Texas Baptist College is focus of chapel panel discussion

Texas Baptist College, the undergraduate program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was the focus of the Sept. 17 chapel service, with a panel of faculty highlighting the distinctive work of the college.

Seminary President David S. Dockery explained the different approach to chapel is “something that we do to try to introduce what we do in one sector of the campus to the rest of the campus, so that we all have a better picture of the broad efforts of the work at Southwestern Seminary.”

Madison Grace, provost and senior vice president for academic administration, dean of the School of Theology, and professor of theology, echoed Dockery’s statement, saying it is “important from time to time that we come together and know each other as a community.”

Grace served as moderator for the TBC panel, which included Carl Bradford, TBC dean, associate professor of evangelism, and Malcolm R. and Melba L. McDow Chair of Evangelism; Coleman Ford, assistant professor of humanities; Andrew Jennings, assistant professor of philosophy of religion and apologetics; Daniel Darling, assistant professor of faith and culture and director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement; Kevin Rodgers, professor of missions and Intercultural Studies Program coordinator; and Blake McKinney, assistant professor of history and humanities.

Bradford drew applause when, in response to Grace’s first question about the panelists’ favorite class, he announced that 108 students are enrolled this semester in his favorite class, contemporary evangelism. He and the other panelists went on to explain why they enjoy teaching their favorite classes, with their answers focusing on helping students learn about God’s Word and apply that in their daily lives and in reaching others for Christ.

Grace then noted there are many options for an undergraduate education and asked Bradford what sets TBC apart from other schools.

“Number one, as I think about the idea of faith integration, … how we weave our faith into our disciplines,” Bradford said, adding that faith is as important in a systematic theology class as it is in an English class. He noted those on the panel as well as other TBC faculty members also teach in Southwestern Seminary’s graduate programs, “and so their whole life lends itself to theology and Bible.”

He added that, with the college being tied to a seminary, “we have a biblical foundation; rich historical and theological convictions that, for someone to come here to Texas Baptist College, they know what they are getting. They can believe in our traditions and can believe in the Bible and affirm our convictions.” Another aspect that sets the college apart is how it views “calling,” he said. Some schools view a calling as preparing students for a career, while other schools see a calling as strictly spiritual, preparing students to work in ministry.

“Well, we combine the two, and we see calling in that we are preparing our students to think biblically, have a biblical worldview, be able to interpret the world,” Bradford said. “We are training our students to be spiritually informed, spiritual transformation, and we are providing those skills where they can go out into the world, go into ministry, serve the church and the world.”

In response to a question about missions and intercultural studies at TBC, Rodgers said people think about global engagement differently. He tells students who are reluctant to take his introduction to missions class that it’s exactly where they need to be.

“The reason being because we live in a mission field all around us,” he said, adding that people from all over the world are living in Fort Worth. “So honestly, if you’re going to be the best pastor you can be, you need cross-cultural training. If you’re going to be the best evangelist you can be, you need to be equipped to reach people from other backgrounds, other worldviews, and other religious perspectives. If you’re going to be the best youth pastor you can be, you need to be able to engage all the youth in your community, not just the ones who look like you or come from the same background.”

Grace then asked Jennings what habit he would like TBC students to develop before they leave the college.

“I want them to think,” Jennings responded, drawing laughter from the audience. “You go, ‘Yeah, duh,’” he said before pointing to social media as “Exhibit A” of people not thinking before they react, creating a cultural industry of outrage.

“We call it rage baiting,” he said. “That headlines are designed to get you to click on them because either you vehemently agree with what they say already and just want to be further affirmed in your agreement, or you vehemently disagree with what they say and want to rage at the person who wrote and talk about how obviously wrong they are.”

Jennings said the goal of Christians is not to beat people or debate them into agreeing with them, but to mirror Christ to them.

In response to a question from Grace about the role the institution’s core value of being student-focused plays in his decisions regarding curriculum, Bradford said, “we’re thinking about how does this class help our students think? How does it help our students develop a biblical worldview? How does this class, this particular curriculum, help our students to go out and be effective in ministry for the Lord? And so every class has that behind it.”

Bradford said the recent dedication of a reading room for TBC students came from observing that students often had to go across campus to the library to study before rushing back to class and hearing students say they wished for their own place to read and learn.

“I would like for our students to know that you are part of every aspect of this campus, our curriculum, our faculty.” Faculty members are committed to spending time with students outside of the classroom, whether in the cafeteria at lunch or at co-curricular events.

Grace then asked Ford how the idea of spiritual formation transcends from his classroom into the broader culture and community of TBC.  Ford noted the importance of community in the Christian faith, “but in particular, we’re talking about the local church, in the sense that you are not a complete Christian without the community. You are lacking in your spiritual growth, and this doesn’t mean your community is perfect, doesn’t mean that you don’t have church woes or leadership issues. But the way that the Lord has wired it, because He Himself is community, is that you must exist in community with others in order to grow in the way that God has ordained in the image of Christ.”

In response to a question about how his classes help students learn to engage culturally, Darling noted that “God is sending us out into the world as it is. Jesus said in John 17 that He has not taken us out of this world, but He’s put us in this world, and He has not erred in having us live in this time and place. He has made us to live in this moment, and so how do we represent Christ well wherever we go?”

Darling said being able to think and apply Scripture to the ideas and ideologies that flood social media timelines and conversations is important because “if we don’t understand how to do that, we’ll be, as Paul says in Ephesians, we’ll be tossed about by every wind of doctrine, and you see Christians who really don’t have that worldview basis kind of drift one way or the other.”

Grace then asked McKinney how he balances a strong drive for academic rigor for himself and his students with a pastoral care model.

“Christian education should be excellent,” McKinney said. “It should be rigorous. It should be hard.” However, he added, bad things sometimes happen, or things go wrong, and you must give yourself grace.

“So many people find their identity in their performance, and it’s good to be reminded: you are not your grade,” he said. “You are not your transcript. You are who you are in Jesus, and part of our job is to both hold you to a high standard, but also to remind you of the Gospel of Christ and remind you what your identity actually is.”

McKinney then encouraged students to talk to their professors if they’re having problems.

“Because we care, we care for your souls. Your souls are more important to us than your grades.”

Grace then asked panelists about projects they’re working on. Each responded with books they’ve written, co-authored, or contributed to, many of them working on multiple projects.

“The fruit of that comes to play in your classes, and you become the recipients of the research that they’re engaging in,” Grace said. “So we have a great faculty at TBC that are working forward in the mission of Southwestern Seminary and helping equip our students and moving forward in the areas of culture, Bible, and theology, so I’m very appreciative for all of them and what they are doing.”

In response to the final question, where is TBC going, Bradford said he wants to see the college lean into its core values. They’re not just words, he said. “These core values drive who we are as a faculty and who we are as an institution. So we want to continue to be grace-filled, Christ-centered, scripturally grounded, confessionally guided, globally engaged, and also student-focused.”

He also spoke of expanding the college’s scope, possibly adding new degrees such as business, education, or communications.

“We’re talking about keeping our same identity and broadening our scope so that we can bring on more students, more people for the Kingdom … and have them serve in as many sectors in this world as possible, and they be a witness for Jesus Christ.”