NOBTS awards first pastoral ministry certificates in Haiti

FBC photo by Stanley Leary

At a graduation ceremony for 52 Haitian pastors, commencement speaker John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, joins in prayer for their ministry.

PORT AU PRINCE (FBC)-Culminating 30 months of study underwritten by the Florida Baptist Convention, 52 pastors were the first ever to be awarded Certificates in Pastoral Ministry from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary during a graduation ceremony Sept. 14 in Port Au Prince, Haiti.

The ceremony was held in conjunction with the National Assembly of the Confraternité Missionnaire Baptiste d'Haïti (CMBH) in a community building large enough to accommodate the 500 Haitian Baptists attending the annual meeting.

FBC photo by Stanley Leary

A Haitian girls' choir sings at the Confraternité Missionnaire Baptiste d'Haïti graduation ceremony in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Through an interpreter, graduate Delouis Labranche, director of missions in the Northwest Association, called the graduation day, "the last drop spilling over the cup. This has been an answer to a long time prayer for my country-to provide theological training and to equip spiritual leaders to face today's challenges in the life of the Haitian work in Haiti."

LaBranche said the training of the men will have a rippling effect within the churches. "This must be an ongoing ministry as Jesus did by training, empowering and sending the 12 disciples to conquer the whole world. I can see the impact of this ongoing ministry to reach and to conquer Haiti for Christ."

The program, designed to enhance the Haitian pastors' ministry skills, was a collaborative effort between the seminary and the Florida Baptist Convention, which has had a decade-long partnership with Haitian Baptists. Pastors receiving the certificates had never had any type of formal theological education training.

The certificate, which is also offered in the States, is designed to provide training for pastors who do not have theological education available, said Jimmy Dukes, associate provost, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

FBC photo by Stanley Leary

A man in the audience listens intently as Florida Baptist Convention leaders speak at the Confraternité Missionnaire Baptiste d'Haïti Seminary graduation.

To qualify for the certificate, students took eight one-semester hour courses in Baptist doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, homiletics, Christian education, introduction to Old and New Testament study, and an Old and New Testament book study.

"The graduation was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in theological education," noted Dukes who traveled to the Caribbean Island to participate in the ceremony. "The commitment and the enthusiasm of the graduates and their families made a profound impression on me."

Having taught one of the classes, Dukes said, "I knew the ability and intelligence of the students, and to see them come to the point of graduation was an occasion for real rejoicing."

The courses were taught by Dukes, Florida Baptist Convention personnel and Florida Baptist pastors Tommy Green, First Baptist Church of Brandon, and Larry Bazer, First Baptist Church of Melbourne.

The graduation was the fulfillment of a decade-long vision by Florida Baptists, said John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, who traveled to Port Au Prince as the commencement speaker. At the beginning of the partnership the state convention was committed to three priorities, he said, "evangelism without apology, new church starting and developing of pastors and churches."

The third goal was the most difficult, said Sullivan, because "evangelism and church planting are part of the Haitian conviction and mind set."

Also, travel to Haiti and lodging in country "greatly prohibited doing consultation and conferencing," Sullivan explained.

Working with the New Orleans seminary to develop course work and enlist teachers from the States, the convention provided a house with armed guards in Port Au Prince as a location for the classes. Many of the students traveled one or two days to attend the classes, some even on foot, Sullivan said.

FBC photo by Stanley Leary

Joseph Gaston (left) shakes the hand of one of the 52 new graduates of the Confraternité Missionnaire Baptiste d'Haïti Seminary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

"We wanted the theological education programs to be first-rate," said Sullivan. "We took our time, worked with the seminary to put this program together. New Orleans Seminary has proven to be a very reliable partner for theological education in Florida and our partnerships."

Theological education is one of the "most critical needs for the survival of today's churches in Haiti," stressed Joseph Gaston, a native Haitian who serves as the state convention's associate in the Language Church Development department.

Gaston, who holds a doctor of philosophy degree in Christian education from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, explained that from his research on church leadership development, "effective leadership must be built up from the inside. When your theology is right, you behave naturally out of your beliefs."

He added, "Theological education, when properly taught, will guide our ecclesiology. Based on that principle, I believe that by providing theological education for our church leaders in Haiti, the Florida Baptist Convention has set up framework for healthy, doctrinally sounded, and Kingdom-minded churches that will, in turn, naturally self-multiply."

Each graduate received a French study Bible from the Melbourne Church and a suit of clothes with the CMBH emblem on the blazer from the state convention.

When the state convention began the framework to organize the Haitian Baptist churches into the CMBH in 1995, 88 Haitian Baptist churches existed. That number has grown to 586 Baptist churches with 3,237 baptisms in 2005 and 42,000 members.