• Submitted by: manso
• Editorial Articles
• 12 / 22 / 2010

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Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. By Jim Jones. Special to the Citizen-Journal. B.H. Carroll Theological Institute is plunging into a new era of expanded ministry training in Texas, Cuba and other parts of the world, its leaders say.

"We're going into a new stage in more ways than one," said Bruce Corley, president of the downtown graduate school founded in 2004 by former faculty members of Fort Worth's Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The institute has moved into larger quarters, and a decision on whether it receives accreditation will be announced next spring by the Association for Biblical Higher Education.

Two new master's programs in counseling and chaplaincy are blossoming, Corley said. But Carroll is not your ordinary theological school: It has no main campus.

About 300 students, including 143 who attend full time, take classes in "teaching churches." Eighteen such churches are in Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Bryan-College Station and other Texas cities. Some students are in Europe and Africa, and 63 Cubans are seeking master's degrees.

The goal, Corley said, is to reinvent theological education in creative ways to make master's and doctoral training available and affordable to both clergy and lay people.

The school, which he said isn't in competition with other seminaries, is led by Baptist moderates, making it another alternative to more conservative institutions like Southwestern and the five other Southern Baptist seminaries.

Corley recently welcomed residents to an open house of Carroll's new location in the Wade Building, across from First Baptist Church. The school moved from smaller offices nearby.

He pointed visitors to a vintage 1700s church pew, donated by a supporter. It came from William Carey Baptist Church in Moulton, England, hometown of pioneer missionary William Carey.

While standing firmly on age-old Baptist principles, Carroll is riding the wave of media technology, Corley said. Textbooks and course materials are digitized on computers. Professors use the Internet and the latest in videoconferencing to keep in touch with students in far-flung locations.

Thirteen full-time professors work with 80 part-time teachers, including many retired seminary faculty members, in teaching six master's and two doctoral programs.

"We purposely chose Arlington for our location," Corley said. "We wanted to avoid the Amon Carter syndrome. If we located in Dallas, no one would come from Fort Worth. If we were in Fort Worth, Dallas people might not attend."

Corley said one of the biggest niches Carroll fills is training Spanish-speaking pastors and lay people in Texas and in Latin America. Led by teaching church Park Cities Baptist in Dallas, Corley and other professors have made three trips to Camaguey, Cuba, to offer classes.

"Our students come from all over the island," Corley said. "It's a marvelous thing to be related to a church that's filled and with people waiting on the outside to get in."

Adline Cotto, a Puerto Rican native, directs the Spanish-speaking programs. She's also director of ethnic ministries for the Tarrant Baptist Association. Carroll has Spanish-language classes in Matamoros, Mexico; Dallas; and Corsicana. The goal for Cuba is to train enough people there that Cuban Baptists can conduct their own training programs, she said.

The school is on good financial footing, Corley said, partially because the leased quarters and smaller full-time faculty help keep operating costs low. Also, a $10 million fundraising campaign is under way. So far $3 million has been pledged by foundations and individuals.

Gaining accreditation would be a major step forward, he said. It would "give us a kind of validity for our students to transfer credits, and we will be able to secure student loans and participate in all the grants and aid offerings from foundations and other sources."

Besides the Association for Biblical Higher Education, Carroll will continue seeking accreditation from the nation's main seminary-accrediting agency, the Association of Theological Schools, Corley said.

The agency is studying possible changes in accreditation rules. Corley hopes for changes in a requirement that all seminary students complete one-third of their degrees on the main campus of the seminary. That rule is a roadblock to accreditation for Carroll, since it has no main campus.

"What ATS is recognizing is that the world has changed," Corley said. "We've entered the digital age."

Source: www.star-telegram.com/2010/12/20/2718282/bh-carroll-baptist-institute-ha...