Has anyone been to Gordon-Conwell

It's inter-denom as you said, and it just depends on which profs you get. Couple of buddies did D.Min. work there. It is very expensive. If you are Southern Baptist, I'd look no further than Southern for a quality reformed education at a very affordable price.

 

It's inter-denom as you said, and it just depends on which profs you get. Couple of buddies did D.Min. work there. It is very expensive. If you are Southern Baptist, I'd look no further than Southern for a quality reformed education at a very affordable price. Even if you aren't SB, Southern would be much cheaper I think.

 

My spiritual mentor and hero Dr. Scott Hafemann taught there for seven years before going to Wheaton College. He highly recommended it to me when I was considering seminary. It is interdemoniational and stresses Biblical languages.

 

I just got some information about Doctoral work there. The D.Min program in preaching looks very good. Still, the one at Southern is just as good and much, much more affordable.

 

A lot of seminaries struggled with that sort of thing for a while Dr. Bob. I know many of our SB seminaries thought they were graduate schools when they were under the control of the Death Star

Thankfully, in SB circles and many others, seminaries have reclaimed their rightful purpose. Obviously you'll always have a portion of a student body that thinks church service is much lower than counseling, teaching, etc. But hopefully that portion will not be large.

 

I'll echo what Tom says about mainstream baptists (OK, echo and spin ).

I've seen numbers showing as few as 30% of the students at maisntream seminaries are planning to enter pastoral ministry.

Joshua

 

I had some friends attend there and visited a few times. I think it is even more liberal then Houghton College and that was pretty bad (woman preachers, a lot of focus on tradition, etc). If you are looking at that type of school, I think Columbia Biblical Seminary and Graduate School of Missions is a great school. We just finished a graduate correspondance class in hermaneutics (sp?) and it was wonderful!

 

"Hermeneutics" - comes from the name of the Greek God Hermes (Mercury to the Romans) if that helps you to remember it.

Joshua

 

The little I have heard about it, and I might add, VERY little, has been positive.

 

I think I've read about that school. If it's the same school I read about, then it used to be a catholic seminary.

 

Gordon Conwell was never a Catholic Seminary. When the school was founded by Billy Graham, J. Howard Pew, and Dr. Harold J. Ockenga, they bought the property from a Catholic boys school.
The seminary is theologically solid. The Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of GOd, which many seminaries do not profess. In the New England Area this is a hard quality to find in a seminary and a church! Gordon Conwell offers a great seminary education at an affordable price, especially considering the prices of other seminaries in N.E.

 

I didn't know Billy Graham, Howard Pew, and Harold Ockenga were that old! The school is well over 100 years old!

The Conwell School of Theology was founded in Philadelphia in 1884 by the Rev. Russell Conwell, a prominent Baptist minister who was well known for his famous sermon and book, Acres of Diamonds. The Conwell School later developed into Temple University in Philadelphia.

In 1889, out of a desire to equip "men and women in practical religious work...and to furnish them with a thoroughly biblical training," the Boston Missionary Training School was founded by another prominent Baptist minister, the Rev. A.J. Gordon. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the school shared Gordon's deep concern for missions abroad and in New England urban centers. Upon his death, the institution was given his name, and the Gordon Divinity School eventually moved to Boston's North Shore.

The Conwell School of Theology and Gordon Divinity School merged in 1969 through the efforts of the men you mentioned.

What must be borne in mind was that Dr. Ockenga, the long-time pastor of Boston's Park Street Church, became the new combined institution's first president and led the school into the center of the "New Evangelicalism."

My mentor and teacher, George W. Dollar, received his education at Gordon College and Conwell School of Theology back in the 40s.