NEW ORLEANS (BP)–New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and William Carey College of Hattiesburg, Miss., have announced an agreement for the William Carey school of nursing to utilize classroom and office space on the seminary campus.
Through this agreement, NOBTS students and their spouses who are interested in the many types of medical missions service or in preparing professionally for a bivocational ministry would be able to study for an accredited nursing degree on the New Orleans Seminary campus and complete the 20 hours of seminary education required by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board before appointment — and thus in one location become qualified for career medical missions.
At the same time, William Carey nursing students who want to be career missionaries with IMB may enroll at the seminary to obtain the required 20 hours of Southern Baptist theological education.
“Partnership for missions and education has always been the Baptist way,” said Chuck Kelley, NOBTS president. “We are delighted to welcome the William Carey school of nursing to our campus. We believe it will enhance our ability to deliver training for medical missions as effectively and inexpensively as possible.”
Larry Kennedy, interim president of William Carey College, said, “We are fortunate to forge this partnership with another Baptist institution and feel that our outstanding program offering in both pre-nursing and nursing courses leading to the bachelor of science in nursing degree will flourish in this setting as we continue preparing our graduates for lives of Christian service.”
Steve Lemke, seminary provost, said, “To our knowledge, no other seminary of any kind has a nursing school on its campus to provide state-of-the-art nursing education for students. This is the first time we are aware of a seminary offering medical missionaries the opportunity to get both their nursing training and theological training in one place.”
Noting this arrangement is not out of the ordinary for NOBTS, Lemke said New Orleans Seminary always has been deeply supportive of Baptist college life.
Other coordinated agreements New Orleans Seminary has had with Baptist colleges include extension centers providing graduate theological education on the campuses of Mississippi College near Jackson since 1986 and Florida Baptist Theological College, Graceville, Fla., since 1990.
For approximately the same time, New Orleans Seminary has had library articulation agreements with other Baptist colleges, such as Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas, and Shorter College in Rome, Ga., because of their proximity to other NOBTS extension centers.
In addition, New Orleans Seminary’s recently announced Baptist College Partnership Program provides accelerated, advanced education for students with undergraduate work in religion, thus motivating students to be religion majors at the Baptist colleges, Lemke said. Currently 50 Baptist colleges are supported by various Southern Baptist state conventions.
“We strongly encourage high school graduates to attend the Baptist colleges,” Lemke said.
The William Carey school of nursing will occupy the auxiliary classroom building on the west side of the NOBTS campus, which until this summer housed the computer lab. During the summer, part of the seminary’s 119,000-square-foot. Hardin Student Center has been renovated to create a new computer complex for students and faculty.
“William Carey school of nursing has enjoyed a positive relationship over the years with what is now the Baptist campus of Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans,” Kennedy said. The college has offered the bachelor of science in nursing degree in New Orleans since 1968 when it merged with the prestigious Mather School of Nursing. “Graduates have brought honor to themselves and the denomination for 30 years,” Kennedy said.
Mary Ware, dean of the William Carey school of nursing, said, “We look forward to having a positive relationship with the seminary.”
Beginning its 81st academic year in August, New Orleans Seminary now will have two campus buildings associated with the name of the world’s greatest pioneering missionary, William Carey (1761-1834), whose first overseas missionary expedition in 1793 was with a physician. Indicating the seminary’s keen interest in missionary endeavors both at home and abroad, the NOBTS women’s dormitory, constructed in 1953, is named William Carey Hall.
According to IMB statistics, one out of every 14 eligible New Orleans Seminary graduates and former students have served as IMB missionaries. Of those, New Orleans Seminary graduates were the first Southern Baptist missionaries or representatives in more than 20 countries, including most recently Lithuania.
