The Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary
(BMATS) is devoted to serving Christ in the expansion of His Kingdom by
providing biblically faithful theological training to its denominational
leaders, as well as to aspiring ministry leaders from the larger Christian
community. Here are some of the updated
ways we are accomplishing this goal:
·
State of the Art
Facilities. Thanks to
Central Baptist College,
our undergraduate sister institution and campus host, we have access to brand
new facilities featuring cutting edge technologies on the forefront of
theological education: smart boards, a digital and traditional library
including cyber café, multi-campus satellite technologies, fully online and
traditional program options, etc.
·
Cutting Edge Education.
Modern and traditional educational models provide options for traditional and
seminar style courses, hybrid in-class/online options, extensive online course
offerings with some programs fully available online for distance education
learners, etc. Both Arkansas and Texas
campuses offer all courses for M.Div. (Master of Divinity), M.A. (Religion,
fully online as well as in-class), and M.A.C.M. (Master of Arts in Church
Ministries) programs, depending on the ministry goals of the student; the Texas
campus offers a unique/rare opportunity for bachelor level students to enroll
in a B.A. in religion program in a seminary, and in the same courses as
graduate level seminary students; certificate and other options are also
available
·
Faculty. Access to specialists with both academic and
ministry expertise on the frontlines of where Christianity and the culture meet,
including church planters, pastors, counselors, theologians, Bible language
specialists, and other experts in the traditional divisions of a theological
curriculum; our multi-site seminary allows for independent full time faculties
for each campus, while providing the student access to the larger BMATS faculty
at both locations (
Changes/Additions for 2014: Professor R. Brian Rickett will
serve not only as Professor of Biblical Studies, but as BMATS Arkansas Administrator;
we have added a new Professor of Theological-Historical Studies, Dr. Andrew V.
Snider (Th.D. Systematic Theology); a new Director of Seminary Wives and
Women’s Studies, Janet L. Rickett (B.S.E., M.A. Biblical Counseling), new
recruiter/administrative support specialist, Zach Nance (M.Div., Th.M. Philosophy of Religion/Presuppositional Apologetics), a new Professor of Biblical Studies, Dr. Gary O'Neal (Ph.D. New Testament), new Professor of Church Ministries, Dr. Scott Attebery (D.Min. Outreach and Discipleship), and more (the names of these other faculty members
will continue to be divulged every 2 weeks throughout the summer on our
Facebook page! Stay tuned for more exciting announcements).
·
Specialized Learning.
Our seminary offers a variety of
out-of-class learning opportunities. We
provide additional, free biblical language seminars/courses for qualified
students, endowed lectureship series (Brand Lectures, Fall Semester & Darby-
Beal lectures, Spring Semester, both on Tex. campus), discipleship programs,
etc. For example, we regularly offer seminars
such as an Advanced Summer Hebrew Reading Seminar (Ark. campus) free of charge
to qualified students, we have a women’s ministry/seminary wives fellowship (Ark.
campus) led by women with academic and church ministry credentials and
experience, we host Spring and Fall lectureships (Tex. campus) which have
featured noted lecturers such as R. Albert Mohler and Tom Nettles, and have
brought in other specialists such as John D. Street, Chairman of the Biblical
Counseling program from The Master’s College and Seminary (Ark. campus)
·
Theological
Distinctives. Informed, scholarly,
conservative, Baptist theological and biblical convictions. The seminary faculty seeks to train aspiring
ministry leaders to faithfully and skillfully navigate the contemporary
challenges not only facing the BMAA, but evangelicalism generally; we are
characterized by progressive pedagogical models while maintaining fidelity to
our doctrinal statement and denominational confession (New Hampshire Confession
of Faith)
· Accreditation. Both
BMATS campuses are accredited featuring both regional
(SACS) and ATS accreditation. We are a
leader in this area and have been featured as an important voice in the
discussion of the future of theological education (See
here).
· Cost. In view of
the above benefits, one might reasonably expect the costs of our programs to be
high. However, we are so committed to
making theological training available to aspiring Christian leaders, once
accepted, all students regardless of denominational or church affiliation pay
the same low price of $160 per unit/credit hour ($480 per course), which may be
the lowest cost of any fully accredited US seminary. This is possible thanks to generous
denominational and donor support. See
the DTS seminary price comparison calculator
here to compare with other
institutions (Note: All costs are per credit hour unless specified other; observe
that our
tuition is around half of the lowest tuition listed, also
notice that our institution is not referenced for price comparison)
