Nearly 300 pastors, students and supporters gathered in Houston Sept. 9 to celebrate the opening of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s newly established Houston campus.
Houston evangelist J. Dalton Havard and officers from Southwestern gathered for a convocation ceremony at Park Place Baptist Church to inaugurate the academic year.
The church deeded its $7 million, eight-and-a-half-acre campus to the seminary last year.
The seminary’s Houston extension program was located on the campus of Houston Baptist University for 27 years prior to its relocation for Park Place.
Havard conceived the idea of establishing a freestanding Southern Baptist seminary in his city sex years ago and approached officials at Southwestern. Today his dream is a reality.
Southwestern Seminary President Kenneth S. Hemphill predicted during the convocation that the Houston seminary may be about to experience momentous growth.
“You are here by God’s calla t one of the most exciting days in church history, and the question is how you will respond to that call,” Hemphill said. “I think we will have more than 500 students within a few years.”
The Association of Theological Schools and the Southern Schools awarded degree-granting status to Southwestern’s Houston extension last summer.
Students who choose to enroll at the Houston campus no longer are required to complete residency requirements at the seminary’s main campus in Fort Worth.
Park Place pastor James Clark said the church saw the deeding of the campus last December as a “kingdom move.”
The move would revitalize the church and also allow the seminary to establish a permanent home for its Southeast Texas extension program.
The church and seminary share the church facility in Houston’s southeast corridor.
(BP)
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