Training Men Towards Pastoral Ordination at Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to train qualified pastoral candidates at Watson Memorial Baptist Church for ordination to pastoral ministry. Chapter 1 sets forth the purpose, goals, context, rationale, definitions, limitations, delimitations, and research methodology of the project.Chapter 2 presents the biblical and theological rationale for training qualified men for pastoral ministry. First, the chapter examines key texts surrounding ordination. Then, the chapter examines the character of the pastoral candidates followed by the way in which pastors function within pastoral ministry. Chapter 3 provides a historical analysis of a call to ministry in the black Baptist churches. The chapter seeks to answer the question, "why has the black Baptist church done things differently from the New Testament prescription in ordaining a plurality of qualified pastors?" Chapter 4 gives a detailed description of the implementation of the project. Chapter 5 evaluates the research of this project.