“We think we will have some good overlapping and mesh points that will make education more efficient and less expensive,” Kelley continued. “More efficient for students and faster for students to be able to get out into the field to minister and to serve in the way that God is calling them.”
For more information, email admissions@lacollege.edu or call 800.487.1906.
