Originally posted by European:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Broadus:
Georgia Southern University: B.S. in Ed.
Hyles-Anderson College: M.Ed.
Luther Rice Seminary: M.Div.; D.Min.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: M.Div; Ph.D. in Church History
I want to ask you, why you worked fortwo MDiv.
And what dissertation you have for a PhD in church history (my passion is in church history). </font>[/QUOTE]My apologies for not answering this earlier, but I rarely check out this thread.
I answered part of this in another thread. I'll recite that part here. When I did the LRS MDiv, it was an 88-hour degree. LRS accepted a large number of hours which I did at Hyles-Anderson (MEd), so basically I had an MDiv that was heavy on the practical and light on the academic. For instance, my LRS MDiv did not have any biblical languages, church history, and only minimum work in theology.
I knew that I wanted to learn more, so I did the DMin at LRS and was able to substitute some of the coursework with more academic selections. For instance, I took "The Theology of Election" with Dr. Maurice Robinson, then at LRS and now at SEBTS, instead of a more practical DMin course. My major writing project, instead of the typically practical something-I-did-in-my-church report, was an exposition of the book of Titus---not a collection of sermons, mind you, but a fairly intensive examination of the text.
After I received the DMin in 1992, I was still plagued by an awareness of being ill-equipped to be the kind of pastor which I believed God would have me be. Consequently, I began taking MDiv extension courses in Georgia from Southeastern and New Orleans. The work with SEBTS, in particular, was very rewarding. After some 33 hours of this, I realized that only completing the MDiv and doing a PhD would I be satisfied with my formal training. Consequently, I resigned from my 8-year pastorate in south Georgia and moved my family (wife, three daughters---two were teenagers, and teacup poodle) to Kentucky to complete the MDiv and pursue the PhD, graduating in 1998 and 2003, respectively.
I don't want to imply anything negatively about LRS. I am convinced that LRS is much stronger academically today than when I did the MDiv, graduating in 1985, and do not hesitate to recommend it.
The title of my PhD dissertation is
From Biblical Fidelity to Organizational Efficiency: The Gospel Ministry from English Separatism of the Late Sixteenth Century to the Southern Baptist Convention of the Early Twentieth Century. My supervisor was Dr. Tom Nettles.
The following is the abstract of the dissertation:
"This dissertation provides a historical and theological examination of Baptist views of the gospel ministry from English Separatists of the late sixteenth century to the Southern Baptist Convention of the mid-1920s. Chapter 1 provides the thesis of the dissertation, background material to its being written, and the methodology by which its conclusions are reached.
"Chapters 2 through 4 provide overviews for the ministry among English Separatists, British Baptists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and American Baptists of the mid-seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries, respectively. Each chapter focuses upon primary writings revealing each group’s understanding of such issues as the office of the minister, the divine call to the ministry, ordination, preparation, the call by a congregation to a local church, and mutual responsibilities of ministers and church members.
"Chapters 5 through 7 examine the ministry among Southern Baptists from about 1865 to 1925. While the fifth chapter follows the same pattern as the previous three, Chapter 6 examines the beginning of a shift in the focus of the work of the minister from 1865 to 1900 with the introduction of organizational efficiency. Chapter 7 demonstrates that this shift became denominationally accepted during the early twentieth century.
"This work maintains that the heritage of Southern Baptists expressed consistent views concerning the office of the minister into the latter decades of the nineteenth century. The minister’s call to the ministry, preparation, ordination, call to a congregation, and mutual responsibilities with church members were derived from clear biblical statements and principles. The end of the nineteenth century, however, witnessed a shift in the Southern Baptist view of the work of the ministry regarding the ability to produce quantifiable outcomes—a shift which became firmly established during the first two and a half decades of the twentieth century. This shift fueled a Baptist concern for organizational efficiency, a concern which viewed successful churches as those which were optimally organized to produce quantifiable results. Because pastors were seen as the key to organizational efficiency, they were judged according to the success of their churches’ achieving those results."
May God bless you as you continue your formal education.
Bill