COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the second year in a row, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley announced a major donation during the National Alumni and Friends Luncheon June . The latest gift, of $1.5 million, will allow NOBTS to provide 50 full-tuition Caskey scholarships for Southern Baptist bivocational and smaller membership church ministers serving in Alabama.

“We are profoundly grateful for this gift,” Kelley said.

The Caskey Center for Church Excellence launched last fall using an anonymous gift to provide 144 full-tuition scholarships to bivocational and smaller membership church ministers serving in Louisiana. Later, the donors set aside money to provide 50 scholarships in Mississippi. To date, $11.5 million has been given for Caskey scholarships.

The scholarship program in Alabama will begin during the Spring 2016 semester. Potential students can visit the Caskey Center website (www.nobts.edu/CaskeyCenter/) for more information or to apply for scholarships.

Kelley also announced the new Steve Caskey Pathfinder Award to be given each year to a bivocational or smaller membership church minister who has found a way to reach people for Christ in his community. The inaugural award was given posthumously to Steve Caskey, who pastored smaller membership churches in rural Louisiana. Caskey never received public accolades during his lifetime but his dedicated service for Christ is still remembered in the churches he served.