Associate Degrees

Description
The Associate of Divinity program is a postsecondary professional degree intended for persons who are at least twenty-two years old, who hold a high school diploma or equivalency certificate, but have not completed a baccalaureate degree. The Associate of Divinity program is designed to equip students for effective ministry as a pastor, associate pastor, church planter, missionary, or evangelist. This is a two-year program, requiring fifty-nine semester hours of academic credit for graduation.

 

Objectives
The Associate of Divinity program is designed to promote in students growth toward personal maturity and professional ministry competence. The objectives of the program are accomplished through classroom instruction, the modeling of professors, the practice of ministry through the Practical Missions program, chapel services, and student organizations.

 

The Associate of Divinity program seeks to guide students to understand and interpret the Christian faith in the light of its biblical, theological, and historical dimensions and to utilize insights gained from these disciplines for the effective practice of ministry in the church, community, and world.

 

Admission Requirements
All applicants to the Associate of Divinity program must be at least twenty-two years old by the time of their first registration. Those younger should attend college before entering Seminary.  All applicants must have graduated from high school or received a GED (Graduate Equivalence Diploma). Students who have graduated from college with a baccalaureate degree will not be admitted to the Associate of Divinity program.

 

Exceptions to these published requirements must by approved by the faculty upon recommendation of the Admissions Committee. In such cases, students will be granted conditional admission. During this period, the student is subject to the same limitations as students under academic probation, described under “Disciplinary Regulations” in the Catalog. Conditional admission will be removed after a student completes sixteen semester hours at the Seminary and keeps a grade point average of at least “C” (2.0 on a 4.0 scale).

 

Completion Requirements
In order to qualify for graduation from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, each student in the Associate of Divinity program must satisfy the “General Requirements for Graduation” as set forth in the Catalog. In addition, each student in the Associate of Divinity program must complete the fifty-nine semester hours of courses specified in the following chart, including fifty-six semester hours of required core courses and three semester hours of electives.

 

Each student in the Associate of Divinity program is also required to complete a minimum of twenty-one semester hours of general education courses, with at least one course in each of three areas: the humanities or fine arts, the social or behavioral sciences, and the natural sciences or mathematics. The general education courses may be transferred from another postsecondary institution, or they may be completed within the required course structure of the Associate of Divinity program.