Should Baptist Seminaries Admit Non-Baptists

Anyone, I feel, should be allowed to attend a Baptist university, so long as they uphold the U's codes of conduct and statements of mission.

No. Seminaries, in general, are for anyone who wants a seminary education. Yes, a majority are likely going to be pastors, but many will serve the Lord in other professions, sometimes secular ones. Otherwise, should we require that all Baptist seminaries be male-only? Of course not.

 

Although I didn't go to a Baptist seminary, the school I attended required you to give a statement of your "calling" to vocational ministry and it was expected that graduates would work in some field of vocational ministry--missions, pastor, church staff, church-based counseling, Christian day school education, etc., upon receiving their diploma. I don't know how that was ultimately enforced, if it was, but it was emphasized upon enrollment. I know that the Southern Baptist seminary in the same community had that same requirement--to be admitted you had to have the recommendation and endorsement of a church that knew you had committed to vocational ministry.

The seminary I attended, mainly because they offered me a full scholarship and it was close to where I was living at the time, was affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. However, there were a lot of Baptist students there and when they graduated, they didn't have any trouble getting placed in a Baptist church, either as a staff member or in some cases, as pastors. In fact, only a few of the graduates actually went on to serve in D of C congregations, most went to churches of other denominations, with Baptists being the most predominant.

The Southern Baptist seminaries attract a lot of students from other evangelical backgrounds, or at least they used to, because even if you weren't Southern Baptist, the tuition and fees were much less expensive than other evangelical schools like DTS, Moody, etc. and they were fully accredited, unlike the independent Baptist schools. The local Assembly of God pastor is a Southwestern graduate, and he told me that it would have cost him twice as much to go to his denomination's own school, and they didn't offer nearly as much in the way of courses and degree programs. He also didn't find that there was much in the way of doctrine that he disagreed with, and didn't perceive any "pushyness" from the professors.