New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) continued its centennial celebration this week with a campus revival where Tommy Green, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, was able to challenge and encourage students.
“It is an overwhelming honor to preach the centennial campus revival for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary,” Green said. “I am praying for a powerful moving of God’s presence in these worship services.”
The centennial celebration began October 3, 2017 with a kick-off celebration event that featured evangelist Junior Hill, who like Green, is a NOBTS alumnus.
The university has three goals during this year-long centennial celebration:
- To raise $50 million to support Kingdom work and training
- To engage in 100 mission trips during the centennial
- To facilitate 100,000 Gospel conversations
Green said his time as a student at NOBTS really impacted and shaped his ministry. Green received his Master of Divinity degree from the school in 1983 and his Doctor of Theology degree in 1989. In 2014 he was named a Distinguished Alumni of the school. In addition, Green has been an adjunct professor at the seminary and has preached their chapel service many times. He served as the Doctoral Fellow for former seminary president Landrum Leavell as well as for the seminary’s current president Dr. Chuck Kelley. Green said his relationship with Kelley through the years has been invaluable.
“The counsel and encouragement from Dr. Kelley through the years of ministry have been amazing,” he said. “I have learned from observation and conversation tremendous ministry insights through his willingness to invest in me.”
In the last 100 years, NOBTS has conferred 21,369 degrees and alumni are currently serving in 45 different countries. The school had 3, 890 students during the 2015-2016 school year.
The school got its start after the Southern Baptist Convention voted to establish it in May 1917. The Baptist Bible Institute, as it was first named, would accept its first 6 students on Oct. 1, 1918.
Through wars, tough economic times and hurricanes, the seminary has grown and remains a bastion of faith and ministry in the heart of New Orleans.
Green said he was grateful for the opportunity to preach the revival because of how much his seminary experience has meant to his life and ministry. He said it was an “exciting and moving week.”
“The blessing of life long friends and partners in ministry was forged on campus in New Orleans,” he continued. “My prayer is that the revival will continue in the lives of students and faculty at NOBTS!”
By Nicole Kalil, Florida Baptist Convention, March 9, 2018