[1]FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–A Baptist heritage course taught in Korean will be offered Jan. 4-7 at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Jonathan Kim, the seminary’s international liaison and director of its undergraduate and lay theological studies program, said the one-week, three-credit course is designed for Korean and Korean-American students who understand the Korean language and want to learn about their heritage as Baptists.
The course also will help connect students to the network of Korean Southern Baptist leaders, Kim said. “There will be a couple of Korean Southern Baptist leaders invited as guest speakers,” he said. One guest already scheduled is a Korean national missionary with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The course will be taught by Hyung Min Kim, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s consultant on Asia and senior pastor of Denton (Texas) Korean Baptist Church. Hyung Min Kim holds a Ph.D. in evangelism from Southwestern Seminary.
Students from other colleges or seminaries are invited to enroll in the course. “Course credit should be transferable,” Kim said. There are no course prerequisites, but class size will be limited to 30 students.
The Korean-language Baptist heritage course emerged from a plan leaders of the Council for Korean Southern Baptist Churches in North America presented to Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson earlier this year. The plan was designed to encourage the seminary to develop a Korean-American studies program and to call for more Korean students to attend the Texas seminary.
[2]Kim said Southwestern Seminary had offered Baptist heritage and a few classes taught in Korean every semester until about three years ago.
“The seminary leadership has decided to begin offering courses taught in Korean in order to build a bridge between Southwestern Seminary and the Korean community,” Kim said.
“[We are] hoping for Southwestern to add at least a couple of Korean courses each year until a Korean/Korean-American studies concentration may be offered as part of the M.Div. degree,” he added.
Southwestern Seminary enrolled 150 Korean students during the spring 2004 semester. In the fall 2004 semester the seminary enrolled 193 Korean students.
Anyone interested in enrolling in the Korean-language Baptist heritage course should contact the seminary registrar’s office at (817) 923-1921, ext. 3040, for more information.
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