A group of students from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary recently participated in a mission trip to Indonesia alongside students from three other SBC seminaries.
A total of 12 NOBTS students joined students from Southern Seminary, Southwestern Seminary and Southeastern Seminary during a two-week trip from late May to early June.
The group of more than 35 total participants included graduate and college students as well as faculty from each of the seminaries.
Greg Mathias, associate professor of global missions and director of the Global Mission Center (GMC), said that to his knowledge there has never been an international mission trip where multiple SBC seminaries partnered together in this way.
The idea for the trip came about during an event each of the seminary missions professors were attending at the International Mission Board (IMB) training center in Richmond back in 2024. Mathias and others were noting the incredible partnership that currently exists between the SBC seminaries and the IMB.
Mathias suggested the idea of a joint seminary trip to the others. The professors began to work on logistics, and this recent trip was the fruit of that conversation two years later.
“We are at a really good place right now in the Southern Baptist convention and specifically in terms of the missions departments at our seminaries,” Mathias said. “There is unity, we pull for one another and we are all after the same things. We wanted a chance to showcase this through a trip together.
“Coming off last year where we celebrated 100 years of the Cooperative Program, we wanted to model that unity and cooperation as seminaries regarding missions specifically.
“As a convention, one of the main things that ties us together is a heartbeat for lostness among the nations and fulfilling the Great Commission. We thought what would be a better way to show this off than to take a trip together. It was neat to see this trip come to fruition, and we hope we can see this kind of trip replicated in the future.”
Students on the trip had the chance to visit several notable places around the country, connect with IMB personnel stationed throughout the nation and interact with leaders of other religions in the local community.
Mathias explained there were three goals of the trip or three questions faculty wanted students to examine while on the trip.
Mathias said he is grateful for the practical ministry experience these types of trips can provide.
“I love that we can offer these trips through our Global Mission Center,” he said. “Whether a student is called to be a counselor, pastor, missionary or even a lay-person, I think all believers are called to have a Great Commission heartbeat. God often uses short-term mission trips to reshape the hearts and futures of young Christians.”
One such student heavily impacted by the trip was Caleb Hartley, a graduate counseling student.
Hartley, who grew up overseas as a missionary kid, said this trip was an incredible opportunity to learn what ministry looked like in a different part of the world than he had experienced.
“This trip made ministry and cross-cultural life in this part of the world more tangible for me,” Hartley said. “Going on this trip de-mystified this part of the world and living in this environment.
“This trip helped settle in and cement the idea of prepare here, serve anywhere for me. It means more than just preparing in the classroom. It means you are also going to prepare by serving here while in seminary. We practice serving here now so that we can serve anywhere we go in ministry.”
Hartley said this was his first missions experience being sent out on his own, and any student could greatly benefit from one of these trips the GMC offers.
“It’s sort of like swimming,” he said. “At some point the best way to learn how to swim is to just jump in. A trip like this would be a good opportunity to tip your toes in the water and get your feet wet.”
Mathias said these types of trips can be vital to fulfilling the mission of the NOBTS.
“Certainly there are things we need to learn in the classroom, but it’s also important to live out what you’re learning in the world around you,” Mathias said.
“At NOBTS, we want to give students a lot of opportunities to practice ministry before they graduate. That’s who we are.”
