Ten well-known Southern Baptist pastors and leaders are part of the “strategic faculty” team for the master of ministry program at Anderson University, according to Michael Duduit, dean of the Graduate School of Christian Ministry at AU.
Duduit said the leaders have agreed to be part of the instructional program, either through involvement in campus classrooms or sharing in video-based instruction through the university’s online degree program. The M.Min. program will launch both on-campus and online programs in August.
South Carolina leaders on the team include Frank Page, senior pastor, First Baptist Church, Taylors; Michael Hamlet, senior pastor, First Baptist Church, North Spartanburg; Don Wilton, senior pastor, First Baptist Church, Spartanburg; Don Cox, senior pastor, Concord Baptist Church, Anderson; and George Bullard, ministry partner and strategic coordinator with the Columbia Partnership in Columbia and former staff member with the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Other strategic faculty members are Mike Glenn, senior pastor, Brentwood Baptist Church, Brentwood, Tenn.; Calvin Miller, retired professor of preaching, Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Ala.; Ed Stetzer, president, LifeWay Research, Nashville, Tenn., and a former church planter; Brad Waggoner, president and publisher, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tenn., and former dean of the School of Leadership at Southern Seminary; and James Emery White, founding pastor, Mecklenburg Community Church, Charlotte, N.C.
The varied experiences reflected on the strategic faculty team are evidence of the intensely practical nature of the new M.Min. program at Anderson, Duduit said.
“The Master of Ministry is a unique and alternative model of ministry education for the 21st century, focused on the core competencies of leadership in the local church,” Duduit said. “The leadership experience of our strategic faculty members is precisely the kind of practical perspective we’ll be emphasizing in this program. We want to help equip God-called leaders who are ready to serve churches and ministries at the highest levels of effectiveness.”
Duduit, who joined Anderson University in 2008 as dean and professor of Christian ministry, is founding editor of Preaching magazine and writes a weekly newsletter for more than 20,000 pastors and church leaders.