McClellan’s heart, experience help lead Hispanic Programs

Before he began serving as director of Hispanic Programs and professor of missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mark McClellan had a variety of occupations and ministry assignments, including as a trial lawyer, United States Army Infantry Captain, and missionary in Guatemala with the International Mission Board (IMB).

McClellan earned an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Cincinnati, a Juris Doctorate from Oklahoma City University, and both a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Philosophy in theology from Southwestern. McClellan taught theology courses and ethics for 20 years at several institutions, including Gateway Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Oklahoma Baptist University where he also served as the dean of the Hobbs College of Theology and Ministry.

Since he began teaching in the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions at Southwestern in 2021, McClellan has taught missiology and evangelism, apologetics, hermeneutics, and Doctor of Ministry Spanish-language classes.

Before he began serving as professor of missions and director of the Hispanic Programs at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mark McClellan had a variety of occupations and ministry assignments, including United States Infantry Captain, trial lawyer, and missionary with the International Mission Board.

As a two-time graduate of Southwestern, McClellan said he is grateful for the opportunity to teach at the educational institution that gave so much to him.

“This school has invested in my life,” he explained. “It has helped shape my life and career in missionary service, in pastoral ministry, in theological education. It has made a tremendous investment in my life.”

McClellan feels “privileged to make a small contribution” and he “considers Texas and Southwestern to be at the strategic center of the Hispanic community and Hispanic Baptist churches.” He noted that “Southwestern has a historic relationship with Hispanic Baptist churches in Texas and in Latin America and are educating and equipping Hispanic students across the U.S. and the Spanish-speaking world.”

“I am very grateful to serve in this strategic place as Southwestern seeks to provide excellent theological education to Hispanic pastors and ministry leaders and to better equip Spanish-speaking students to advance the proclamation of the Gospel and go to the nations as missionaries and as a missionary force. I am also excited that we will be offering this to Portuguese speakers,” said McClellan.

McClellan said within all the courses offered in the Hispanic Programs the instructors “integrate” the ability to have life application and help students know “how to live out their Christian faith.” McClellan knows that the students, many of whom are located in Latin American countries, are going to have “different” callings and he “tries to personally make relevant the content” to their individual callings.

A two-time graduate of Southwestern Seminary, McClellan said the institution “shaped” his life and career. Today, he invests in the next generation of ministers.

Since the Hispanic Program is completely online, McClellan makes himself available to his students by mentoring long distance. An example of this is the relationship he has with one of his former students who is now a news anchor and church planter in Guatemala. He and McClellan email back and forth and McClellan helps him by giving him advice and answering questions about church planting, leading the church, and other issues. This past summer when McClellan was in Guatemala, he was able to meet with the student and have personal interaction with him, as well as recruit him to enter the Doctor of Ministry program. McClellan hopes to continue their mentor and mentee relationship.

McClellan teaches a course in the Doctor of Ministry program in evangelism and missions and once a month he meets with all of his students through Zoom. His students share their assigned presentations and he “responds by making evaluations, teaching, guiding and mentoring them.” McClellan described the Zoom meetings as being “hours long and very fruitful.” He considers these Zoom meetings as “a part of their intellectual discipleship as doctoral students” and carves out time to “address and mentor students individually in the discussion.”

Outside of Southwestern Seminary, McClellan enjoys worshiping and mentoring master’s level students at Prestonwood en Español in Plano, Texas, where he and his wife are members.  He meets with the students personally, including the pastor, Gilberto Corredera, a Maestría en Estudios Teológicos (MET) student who will enter the Doctor of Ministry program this summer and is one of McClellan’s students.

McClellan is intentional about building relationships with students, many of whom are located around the world.

Fernando Mangieri, from Little Elm, Texas, is pursuing a MET and is the associate pastor of Prestonwood en Español, with hopes to continue his studies to enter the doctoral program in Spanish. He has taken systematic theology I, systematic theology II, and introduction to missiology from McClellan and attributes him to helping him live his calling in several ways.

“Dr. McClellan is an excellent teacher and communicator and personally he is an approachable person, always willing to help, clarify any situation, and with a fervent desire to encourage the student to move forward in their studies, said Mangieri. He enjoys seeing McClellan’s “passion for teaching, his extensive ministerial experience, and his pastoral heart for his students.” Mangieri has a “full ministerial load” with his job at Prestonwood en Español and “sometimes it is difficult” for him “to fulfill” his “responsibilities as a student,” but he is “grateful” for the professor “who always has the right word to encourage me to continue striving in my studies.”

McClellan’s experience in Hispanic regions is vast having lived in Latin America while serving in the U.S. Army, serving as a missionary with the IMB in Guatemala for nearly 13 years, planting churches with the North American Mission Board, and serving as the Hispanic ministry specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

Lierte Soares, from Lancaster, Massachusetts, is pursuing his Doctor of Ministry with a concentration in evangelism and missions and hopes to “serve and equip” his “local church with better tools to reach” his “community with the Gospel.”

Soares wants to continue his “journey as a student by pursuing a Ph.D. in missiology to teach in a seminary.” He is currently taking biblical and theological foundations of evangelism and missions from McClellan and took Great Commission apologetics when he was working on his MET.

Soares sees the investment McClellan makes in him through the real-world experience he has as a missionary and his care.

“He brings to his classes a combination of the experience from the mission field and academic excellence, plus he shares it with love and patience,” Soares explained. “The best mentors are people who are marked in students’ memories for the rest of their lives, causing a real impact on their lives. Dr. McClellan is that true inspiration. He is a great encourager that helps me to live my calling.”

He describes McClellan’s dedication to him and the program as “amazing.”

“Good professors usually build good relationships with the people around them, always aiming to improve students’ learning process,” Soares said, noting that McClellan’s “uniqueness” is found in “his personal contact with students.”

Soares explained that McClellan “knows how to connect with us in order to understand what our academic difficulties are and help in possible personal situations which may interfere with [the] academic environment. Because he knows how to build that bridge, he can get the best from us.”

Soares finds McClellan’s ability to be a “devoted professor” that can draw out the “best” qualities of the students as a unique aspect of his teaching personality.

“As program director of Hispanic programs, I not only enjoy being a faculty member, but I love the Fish School,” McClellan concluded. “I love my colleagues here in the Fish School faculty and I enjoy the Hispanic programs and helping develop new faculty so they can be sent to serve in theological education as well.”