Training and Preparing Leaders for Ministry: Tara & Jamie Dew

May 08, 2025 00:36:05
Training and Preparing Leaders for Ministry: Tara & Jamie Dew
Lead Defend
Training and Preparing Leaders for Ministry: Tara & Jamie Dew

May 08 2025 | 00:36:05

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Show Notes

Tara and Jamie Dew join us in this episode to discuss their own calls to ministry, the importance of a seminary education and the value of in-person learning.

You can learn more about New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at nobts.edu

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome to the Lead Defend Podcast, a show designed to help you grow in faith and leadership as you navigate the stages of young adulthood. We address important faith topics and provide practical life tips helping you build up your faith as you engage a changing culture. Now, here are your hosts. [00:00:30] Speaker C: Well, welcome back to the Lead Defend Podcast. We are glad to be back with you for another episode. I am Bill. [00:00:34] Speaker D: And I'm Brock. [00:00:35] Speaker C: And we are in the throw of getting ready for Lead Defend. By the time you hear this, we will have come out of that and caught up on sleep, hopefully. [00:00:42] Speaker D: But and then preparing for the next one. [00:00:44] Speaker C: Preparing for the next one. Yes. 2026 underway. Check it out anytime. Leadefin.org but we are working on it. But we are glad to have a couple of folks with us today. And not just a couple of folks, but a couple who is with us today. Jamie and Tara do. So welcome to the Lead Defend Podcast. [00:00:59] Speaker A: Thanks for having us. [00:01:00] Speaker C: Thank you. Appreciate you guys being a part. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Honored. Honored. [00:01:03] Speaker C: So start by telling our listeners just a little bit about you, what you do, your family, those types of things. [00:01:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll tell them who we are and then you can tell them about our family. So my name is Jamie Dew. This is Tara as mentioned. And I'm the president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary level College. We have been in New Orleans for five and a half years at this point and we're having a blast, having a ball. So, you know, as president, I tell people my job's kind of like being a dad. My job is to be for the school whatever she needs me to be in any given day. And from day to day that looks, looks very different. And so I speak a lot, I travel a lot and preach and do academic things as well. But we absolutely love New Orleans and her people at the seminary and love that and honored that we get to do that. [00:01:49] Speaker E: That's right. And so if he's the dad of the campus, I'm the mom of the campus. But more than that, I'm the mom of the do crew. And that is, we have two sets of twins. Nathan and Natalie are 17. Samuel and Samantha are 15. And so seniors in high school and freshmen in high school. So our house is fun and loud and full of teenagers and I cannot keep food in the pantry or the refrigerator. But not only loving them and helping them, I love serving the students and the staff and the faculty of our seminary and especially get to do some teaching in our women's programs there. So our life is wonderful. But we do call New Orleans home and Absolutely. Love. Love what God's having us do. [00:02:34] Speaker D: Top three things you love about New Orleans. [00:02:37] Speaker E: Oh, that's hard. [00:02:38] Speaker C: That's a great question. [00:02:39] Speaker E: Okay, my top three. I love the food of New Orleans. It is unlike anywhere else in our whole country. Never had heard of beignets or gumbo or jambalaya or etouffee. And now I've gotten there and I'm like, man, this is good stuff. So the food, the architecture, our city is beautiful. The balconies and the architecture and the buildings. There's this French and Creole and Spanish history of our city. That's beautiful. And the third thing that I would say is I love our people of our city. They are humble people who love gathering people together to celebrate life. And so I love the food, the architecture and the people. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Same thing, but only I will maybe give nuance to each one of those food. What I love about the food is it's the most delicious food we've ever eaten in our lives. New Orleanian food is not pretentious food. It's not frou frou, uppity food. [00:03:42] Speaker E: That's right. [00:03:42] Speaker A: It's food that was born out of poverty. And these folks had nothing. They had to learn how to make it taste good, and they succeeded. So I love that the people. Part of what I love about the people of New Orleans is that they're here, too. They're just not pretentious people. No one's putting on airs. Nobody's being something they're not. They'll show you the broken just as much as they'll show you the good. And so people are very comfortable in their own skin. And it's a very natural place. It's also a very. Thirdly, I'd say, just a tight mixing bowl of so many different kinds of things that it. New Orleans kind of keeps you on your toes all the time. There's always something fun to do. Most of it is free, completely free. Like we just did Mardi Gras, and most of Mardi Gras is not what people think it is. Most of it's very family friendly and. But that's just one example. There's things like that all year long where it's just things to do. And so it's just not a boring place at all. There are beautiful places. There are great cities throughout the country, but there's nowhere like New Orleans. It's just really different. [00:04:42] Speaker E: Yeah. And it has a soundtrack. Everywhere you go, there's music. [00:04:45] Speaker C: I love the music. [00:04:46] Speaker E: And so it's not a quiet city. So it's not. There's so much flavor and spice in the food, the people, the celebrations, the festivals, the music. So if for any of you who want to come down to New Orleans, come check out what God's doing down in our city. [00:05:03] Speaker C: Yeah, that's cool. Very cool. Well, tell us a little bit about how you got where you are now in ministry. And even if you want to, one of the things that I think is always interesting for our listeners to hear is kind of stories of how people got called to ministry, because that looks different for everybody. So, yeah, share a little bit about that with our listeners. [00:05:24] Speaker A: So, I mean, I'm. I'm still. I'm five and a half years into the job, and I'm still to this day just as shocked that I'm doing this and that I've been entrusted with this as I was on day one. I come from a broken home. Parents split up when I was seven years old. I struggled terribly in school. I was kind of the dummy, the stupid kid and things like that. Failed a couple grades because I couldn't read. That led me to lots of trouble, lots of difficulty, drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, things like that, all through high school. Got arrested twice junior year in high school, and came to Faith. After I moved from living with my mom in Statesville, North Carolina, to Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1994, I was 17 years old. And God started a process over the next eight months of just humbling me and ultimately came to faith in Christ. And knew the night that I came to Faith in Christ that I was also called to ministry. Didn't have that vocabulary, of course, didn't have a framework for what that meant, but I just knew that there was this deep burning passion in my bones and that I had to proclaim him and serve him in some way, and so didn't know what that meant. Faithful brothers quickly took me under their wing and started investing in me, teaching me how to pray, read my Bible, share my faith, preach testimony, all those things. Repenting of sins and just real, genuine discipleship. And that was where it really started to cultivate. Long story short, one of the things that began to happen is as I would share my faith with people, which I was doing quite a lot of, I encountered a lot of people that had big, big, big intellectual questions. And not being an academic, I was not equipped to answer those questions. And that really bothered me. And that was really the beginning of my turn into academics. That's what drove me into it. And I didn't expect to become an academic but as I went to college, which I had not planned on doing, and then thought about a graduate program, seminary, which I had not thought about doing. And in that. And through that doctoral work, which I certainly had never started thinking about doing, much less a PhD in philosophy, that's what the Lord was doing. And I tried to. I was scared of it. I was resistant to it in many ways for a good season. But there just came a point where I couldn't look people in the face anymore and be honest about things unless I just admitted that, no, I think God's calling me to do these academic types of things. And so sure enough, lo and behold, God took this kid who had failed two grades because he couldn't read and ends up turning that point of his life completely around and, you know, two PhDs, publications and things of that nature. And I ultimately became a professor at Southeastern Seminary in North Carolina, where we lived right there where Southeastern is. And I was there. I was at Southeastern as a student and then all the way up to a VP vice president for 19 years. And my last six and a half years there, I was the dean of the college. I was also overall distance education, online programs, extension centers, and things like that in God's providence. Those types of pieces happen to be some of the very things that nobts needed some sharpening on. And Dr. Kelly, my predecessor, who's a good man, he'll be with us in chapel this week, and we have a good relationship with him, he announced his retirement in October of 2018. I didn't think a thing in the world about that in terms of me going down there. In fact, I was praying for the next president of MBTS thinking that it was me. And long story short, In January of 19, when the search committee started really doing their work, someone had given them my name. I didn't put my name in for it. And they reached out, had my resume, thought they wanted to talk to me. And I don't know, I was shocked by that. I thought, in a very real sense, I thought, these people are crazy, not me. But there was also this very clear and immediate. I'd had some other opportunities for presidencies at other schools before that I could have interviewed, interviewed for, but I just never felt like I was supposed to do that. But for this one, I had this pretty instant sense, didn't want to do it, but I had this pretty instant sense that, well, but if for some strange reason I was called on to do this, I owe it back to Southern Baptist to stand up and try and So I knew I couldn't not answer their questions. And long story short, here I am. That's how that happened. [00:09:55] Speaker E: I actually met him the week after he became a believer. And so I've had a front row seat to this amazing transformation in his life, which has been really neat. But I have a very different story than him. I grew up in a Christian home. My mom and dad both got saved in high school and college. And so I say I have loved Jesus for as long as I can remember. We were always at church. But I actually got saved, though, at a Billy Graham Crusade. I was 5 years old and we went and I walked down front with my grandmother. She was 55 and I was 5. And then just began to just grow in my faith. As a child, I had a very childlike faith. But when I was in middle school, I did an Experiencing God Bible study by Henry Blackaby and was just opened my mind and my eyes to this whole world of seeing where God was working and joining him there. And when I was a sophomore, I was at a youth summer camp and felt a call to ministry. And I went down front because I just had this overwhelming sense that I needed to go forward. And the counselor said, what is God calling you to do? And I said, I don't know. I just want to serve him. Right. I just want to serve him. And it's been beautiful because the more you walk with God, the more he just begins to clarify how you're to serve him. But I've tried to just be faithful to what's right in front of me. So when I was in high school, that looked like I was the FCA captain. Right. Of my Fellowship of Christian Athletes. When I got to college, that meant leading a women's Bible study with people on my hall. Married. He was a pastor. I became a pastor's wife. Now he's a president. That makes me a president's wife. Right. So just be faithful to serve God right where he has you and use that for Him. [00:11:47] Speaker C: That's good. So you talk about you, Tara, feeling called to ministry. Let's talk about that for just a minute. Because traditionally, yes. What I have always heard is women in ministry is either a pastor's wife, church secretary, something like that. [00:12:00] Speaker D: Missions. [00:12:01] Speaker C: Missions. [00:12:01] Speaker D: My wife's experience. Okay, it must be missions. [00:12:04] Speaker C: Yep. But there has been a shift that has begun to happen. I have noticed in those conversations and what that looks like. So talk a little bit about, if you would, about women, called a ministry roles, that you see women serving in a ministry, kind of what that looks like. [00:12:18] Speaker E: Absolutely. I think it's beautiful that God is calling the body of Christ to serve him. And that's men and women, boys and girls, young and old, black and white. He has given us all gifts through the Holy Spirit to be used to equip and edify the body. And so at New Orleans seminary right now, 30% of our student body is female. And they are studying in every degree program from undergraduate all the way through doctoral. And we have a whole women's initiative called Prepare her, because we want to prepare her, whoever that her is. So we do have female students. And they are feeling God calling them to ministry. Some of them know it's for the mission field. They want to be a children's director or a youth director. Some of them want to do worship ministry. Others feel a gifting to teach. And so we have degree programs in ministry to women. We have a lot of women studying counseling or mercy ministries, or even leadership and administration, because God has given women a lot of those gifts as well. And so we have women come to us from all over feeling called by God to serve in ministry. And we want to prepare them for what God's preparing for them. But in addition to that, under our Prepare her initiatives, not only do we want to prepare the female students, but we also want to prepare the spouses of our male students. Because if their husband is called to ministry, that means they're called to ministry too. God is not going to call one half of your family to ministry. And so for a lot of our spouses that come, they think seminary is just for their husband. But we offer free classes for them as well because we want to train the whole family. Because if their husband's going to be a church planter, well, he needs his wife right there in the trenches with him if he's going to be a missionary. Same thing. Pastor, pastor's wife. And it's beautiful. These classes cover everything from how do you share your testimony to how do you study the Bible, to how do you forgive when somebody hurts you? And so I love it because at New Orleans Seminary, we train not only the female students that God's bringing to us, but also the student spouses of the males. And we pray that for both men and women that they would rise up using the giftings that God has called them to to serve and further his kingdom. And it takes us both to fulfill the Great Commission. You know, the Imago Day is a beautiful thing when men and women are working together as brothers and sisters in Christ to carry the Great Commission. Forward. [00:14:56] Speaker C: Beautiful. Love it. [00:14:57] Speaker D: Jamie, you mentioned that kind of in discerning your calling, you realize at some point that academics was kind of the direction that the Lord was pointing to you. There's some out there that would discourage people from going to seminary or the academic route. We've probably all heard the seminary cemetery, that type of thing. What is it that makes you so excited when you think passionately about academics and as a seminary president, why do you see this as something that. That's really, really good to equip pastors? Like, what if you were to make a case for why go to seminary? For why go to seminary? Because I bet we've got a lot of students listening that feel called to ministry, and they're trying to figure out what they're going to do after graduation from high school or maybe even from college. And, you know, do I really need another degree? I just want to jump in and start doing ministry right now. Like, is, don't I just really need the Holy Spirit? Why do I need to go to school? How would you maybe answer those questions? [00:15:55] Speaker A: Well, look, everybody that the people you're describing trying to make and assuredly they have people in their ear saying exactly what you mentioned earlier, they'll call it the cemetery and don't go there. You don't need that. They'll say it for a variety of reasons. One, they might say, our church can equip you. And look, no doubt a lot of pastors out there are properly credentialed, but a pastor with a PhD in, say, New Testament is not a theological community. It's just not. It's a pastor with a PhD is what that is. They might say, well, your faith will dry up. And look, admittedly sometimes that happens to us. We get to seminary and it stops being our devotion, stops being first and foremost a personal and spiritual thing, and it becomes a very academic, professional thing. And we have to guard against that at New Orleans Seminary and the other five as well. And we should absolutely be vigilant against that. Or maybe they say you go to seminary, you get liberal. Look, man, I know what we're teaching at our shop, and it ain't that. And I know I trust my brothers, my colleagues at the other five, and I know that they're not either. And so I just all that to say there's lots of input and lots of voices pushing people against that. Here's why I think you ought to ignore that and go pursue everything you can. Look, at the end of the day, you need to drill your cisterns as deeply as you can, drill them, because you are going to draw on them the rest of your life. Take a guy like me, I'll walk into a. I'm not saying we should do. I go into every situation I'm about to speak to. When I go preach, I go into every single one of them prepared. I have a plan. I've thought it through. I've asked the Lord for guidance. I've felt some sense of direction towards a particular text, a particular sermon. I've prepared myself for it. And I walk into those moments. Ready? But the reality of it is, I also walk into those situations sometimes. And I look at the room and I know, ooh, ooh. I didn't get that right. That's not what I need to preach. And I've got four minutes until I walk up there on the stage. I don't do that a lot, but that does happen. And normally when that happens, God does something really, really exciting. And people will ask me, man, did you just. You just, like, think that sermon up in four minutes? Yep, I sure did. Because my entire life has been preparation, so students ask me all the time after they hear me. How long did it take you to write that sermon? 29 years. 29 years. An undergraduate degree in Biblical studies, a Master of Divinity and pastoral ministries, a PhD in theology, a PhD in philosophy. Eight book publications and thousands of sermons and thousands of lectures. That's what I step into. The moment on the shelf, so to speak. Does that make sense? [00:18:39] Speaker C: Yeah, it does. [00:18:40] Speaker A: I am able. I would have never attempted to do that 10 years ago, 15 years ago, certainly not 20, 25 years ago. I should never attempt to do that. That. But having my whole life been preparation, you know, I'm able in real time, in any given situation, to draw from the cisterns that I've spent my entire life drilling deeply and letting them fill up. So here's the scenario. Most people, they go into ministry with very shallow cisterns. They've never really put in the work, the time, the effort, and the discipline of lengthy study. I'm not saying they haven't studied hard for that lesson they're teaching on Sunday morning. But lengthy, prolonged seasons of study, they've not done that. Which means they go into those moments with a whole lot less to draw on. And you're going to be doing this the rest of your life. You're going to need to be able to speak to multifaceted issues. You're going to need to be able to apply. You're going to need to be able to articulate the gospel, you're going to need to be able to defend the gospel. You're going to need to be able to apply the gospel to a litany of different circumstances and situations. I don't know about you, but I would want to be as prepared for those types of moments as I could possibly be. I think that people that buy into some of these narratives that say, oh, I don't go to seminary, it's not going to help you. I just think they're shortchanging themselves and I would encourage them. No, you don't have to have it. Plenty of churches will hire you, especially today, without it, because there's such a shortfall in supply and demand. So you can absolutely go get a job without it. It. There's no argument there from me against that. But the reality of it is those jobs are going to be there forever. Your opportunity to get your education will not be. You need to seize the moment. Get as much as you can, drill your systems as deeply as you can, because you're going to draw on them the rest of your life. And then when you're done with that, those opportunities are still going to be there, and you'll be able to step into them with a whole lot better framework to think, speak, and minister from. And you'll be able to have some kind of longevity in doing that. So I just think it's. Man, it's an opportunity to drill those cisterns deep and sharpen the axe in. [00:20:50] Speaker D: A very fruitful way. And I would think not only are those same opportunities going to be there, but because of the investment, perhaps new opportunities will be there that wouldn't have been there before. I heard a similar example given to a friend of mine, and yeah, it was encouraging them to just think through, hey, like, with what you have, you might be able to do the job that God has for you to do right now, but you have the ability, the training to do the job that God has for you 10 years from now, right? [00:21:17] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah. And, you know, there's a sense in which, look, credentials and degrees open doors. That is a factor, but it's not just the credential, too. Right. There's something deeply formative that happens to most seminary students throughout, I mean, the history of the Southern Baptist Convention and people that have gone to seminary. How many times have we heard the Adrian Rogers of the world and all the big preachers talk about how poor they were in seminary and how they didn't have anything but a can of soup on the Shelf. And you know what? God used that to shape and form, not in an academic way, but in a character way. And I just. Look, there's a deep grace in the struggle. God and his grace to us doesn't always make it easy. And you know, it is easy to bypass seminary. There's no argument. For me, it is the easier route to just completely bypass this very important piece of your formation and preparation. But easy is not better. It's just not better. We need people that are. They're willing to stand up, do the. [00:22:20] Speaker E: Hard things and train and think about this. The gospel is the most precious thing that we have. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Yeah, very true. [00:22:27] Speaker E: We would not go into a surgery with a doctor who didn't go to medical school. [00:22:31] Speaker D: He just learned on YouTube. [00:22:32] Speaker E: Right. I wouldn't get an airplane with the pilot who hadn't put in the hours. So why do we expect that we can rightly divide the word of truth without putting in the preparation? And not only that, but I think seminary affords you the opportunity to link arms with other men and women who are going to be doing this with you. Because Satan wants us to think that we can do this on our own and we can't. And so not only does seminary afford you the opportunity to learn and drill these cisterns deep, but you have this entire army that's now heading into the mission field with you. And there's strength in that. There's friendships that will form, that will be with you forever. [00:23:19] Speaker C: So. So let's. Let me ask this shooting off of that because there is a little bit of debate that for those going to seminary that they have on. On site versus online. So I'm. Because those are different experiences, right? I mean you get the education y. There is some give and take depending on learning styles and that kind of stuff. So I'm really curious what. [00:23:43] Speaker E: I was just having thoughts on that. [00:23:46] Speaker A: Only there was somebody in the room with a very strong opinion about this. Look, I'll just. Here's the punchline. If you have the ability to go, go. And by go, I mean pack your suitcases, put them in a U Haul and move. Whether you come to our school or one of the other five, there are six wonderful options for you. You, I hear 20 year olds, you know, with no kids or not even married yet, talking about, well, I can't because I have this job. I'm sorry. There are people in this world with real reasons that they can't move to a seminary and that's what those online things are for. But most of the people that say they can't. That's just. I'm sorry, it's an excuse. Let me, let me. Everybody's saying, just do it remotely. I mean, there's this generation of students that are being counseled by their pastors, their mentors and their church people to really take a bad approach. So let me just drop reality on everybody for just a minute. The issue here at. I mean, how long, how old is online education? 25 years now. All right, 25 years into online training and online education. At this point, the question is not really a quality question anymore because technology, think about how far it's come in 25 years, right? And pedagogy, teaching strategies and philosophies. I mean, man, online classes, 15, 20 years ago, terrible. It was a joke. You, you'd basically get a study guide. You'd be told what to look for in the reading and you'd read it and then you'd have these terrible things called discussion boards. The worst. That is not. And you have to reply to two people. So here's the reply. I agree with so and so. Who said this. That's not an education. That's not an education. All right, today in. I can't vouch for everybody, but I'm confident that of the six Southern Baptist seminaries, we do much better than that. Now, I promise you, at nabts, we do much. I waged war on that approach to education when I got there. We're not doing that again. And what that means is the technology and the teaching strategies have come of age, which means the quality of the product, so to speak, is way higher now than it was 25 years ago. Okay, so what I'm about to say is not because of the quality. Here's the reality, however, despite the improvement in quality, the reality of it is distance students, whether they do online or extension centers or whatever else they do, distance students on average take part time load. Residential students. And when I say on average like 95% of the time a distance student takes a part time load, a residential student about 95% of the time takes a full time load. Here's why that's important. A part time student has a 23% likelihood of finishing their degree program. A residential student has a 76% likelihood of finishing their degree program. [00:26:43] Speaker C: Wow. [00:26:44] Speaker E: Just with that one factor. [00:26:45] Speaker A: One factor. Interesting. So what that means is this is what I want everybody on that Listens podcast to hear me on this. There is a generation of people who are going to, quote, unquote, go to seminary without packing up The U Haul. And they're gonna think, oh, I can just do it online. I can keep my job. And what that means is school will get the leftovers of your life. And school's just not designed to be done that way. Whether it's in my school or somebody else's, it's just not. So you're. It's gonna get the leftovers. You're gonna take three hours at a time. You know how long it takes you to finish an undergraduate degree in three hours? 20 years. [00:27:17] Speaker C: Long time. [00:27:18] Speaker A: An M. Div. An M. Div. Is something like 15 years, which means it won't actually happen. So there's a generation of people that are being given terrible advice by like every pastor, every mentor. And I just begging everybody stop, stop saying this stuff to these people. Especially to 20 year olds, my goodness. Or 30, even if they do have three kids. There's generations of people that packed up and moved to seminary prior to them. What you're functionally. Nobody knows that they're doing this and they certainly wouldn't intend to do this. But what they are functionally telling a generation of students is commit yourself to a pathway with a 23% likelihood of finishing. That is not honoring to the Lord. It's just not. So, man, if God's called you to go, go. Now. There's the 60 year old guy out here that has a wife who's handicapped and you know such and such and such who cannot go. And I want to say to that brother right now that's hearing me saying, yeah, but brother, I know you're there and that you are the one that this online coursework exists for and that's what you ought to do. But for man, my 22 year olds that are engaged and just got married and don't have any kids, or even if they do have a little kid, pack up your boxes and go. Because you'll get a much better likelihood of finishing. [00:28:43] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that's such a good word. And I think it was my personal experience. I got the benefit of doing my first half of seminary on campus and my last half online. And 10 out of 10 would choose the on campus experience rather than the online. Although the online was super helpful and I was able to finish. But what I'll tell you is from my time on campus, some of my closest friends in ministry that I go to advise, support. The other day had a situation in our church. Someone's desiring to join but holds a. I wouldn't call it first tier, but significant theological position. That's different from our churches. I'm like, what am I going to do with this? And so the first one of the things I do is I pull up my phone, text five guys that I went to seminary with that we developed relationships in class. A couple of friends from seminary that desired to be church planters in Utah. We form a friendship and seminary, they're in Utah. And the church that I'm at now is financially helping support them. And that can't be manufactured in an online setting. [00:29:42] Speaker E: That's right. That's right. And one thing that's really unique, I think about New Orleans seminary is we live together. So we have about a thousand of us that live on campus together, faculty, staff, students. So it's kind of like the New Testament church where you're eating together, you're learning together, you're serving together, you're working together. It's just really fun. And it's a unique time just to buckle down and love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength. [00:30:11] Speaker D: And I want you to know if you're listening and you're desiring seminary especially more than likely, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably go to a Southern Baptist church and you do you have six great seminary options. You should definitely check out New Orleans. But also by nature of going to a Southern Baptist church seminary is much more affordable than you think it is compared to other theological institutions. You need to know that, that a blessing of being a part of the Southern Baptist Convention is you have access to world class education that people in other countries, pastors, would literally give anything to have what we have access to. And you have such access to it. I do have a question for you guys. I feel like each of the seminaries kind of has a unique, like, all of them are solid, all of them are great, but they do tend to each have a unique emphasis or personality. What would New Orleans be? [00:31:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we really do. And I would say, and I mean this, it probably sounds like I'm just, I really do, as a Southern Baptist, I'm grateful that we have six, six really good seminaries. We're, you know, stats are just out this last week about how, how big we are compared to all the others. And we have six really strong seminaries that are theologically conservative and doing great work. But each of us does do certain kinds of things particularly well. When I talk about New Orleans and want to brag on our school and our city, I mean, obviously I want to talk about our context and our location. I think studying in the city of New Orleans as you're doing seminary is just a different experience than anywhere else you're going to ever go to. [00:31:38] Speaker C: It's a very unique city out of the state. [00:31:39] Speaker A: That's right. And it's going to push you in certain ways because Baptists are there and Catholics. Catholics are there and Buddhists and Hindus and voodoo and poverty and opportunity and tremendous wealth and great brokenness. And it's intense and it's right there. And so you cannot, in New Orleans, you cannot just stay in an ivory tower. Impossible to do. So you're learning theologically with boots on the ground constantly. And that's a cool thing. Especially with our faculty and our administration. We're all involved in meaningful, significant ways in local church churches. Means when students come, they're with us and we're doing stuff together. So that's a big thing for us. And then some areas of specialization. So, you know, if I'm gonna. If I. When I meet somebody interested in missions, I go, oh, well, gosh, if you're gonna go to the nations, where better to prepare than in the city of New Orleans? Super international city. Counseling is big for us. Our counseling programs offer licensure tracks. And look, this is what I'd want to say to Southern Baptists on that. We need to, in the Southern Baptist Convention, we need a place where people can get those licensures. Because whether we like this or not, the reality of it is the world looks less and less to pastors every single day and more and more to therapists. Yeah, that's true. And I for one, just don't want to give that over to pagans. I want to put Christians in those places. So counseling is big for us. Apologetics is big for us. And then there's our biggest and most historic areas of expertise. That's preaching, pastoral ministries and evangelism. New Orleans reputation historically has been that we're a very practically oriented school that really want to train up people for the church, pastors and evangelists and things like that. And we do that exceptionally well. [00:33:23] Speaker E: Yeah, but I think the biggest thing that people are seeing and hearing about New Orleans is we're the school of the towel in the basin. We want to prepare servants who will go into the dark, hard places and there shine the light of Jesus. And they're not going to be flashy places. They're going to be people who are with like Jesus to just do the really hard things and the low things. And so servanthood is a big thing at New Orleans Seminary. So much so that chief disposition we're Trying to shake. That's right. Once every semester we cancel classes and we go out into our city and we serve together. So we had close to 300 people just a couple weeks ago go out passing out water bottles and homeless camps, go into nursing homes and doing ministry, cleaning out storm drains, picking up litt prayer, walking, knocking on doors. And it's really cool because every time we see God move in amazing ways. So more than anything, New Orleans Seminary, I think servanthood. [00:34:27] Speaker A: Very cool. [00:34:28] Speaker C: Well, good. Well, thank you for taking the time not only do the podcast, but to be here with us for Lead Defense. So we're excited to have you guys with us. So thank you for that. And any particular way that you would encourage people to follow you on social media or reach out to you if they want to know more or where to go find out more about the seminary. [00:34:46] Speaker A: Yeah, so she's super active on social media in ways that I am not. I try to keep my head down and just not live on that because of messes and fights and stuff. But our school in obts on Twitter or on X and then on our Facebook page, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. [00:35:05] Speaker E: N O BTS Edu has everything that you would need. But in addition, if you're a woman listening, check out prepareher.com because that has everything, everything for women that we're doing. [00:35:16] Speaker C: Beautiful. [00:35:17] Speaker A: Good. [00:35:17] Speaker C: Well, thanks again for your time and thanks to you for listening to this podcast. As we mentioned, we're in the throes of 2025 executing that one, but we are also behind the scenes already working on 2026. Got a few speakers already lined out, so we'll be telling you more about that in the coming months. So be sure and check out leaddefend.org so thanks again for listening. [00:35:36] Speaker D: I'm Bill and this is Brock. We'll see you next time. [00:35:38] Speaker C: All right, bye. Bye. [00:35:40] Speaker B: That's it for this episode of Lead Defend. To hear more episodes from the lead defend cre.absc.org podcasts. If you liked what you heard, rate and review us on your favorite podcast listening site. Want to learn more information about the next Lead Defend conference, visit leaddefend. Org.

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