Louisiana Baptist University at Shreveport IMG 0927

Louisiana Baptist University (LBU) is a

independent Baptist Independent Baptist churches (some also called Independent Fundamental Baptist or IFB) are Christian congregations, generally holding to conservative (primarily fundamentalist) Baptist beliefs. Although some Independent Baptist churches refuse af ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

located in

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. LBU has both an on-

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

program and a

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

program which teaches subjects pertaining to the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

and

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

theology. The school houses five departments: School of

Biblical Studies Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 Fo ...

, School of Communications (Leadership), School of

Christian Counseling Christian counseling is distinct from secular counseling. According to the International Association of Biblical Counselors, Biblical counseling "seeks to carefully discover those areas in which a Christian may be disobedient to the principles a ...

, School of Christian Education, and

Theological Seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

History

In 1973, Baptist Christian University was founded by Jimmy G. Tharpe (1930–2008) as part of the Baptist Tabernacle, offering

for full-time ministers to complete degrees without leaving their pastorates. In February 1993, the trustees restructured the school's charter and changed the name to Louisiana Baptist University.

Kathleen Blanco Kathleen Marie Blanco (née Babineaux; December 15, 1942 – August 18, 2019) was an American politician who served as the 54th Governor of Louisiana from January 2004 to January 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first and, t ...

, then governor of

, declared the month of April 2005 as "Louisiana Baptist University Month". In its beginning, LBU was housed in the Centrum Building on Hollywood Avenue. It later relocated to a facility off

Interstate 20 Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with Interstate 10, I-10 in Scroggins Draw, Texas, and ending at an interchange with Interstate 95, I-95 in Flo ...

at 6301 Westport Avenue in the center of West Shreveport, where the campus remains today. In May 2013, the university expanded their campus with the completion of the Neal Weaver Conference Center. The center is equipped with the latest audio/video equipment which enables the university to host webinars in addition to their conferences.

Accreditation

LBU is not currently accredited by any accrediting body recognized by the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

. Because this university only grants

non-secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

degrees for use in various areas of

ministry Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...

, it operates under religious-exempt status in Louisiana and is recognized by the

Louisiana Board of Regents The Louisiana Board of Regents is a government agency in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is responsible for coordination of all public higher education in the state. The Board was created under the terms of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution, and bega ...

to grant degrees. LBU is a member of

Association of Christian Schools International The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), founded in 1978, is an association of evangelical Christian schools. Its headquarters are in Colorado Springs, Colorado. History ACSI was founded in 1978 through the merger of three as ...

(ACSI). LBU is also an approved university of

Baptist Bible Fellowship International The Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) is a conservative Baptist Christian denomination. It is headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. History The Fellowship was founded during a meeting in 1950 at Fort Worth in 1950 by a group of 1 ...

(BBFI), which consists of 4,500 congregations totaling 1.2 million members associated with it; an additional 10,000 churches are associated worldwide.

Academics and staff

The school employs around forty faculty and staff. The current President of LBU is Dr. Greg Lyons.LBU Staff Page
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Alumni

Seminary *

Carl Baugh Carl Edward Baugh (born October 21, 1936) is an American young Earth creationist. Baugh has claimed to have discovered human footprints alongside dinosaur footprints near the Paluxy River in Texas. Baugh promoted creationism as the former host o ...

– author and founder of

Pacific International University Pacific International University was an unaccredited, evangelical, Christian diploma mill college located in Springfield, Missouri. Carl Baugh, a 1989 alumnus, was the university's president. Background The school was founded in 1980 as Pacific ...

. *

Mal Couch Malcom Ollie "Mal" Couch, Jr. (July 12, 1938, Dallas, Texas, USA – February 12, 2013) was the founder and first president of the Tyndale Theological Seminary. He was a pastor, an author of many books, and writer of 40 documentaries on Bible prop ...

– author and founder of

Tyndale Theological Seminary Tyndale Theological Seminary is an American private Christian seminary with its campus in Hurst, Texas. It has chosen not to seek state accreditation Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (suc ...

. * Rick Scarborough – author, activist, and founder of

Vision America Vision America is a conservative American Christian organization founded in 1994 by Baptist pastor Rick Scarborough, which describes itself as formed to "inform, encourage and mobilize pastors and their congregations to be proactive in restori ...

.Rick Scarborough
Vision America University *

Larry Bagley Lawrence A. Bagley Jr. (born January 4, 1949), known as Larry Bagley, is a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 7, which encompasses Caddo, DeSoto, and Sabine parishes in northwestern Louisiana. In January 2016 ...

– member of the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (french: link=no, Chambre des Représentants de Louisiane) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 repr ...

for District 7 *

Bob Cornuke Bob Cornuke (born 1951) is an American writer and president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute (BASE), which is operated from his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He describes himself as a Biblical archaeologist, but has no ...

– author and director of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute (BASE). *

Bill Gothard William W. Gothard Jr. (born November 2, 1934) is an American Christian minister, speaker, and writer, and the founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), an ultra-conservative Christian organization. His conservative teachings ...

– former president of the

Institute in Basic Life Principles The Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) is a nondenominational Christian fundamentalist organization that serves as an umbrella organization for several ministries established by American Christian minister Bill Gothard in 1961. The stat ...

Grant Jeffrey Grant Reid Jeffrey (October 5, 1948 – May 11, 2012) was a Canadian Bible teacher of Bible prophecy/eschatology and biblical archaeology and a proponent of dispensational evangelical Christianity. Jeffrey served as the chairman of Frontier Resea ...

– author and teacher *

Roland S. Martin Roland Sebastian Martin (born November 14, 1968) is an American journalist. He was a commentator for TV One, the host of ''News One Now'', and ''Washington on Watch With Roland S. Martin''. He was also a CNN contributor, appearing on a variety ...

– American journalist, syndicated columnist, and author. *

Chuck Missler Charles W. Missler (May 28, 1934 – May 1, 2018) was an American author, evangelical Christian, Bible teacher, engineer, and businessman. Business career Missler graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1956 and received a Master's degree in ...

- author and founder/operator of Koinonia Institute * Robert Morey – author and founder of the unaccredited California Biblical University and Seminary. *

Mark Tronson Mark Tronson (1951 - July 2022) is an Australian Baptist pastor who established a nationwide sports and leisure ministry known as Specialised Life-Orientated Ministries (SLM), popularly known amongst Australian churches as Sports & Leisure Minis ...

– businessman * Adrienne Southworth - member of the

Kentucky Senate The Kentucky Senate is the upper house of the Kentucky General Assembly. The Kentucky Senate is composed of 38 members elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. There are no term limits for Kentucky Senators. The Kentu ...

for District 7

References

External links