Carroll Institute offers new approach to theological training_30804

Posted: 3/05/04

Carroll Institute offers new approach to theological training

By Marv Knox

Editor

ARLINGTON–Swirling shifts in churches, education and society demand a new approach to training ministers, founders of the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute stressed during ceremonies that marked the school's opening.

“We live in a world of great change, and that change is the reason the Carroll Institute has been formed,” President Bruce Corley said in a video presentation Feb. 28 at First Baptist Church in Arlington, near the institute's headquarters.

Needs of churches and church leaders have been changing rapidly, Corley said, adding he and several colleagues have been researching how to meet those needs for about a decade. The majority of U.S. churches have plateaued in their membership and participation, 40 percent of baptisms in Baptist churches are rebaptisms of Christians who were members of other denominations, and only 15 percent of U.S. Christian leaders live in cities, which are home to a huge majority of people, he noted.

“Churches need a vast number of new church starts,” he said. “But many don't survive one generation because of a lack of leadership training. Many leaders have no access to training.”

However, a change in education–the trend toward teaching with the Internet and other electronic resources–can make affordable ministry training available, he added.

“The Carroll Institute intends to be on the cutting edge” of preparing Christians for ministry, using the Internet to supplement education, he said.

That approach will work in today's society, he added. For example, 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in cities; more people are exercising “deferred choices” and entering second and third careers, such as ministry, later in life; and diversity of backgrounds is becoming the norm.

The Carroll Institute will begin classes this fall, Corley said. It will function through “teaching churches,” where church staff and others from the area are qualified to train and mentor ministers. Classroom courses will be supplemented with online training over the Internet. And some courses also may feature Internet broadcast of lectures from a central teacher to students in various locations, who also will be guided by a local teacher at each site.

“Theological education ought to move in this direction,” said Russell Dilday, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and retired professor at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary, who serves as the institute's chancellor.

Such an institute can provide the “right and adequate training of a great host of spiritual leaders,” Dilday said, quoting Carroll, the institute's namesake and founder of Southwestern Seminary almost a century ago.

Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas and a member of the Carroll Institute's board of governors, praised its church-based approach to training ministers.

“Theological education is done best in the context of a local church,” Denison said on the video. Such training, guided by mentors who are involved in ministry themselves, enables students to “integrate spiritual formation and theological education,” he said.

Carroll Institute administrators are talking seriously to a dozen churches about opening their doors to classes as early as the fall, Corley said in a live presentation to supporters who gathered from across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and as far away as Houston and San Antonio to launch the school.

Sites currently are being negotiated in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Corley said. The institute also will offer classes in West Texas, and leaders are talking to churches in Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

“In these sites, we'll have face-to-face classes, plus online delivery resources,” he said.

Carroll Institute leaders will seek certification from three agencies–the Association of Theological Schools, which accredits ministry-training schools in the United States and Canada; the National Association of Schools of Music; and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the primary regional accrediting agency for higher education.

“We will seek certification within a two-year period,” Corley said. Operating costs are about $40,000 per month, he reported, and the institute is seeking to raise $157,000 in order to open classes in the fall.

In an interview, Stan Moore, one of the institute's senior fellows, said the school is likely to train an average of 15 to 20 students at each teaching church.

The founders tout teaching churches as an asset for several reasons:

Because the training sites will be based in local churches, their focus will help students ground themselves in the practical aspects of ministry.

The training sites will be scattered broadly, so most students will not have to relocate and disrupt their families to study for ministry.

Most classes will be taught by teacher-mentors who are not full-time professors but practicing ministers, whose work is grounded in the church.

Students at each site will be able to build community by studying with a core group of fellow learners, who are sharing common classroom and ministry experiences.

The institute will not invest in “bricks and mortar”–an expensive campus–so the training should be affordable, “comparable but less than other institutions,” Moore said.

The curriculum will be designed to meet students' ministry needs and will be relevant for their work in churches.

The Carroll Institute will offer three levels of study, Moore said.

Lay studies will be geared toward helping laity improve their leadership skills in their local churches. A master's-level course of study will offer what will be the equivalent of a master's degree when the institute receives accreditation. And the institute also plans to offer three doctoral degrees–doctor of ministry, doctor of musical arts and doctor of philosophy.

“The only thing we're not going to offer is a bachelor's degree,” Moore said. “We do not want to compete with our Baptist colleges and universities.”

But the institute may offer a diploma program, which would enable students in their 30s or older to earn a diploma and then a master's degree without going back to college, where typical students would be much younger.

The Carroll Institute's educational programs will be similar in structure to other non-residential professional degrees, such as executive MBA programs or the diversity of master's and doctoral degrees offered nationwide by the University of Phoenix, Moore said.

In addition to Corley, Moore and Dilday, the Carroll Institute's staff includes Budd Smith and Jim Spivey, both senior fellows; Scotty Gray, assistant to the president for institutional effectiveness; and Michael Wright, director of church life and technology.

Wright formerly was a technology leader for the Southern Baptist Radio & Television Commission. All the others previously were professors at Southwestern Seminary.

The board of governors is comprised of Tom Coston, a businessman and member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth; Denison; Tom Hill, a businessman and member of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio; Bill Howard, a retired physician and member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth; Joan Trew, a real estate agent and member of University Baptist Church in Fort Worth; and Jerry Yowell, a businessman and member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

For more information, contact the institute at 120 E. Abram, Arlington 76010; (817) 274-4284; e-mail:admin@bhcti.org; website: www.bhcti.org.