New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Missions and evangelism are core focuses of the seminary.

NOBTS offers doctoral, master, bachelor, and associate degrees. The seminary has 13 graduate centers in 5 states, 11 undergraduate centers in 5 states, and 13 on-campus research centers.^[2] The main campus is situated on over 70 acres with more than 70 buildings.^[3]

The Southern Baptist Convention founded the institution as the Baptist Bible Institute during the 1917 convention meeting in New Orleans.^[4] New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, or NOBTS for short, was the first institution created as a direct act of the Southern Baptist Convention. The institutes's purpose was centered on missionary work, and initially established as gateway to Central America. The Seminary started as the Baptist Bible Institute in the Garden District and later relocated to the current location in the heart of Gentilly.

On May 17, 1946, the SBC revised the institutes' charter to enable it to become a seminary, and the name was changed to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.^[5] Missions and evangelism have remained the core focus of the seminary.

In 1953, it relocated from Washington Avenue in the Garden District to a more spacious campus in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans.^[6] The school purchased a 75-acre (300,000 m²) pecan orchard and transformed it into what is now a bustling campus over 100 buildings, including academic buildings, faculty and staff housing, and student housing. The new campus was designed by noted Louisiana architect A. Hays Town.

In 1995, a campus was established at the Louisiana State Penitentiary following an invitation from the prison warden, Burl Cain.^[7] The school has contributed to a significant reduction in the rate of violence in the prison.^[8]

By 2022, it had opened six campuses in prisons in different states.^[9]

For the year 2021-2022, it had 2,004 students.^[10]

NOBTS has had nine presidents since its founding:

• William Leon Clark, deputy chief of chaplains of the United States Air Force 1966-1968.
• Grady C. Cothen, author, university and seminary president, pastor, state convention executive secretary-director of the Southern Baptist Convention
• Raleigh Kirby Godsey, president of Mercer University (1979–2006)
• G. Earl Guinn (1912-2004), president Louisiana College from 1951 to 1975^[20]
• Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary outside Charlotte, North Carolina
• Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
• J. Randall O'Brien, president of Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee
• Paige Patterson, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
• David Platt, president of the International Mission Board (2014-); pastor-teacher of McLean Bible Church (2017-); pastor of The Church at Brook Hills (2006-2014); author of Radical
• Adrian Rogers, president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1979–1980 and 1986–1988); pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church (1972-2005); founder of Love Worth Finding
• Anis Shorrosh (1933–2018), Palestinian Evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor
• Argile Smith (born 1955), former J. D. Grey professor of preaching at NOBTS
• Jerry Vines, president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1989–1990); pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville (1982-2006).

• John T. Christian, a Baptist preacher, author and educator
• Benjamin Harlan, internationally-known arranger and composer of choral and keyboard works
• George L. Kelm - discovered and excavated ancient Timnah between 1977 and 1979 while at NOBTS
• Clark Pinnock, Christian theologian, apologist and author. He was Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at McMaster Divinity College.
• Frank Stagg, theologian