For the Church Cohorts
Shepherds Fellowship
Formerly The Timothy Track
Shepherds Fellowship
Interested in residential education but concerned about putting ministry experience on hold? Midwestern Seminary now has a way to gain valuable ministry experience — under a local pastor’s mentorship — while you pursue your studies.
Shepherds Fellowship offers select residential Master of Divinity students in-the-field ministry training and mentorship within the context of the local church. In addition to their classroom studies, students in Shepherds Fellowship will spend their first calendar year at Midwestern as an intern/apprentice within a local partner church. The program will allow participating students the opportunity to integrate what they are learning in the classroom into the local church, all while earning class credit. A pastor or staff leader at their church will serve as their mentor throughout the year (and hopefully, beyond). As an added benefit, all Shepherds Fellowship students receive a 100% tuition scholarship for up to 18 on-campus credit hours at the SBC rate for their year in the program.
This is the most immersive of all FTC Cohorts, as in addition to on-campus cohort meetings and class sessions, Shepherds Fellowship students are serving in a 10-hour/week internship in a church under the mentorship of that church’s pastor(s).
6
Credit hours of applied theology courses
100%
Tuition Scholarship for first year, for up to 18 on-campus credit hours at the SBC rate
40+
Local church partners
Shepherds Fellowship
Program Offerings
Serve
Students participating in Shepherds Fellowship will spend a considerable portion of their time serving the church in a variety of ways. Students are expected to be exemplary church members first and foremost. As church members, they may be given a variety of opportunities to serve which will vary from church to church. They may be given tasks such as:
Learn
In addition to serving and leading in various contexts, interns will also learn through a variety of formats. The partner church has been asked to provide a context in which the student can observe leadership from the inside. That means, students may get to:
Lead
In addition to serving behind the scenes, churches are also encouraged to provide occasional opportunities for interns to lead in appropriate ways. Churches are encouraged to reserve the bulk of these opportunities for the Spring semester, after they have opportunity to thoroughly evaluate the student. Below are a few examples of what this might look like:
Midwestern Seminary
MDiv Coursework
Shepherds Fellowship Classes:
Leadership Practicum (Fall Semester)
Applied Ecclesiology Practicum (Spring Semester)
Shepherds Fellowship
Regular Interviews with Special Guests
In class sessions with Shepherds Fellowship cohort, the program leaders invite guest pastors or leaders on a regular basis to come and share wisdom and insight on specific topics relevant for ministry leadership. Additional guests are specifically chosen for their extensive experience, godly character, and/or unique expertise or perspective on a particular subject.
Student Requirements
Church Requirements
STAFF LEADER OF SHEPHERDS FELLOWSHIP
Aaron Trent
Aaron Trent serves as the Partnerships & Curriculum Director with Church Partnerships at Midwestern. He oversees partnerships for local theological education between the seminary and churches, networks, and associations. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Midwestern.
Aaron earned a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education – Mathematics from Kansas State University and a Master of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently working toward a PhD in Ecclesiology from Midwestern, intending to write on the church-based theological education and pastoral training offered through Charles Spurgeon’s Pastors’ College in London during the late 1800s.
Aaron and his wife, Grace, have five children: Shepard, Margot, Sola, Ransom, and Naomi. Aaron serves as one of the planting pastors at Heritage Baptist Church.
Professor for Shepherds Fellowship Courses
Dr. Jared Bumpers
Jared Bumpers is the Associate Professor of Preaching & Evangelism and FTC Cohorts Faculty Coordinator at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to joining the team at Midwestern, Jared served for over a decade as a student pastor, then as an associate pastor of preaching, at a church in southwest Missouri. He has also served as an interim pastor and spoken at numerous conferences throughout the United States.
Jared holds a BS in Pastoral Ministry from Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri; an MDiv from Luther Rice Seminary in Lithonia, Georgia; a ThM in Biblical Studies from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia; and a PhD in Christian Preaching from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. His doctoral research focused on the hermeneutic and homiletic of John Albert Broadus.
Jared is married to Kimberly, and they have four children: McCartnie, Rush, Maverick, and Jett. Jared is the Teaching Pastor at Antioch Bible Baptist Church.
DIRECTOR OF CHURCH PARTNERSHIPS
Jordan Wilbanks
Jordan Wilbanks serves as the Director of Church Partnerships here at Midwestern. Before coming to Kansas City, Jordan served as a founding member and an elder at Christ Fellowship Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Professionally, he comes from both a business and a ministry background, having served as Accounts Receivable Manager for a major domestic staffing firm based in Birmingham, and having worked on the Communications team of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes.
Jordan received his undergraduate education in Communications from The University of Miami, and he completed his MDiv from Midwestern Seminary. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Biblical Theology from Midwestern. Originally from Jacksonville, FL, Jordan has been a part of Baptist churches in five different cities, and grew up as the son of a Southern Baptist pastor. He loves the church, and his aim at Midwestern is to see the church in this region grow and flourish, as we all work together to proclaim Christ, make disciples of all nations, and give glory to our Father. You can contact Jordan at [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions – Students
Shepherds Fellowship MDiv is primarily for first-year students who have completed 15 credit hours or less. In some cases, a student may begin study in the Spring semester prior to participation in Shepherds Fellowship in the subsequent Fall semester. Transfer students may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The internship begins once a year, at the beginning of each fall semester.
Shepherds Fellowship is not itself a specific MDiv emphasis; Shepherds Fellowship students can pursue any MDiv emphasis at MBTS. The primary curricular distinction for Shepherds Fellowship students is two unique courses stated above.
We don’t choose what church a student joins! Instead, based on the student’s interview in the application process and which churches are participating in a given year, the Partnerships and Curriculum Director will make suggestions for churches that seem like the available churches that seem fit. Then, the student and pastor/mentors can give feedback until the student is able to find the right church.
First, we want to be clear that all of our Shepherds Fellowship church partners are in this program for multiple reasons. Not only have these churches agreed to partner with MBTS, but MBTS strongly supports their ministries as well. The primary reasons why a student may not have the opportunity to join a particular church are:
1) they only have capacity to bring on a certain number of students, and those spots have already been filled, or
2) the church is unable to participate in that given year for any number of reasons. Should this occur, we will be very prayerful and intentional to help you choose another church that will provide you with the opportunities for growth in your pursuit of pastoral ministry or ministry leadership.
First, students can best prepare for an excellent experience through Shepherds Fellowship by investing in a vibrant, intentional, and disciplined relationship with God, increasing in enjoyment of Him. This means of course being grounded in His Word, growing in intercessory prayer and dependency on Him, and actively serving within the ministry of the church where one is currently a member. Once students begin the program, a posture of humility and learning is a must to maximize the receptivity to the wisdom of those with greater experience. Additionally, one of the most vital tasks of the student is to get to know the members of the church. Treating the church members as the center of one’s ministry, rather than a temporary laboratory, will increase the effectiveness of the experience and increase trust. Finally, Shepherds Fellowship leadership will debrief with each student four times throughout the year to process how they are growing and what they are seeing.
Each FTC Cohort student will receive a scholarship amounting to 100% of their tuition costs for up to 18 credit hours during the academic year. This scholarship only applies to residential or practicum courses.
Frequently Asked Questions – Churches
In our efforts to be for the Church, we have sought to make Shepherds Fellowship accessible to churches of every size by scaling down the pricing for smaller churches. Even so, we understand that one of the primary barriers to your church participating in Shepherds Fellowship may still likely be financial in nature. But we’d like to encourage you not to close the book on it just yet. Even if your budget is fixed, we want to suggest a few very manageable ways that you may be able to raise funds to free you and your staff to invest in a future pastor:
- Ask specific church members to give directly.
- Bring it to your church on a Sunday, a members’ meeting, via “love offering,” etc.
- One-day fundraising event.
Your church may invest in as many interns as is mutually agreed will be beneficial to each of those interns. The goal of this program is to develop these young leaders for the sake of their future ministry. So we ask for discernment in the number of interns you bring on, considering the bandwidth of your pastoral staff toward that end.
Church partners are expected to invest in your interns alongside MBTS. We hope our partner churches will see this as an opportunity to strengthen the Church at large by taking ownership of the formation of future pastors and leaders as they train with you. Please pray for them, and with them! Also, churches are expected to provide:
In an effort to be inclusive and strategic in the mission of MBTS to be “For the Church” with churches of all budgets and sizes in mind, a progressive pricing model will be used:
The Shepherds Fellowship program is unique because of the layers of investment, both by Midwestern and the local church, in the growth of the intern. Of course, we are excited that this program provides our students with the opportunity for in-the-field pastoral ministry experience, but the hands-on mentorship of the student from the pastor(s) and Shepherds Fellowship leadership make this program stand out.
To learn more about Shepherds Fellowship, contact [email protected].
