STUDY TO SHEW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD 2 Timothy 2:15(KJV)
Dr. V. Felton-White-Provost
STUDY TO SHEW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD 2 Timothy 2:15(KJV)
Dr. V. Felton-White-Provost
About Us
Our Mission
Mission and Philosophy
Roanoke Theological Seminary is committed to meeting educational aspirations at master, baccalaureate, associate, and certificate levels, of persons preparing for the ministry and as Christian educators and trained laity. It is dedicated to providing such students with thorough instruction by a competent and diversified faculty, in a caring and stimulating atmosphere.
Through its philosophy of instruction and recurrent review of its carefully selected curricula, the Seminary aims to produce proud alumni. It upholds educational standards while recognizing the flexibility of a nontraditional setting. It focuses on prevailing circumstances of persons and congregations seeking its assistance, with special attention to needs in its primary service area, northeast North Carolina and Tidewater Virginia.
Theses, then, are the primary means by which the Seminary seeks to implement its motto, “Pursuing Excellence in Leadership,” and to fulfill the Christian Education objective of its sponsor. The Seminary welcomes all those of serious purpose as well as evaluative input designed for its enhancement. Finally, it invites its students from whatever diversified circumstances to heed the adjuration by Paul: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 2:15.
Our History
Historical Statement
Roanoke Theological Seminary is the outgrowth of the dream and effort of the Reverend Joseph Earl Griffin, past Moderator of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association. It was in 1988, in a meeting of the Board of Education of the Association, when Reverend Griffin proposed the idea. After much debate, the proposal was accepted without dissent.
The Chairman of the Board of Education, the late Deacon Clement McKinley Stokes, suggested that the Reverend John Ervin Trotman be appointed Director, with the Reverend Harold Harvey Murrill as his assistant. The suggestion was approved.
On Saturday, September 10, 1988, 12 students were enrolled in the Seminary’s program under the initial two-member faculty. The school began with the name, “Seminary Extension Theological School at Roanoke Institute.” Its present name, Roanoke Theological Seminary, became official in 1991.
RTS has served hundreds of students during the past 30 years. In doing so, RTS has under-girded the community of faith within the surrounding areas of Eastern North Carolina and Tidewater, Virginia, with scholarly and competent graduates. Students have come from Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, and Norfolk, Virginia; Camden, Currituck, Chowan, Pasquotank, Pitt, Washington, Northampton, Martin, Gates, Bertie, Onslow, Halifax, Wake, Hertford, Tyrrell, Dare, and Perquimans Counties in North Carolina; and as far away as Nairobi, Kenya.
As RTS rapidly approaches 33 years, it is still committed to Kingdom Work. That’s why we pursue and heed to the Adjuration of the Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 2:15--We study to show ourselves approved as men and women, workers of the Gospel who rightly divide the Word of Truth for that Higher Calling in Christ Jesus.
Governance--External Administration and Accreditation
The Seminary is sponsored by The Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association, Incorporated, founded in Manteo, North Carolina, in 1866. The Seminary is a major element in fulfilling the Christian Education objective of the Association, whose Board of Education is entrusted with general oversight of such activity,
The Seminary’s undergraduate degree/certificate-granting authority derives from the Seminary Extension Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, in cooperation with the Department of Cooperative Ministries and Seminary Extension of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. The Seminary Extension Board is composed of representatives from the following Baptist theological seminaries: Golden Gate (California), Midwestern (Missouri) New Orleans (Louisiana), Southern (Kentucky), Southeastern (North Carolina), and Southwestern (Texas).
Roanoke Theological Seminary is certified as an Extension Center by the Seminary Extension Department and its faculty, curricular structure, and tuition costs are as approved by that Department. The Seminary’s curricular quality is reflected, in part, by its courses being largely comprised of those endorsed for the Seminary Extension Department, by the American Council on Education. In addition, the Department has institutional membership in the National University Continuing Education Association; its Independent Study Institute is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the National Home Study Council.
Roanoke Theological Seminary was incorporated under the laws of North Carolina in 1992, with the approbation of the Association’s Board of Education and the Seminary Extension Department. The Reverend Timothy Davis, JD then Moderator of the Association, assisted this process. The Seminary also meets the requirements of Section 501(c)3 of the United States Internal Revenue Code.