NEW ORLEANS (BP)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's trustee executive committee has approved a Korean-language doctor of ministry program and named new apartments in honor of Florida and Mississippi Baptists.

The new Korean doctor of ministry program initially will focus on the training needs of Korean ministers in the United States and the unique nature of the churches they serve. However, the program is open to Koreans living outside the country.

Seminars for the Korean D.Min. will be taught primarily at the seminary's North Georgia Hub in metro Atlanta, which has the 10th-largest Korean population in America according to demographic studies. Atlanta's major airport also offers easy access from cities with large Korean populations such as Washington D.C., Baltimore and Chicago.

"We are thrilled to be able to partner with our Korean Baptist colleagues in providing a higher level of training for those who want to achieve excellence in their ministry," NOBTS President Chuck Kelley said after the trustee meeting Dec. 8.

NOBTS Provost Steve Lemke noted the success of the seminary's undergraduate and graduate Korean-language programs in Atlanta, which have grown from just a few students four years ago to more than 100. Last fall, Kelley appointed Deok Jae Lee, who directs the program at the North Georgia Hub, to serve on the seminary faculty. The seminary also recently began offering online classes in the Korean language.

"To reach America for Christ, we must find ways to minister to our many ethnic populations," Lemke said. "We have classes in Haitian, French, Spanish and Portuguese to meet the needs of our ethnic churches," he said, and now the Korean D.Min. will serve the leadership needs of an estimated Korean churches within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Korean-language instruction will be provided by Korean and American professors, either directly or by translation. All student coursework, including the final ministry project, will be completed in Korean.

The program will utilize a cohort learning model of 10-15 students taking their courses together as a group.

Lemke said the Korean D.Min. is the fruit of a year-long study during which a seminary task force met with Korean Baptist leaders and studied other Korean-language programs to determine the needs of Korean pastors.

The Korean-language D.Min., which builds on the seminary's long history of training Korean students in its traditional English-based master's and doctoral programs, will launch no earlier than August 2010 and must have an initial cohort of 15 students.