General seminary ?'s

Welcome to the board. I'm glad to hear of your desire to serve the Lord. As to your questions:

1. I am sure that some seminaries do have blanket policies concerning divorce, but most within Baptist circles will require an explanation to make an admissions determination. Both of the ones you mentioned, LRS and LBTS, are good schools, the former being nationally accredited the latter regionally (which is a decided advantage). Both are baptistic in doctrine, aligning themselves (more or less) with the SBC.

There are few other baptist schools that offer a full M.Div. via distance ed. Several schools offer a hybrid D.E./residential, such as NOBTS.

2. Most seminaries require active church membership and a pastoral recommendation. From what you have described, I doubt you would have admissions troubles on those grounds alone.

3. I served full-time in vocational ministry during my M.Div. work and it took me four years (through Luther Rice Seminary). I spent the first two years studying during the late evening and early morning hours while planting a church in Siberia. The last two years, I had to cram, speed-read and write fast while serving full-time as an assistant pastor (in an intentional mentor-ship model which complimented the studies). And to supplement our income I was building websites in my spare time. Oh, and I have a wife and three small kids. I chuckle sometimes when college students complain about how busy they are.

 

I'm going to level with you. You probably don't stand much chance of serving in full-time ministry as a pastor in independent Baptist circles. Fair or otherwise, divorce is just about as close to the "unforgivable sin" as you will find in conservative Baptist circles. Sexual abuse is probably the only thing less tolerated in someone's past.

That being said, I would encourage you to look at Liberty. I'm a soon-to-be alumnus of Liberty (in a non-seminary program), and I love the school. It's a great opportunity to pursue your education, and I know that the seminary education is quite rigorous (you can see the course syllabi online). One thing you may also want to consider is an M.A. program. There are several 36-hour M.A. programs that would allow you to specialize in fields such as Theological Studies, Evangelism, and Pastoral Counseling. There is also the 45-hour Master of Arts in Religion and the 60-hour Master of Religious Education.

A non-MDiv program would be particularly useful for non-pastoral ministry. The MDiv program at LU is also good, but I would caution you to consider the cost of a 90+ hour degree, given the divorce in your past.

I hope this helps.

 

Here's a question, I'm kind of in the same boat as the OP.What type of non pastoral ministry would most SBC/Independent Baptists not bar a divorced man from? I know the NAMB won't allow divorced missionaries (Not sure if that also goes for chaplains.) Also, if it is so hard for a divorced man to find employment in the ministry, wouldn't it perhaps be better for the brother to go to an unaccredited school, where he would spend a fraction of what a MDiv from Liberty would cost?

 

Not sure about the churches. Like Stefan said, most IB and even most SBC churches look down on divorced pastoral candidates. It might be possible for a divorced candidate to get on as a staffer (student pastor, etc.), but that would depend on the church.

Military chaplaincy does not have, as far as I know, an exclusion for divorced men, so long as he has an endorsement from a denomination (i.e., Ordination) and a Master of Divinity degree from an accredited institution.

 

There are very few fully online M.Div. programs from accredited Baptist institutions. LRS or LBTS are probably your best bet. Liberty is excellent, and they offer a M.Div. in pastoral ministries. I greatly enjoyed LRS; the classes were rigorous and challenging and they offer excellent language courses via D.E.

There are a few evangelical schools that accommodate one who wishes not to relocate. SES does not have a residency requirement, but they do not offer all of their required courses via distance ed (so residency is de facto unless you can do those courses elsewhere). Also, South African Theological Seminary, which is plenty rigorous, offers a few forms of a Master of Theology. You would need to have a B.A. in a cognate field, though, and utilize their bridging program.

There are other creative ways to achieve an M.Div. without relocating. If you live near an extension center you can work through NOBTS, for example. If you live near a seminary that offers weekend courses, modular, etc. you could do it that way; one school (a Baptist one) offers an M.Div. in four years with classes only on Mondays.

You can get creative and patch together a top rate education using a combination of the above. A friend of mine did his M.Div. at Liberty, but supplemented his online-only experience with significant number of extension courses through NOBTS and even audited a few RTS Orlando courses for non-credit enrichment. It took him four years, but, as a result, he is pretty good with the languages (at the time LBTS did not offer online language studies, not sure about the present) and otherwise has a well-rounded set of skills for ministry.

God bless you, brother, in your pursuit to bring him glory.

 

On the subject of patching together an education. If someone is troubled by Liberty's lack of online Language courses, they absolutely can do what Siberian is mentioning here. Few of us are so far from a university/Bible college/ seminary that we cannot take Greek or Hebrew locally.

Even in rare examples of someone that does not have Greek classes within an hour drive, NOBTS offers an online certificate in Greek (I believe Havensdad was doing this). They also offer one in Hebrew. In other words, there are options out there if you want them.

 

Truth is in most Baptist circles, if you're a good preacher, divorced or not, you will be able to find a place. Case in point, Charles Stanley at FBC Atlanta as one example among many.

 

Not to derail the thread, but...

Stanley was already a "big name" preacher at the time of his divorce. There is a big difference between entering vocational ministry after a divorce and staying in vocational ministry after a divorce when you are already famous.

 

To be perfectly honest, I don't think it matters. LBTS has a fairly open admissions process. It's not a matter of competitiveness. Just write a grammatically-correct statement that expresses your reasons. If you want, you can always talk to an admissions representative. The admissions counselors are very helpful in letting you know what you need to do.

 

This is exactly what I am doing! I have taken 9 credit hours of Hebrew and Greek through NOBTS, and am taking my final 3 credits in the spring. Currently, I am 66 credits into my M.Div. from Liberty. Actually, Liberty allows you to take your language classes in transient (from another accredited University), but currently they themselves only offer the Greek and Hebrew "tools" classes.

 

My only advice would be to make sure that you are up to the task and realize what a seminary course of study would entail. It is not Sunday school.

I've been on the campus of Southern Seminary for about 13 years now between doing my two degrees and managing the campus grounds. That means that I've seen 26 new classes start school. Every semester, guys wash out in much anguish because they mistakenly felt a call to "preach" and thought that meant a seminary education immediately in order to get all those goodies that pastors bring up in their sermons. Seminary is not that at all...

It is a rigorous course of study where you'll be expected to sacrifice a ton of everything, family, time, freedom, work, income, church activity, and perhaps sanity... At SBTS, a typical class, whether on-line or on campus (they offer both and the course work is identical) one would be expected to read and process as many as 6-8 books, write at least one major paper, and interact with daily work, notes, examinations (difficult examinations where one must regurgitate page after page of information!), etc. Taking 3 of these classes entails a 9-hour course load and will end up costing you around 20 hours a day of study and work to complete (plus, of course your family time, work time, etc., that are a part of that equation).

Do it if you are prepared for the work and have the calling -- by all means! But if you are just looking for some additional knowledge, read a few books and immerse yourself in a good study and save the headaches.

Note that I'm saying this AS a seminary grad who is absolutely and positively thankful for my experience and for what it has given me in the realm of knowledge, wisdom, discipline, etc.

 

I was not able to work a traditional "full-time" job for the 12 years it took me to complete both of my degrees at Southern. I may have worked full time hours, but the jobs were all of a nature where I could come and go. I cleaned toilets, sold stuff, worked in industrial maintenance, started a consulting business for doctoral students, was a church planter, pastored a church, and did a LOT of home and auto repair. I did many and most of the above all at the same time in some years, depending on our needs at that time. For instance, I was a pastor (parsonage and utilities was my pay) ran a Snap On sales route, fixed cars and homes on the side, did doctoral dissertations, and took 12-18 credit hours all at the same time over a span of 3 years. Those were 20+ hour days and there was not a week during semester where I did not pull at least 1-2 all-nighters.

I'm on board with formalizing study via school. Best decision I've made so far.