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TRUSTEES: SWBTS’ college named for L.R. Scarborough


FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s trustees received reports on the renaming of the College at Southwestern and the establishment of the Patterson Center for Global Theological Innovation during their April 11-12 meeting at the Fort Worth, Texas, campus.

Trustees also approved promotions for eight faculty members and the election of seven others along with a $36,833,962 budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

Trustees received a report from their executive committee which met earlier this spring and voted to rename the College at Southwestern as “The L.R. Scarborough College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary” in honor of the seminary’s second president, Lee Rutland Scarborough.

Scarborough College will continue the school’s original vision from its initial launch in 2005, aiming to lay a foundation on which God-called men and women can build a lifetime of ministry by being equipped to think biblically, reason truthfully and share God’s Word effectively.

In addition to its new name, Scarborough College also boasts a new mascot — the lions — as well as a gold “S” logo over a blue background.

In a second item from the executive committee report, Southwestern’s Global Theological Innovation will now be based in the newly named Patterson Center for GTI.

GTI is a program of the seminary to strengthen theological education around the world by forming strategic partnerships with seminaries and Baptist conventions overseas. Since its beginning in 2012, Southwestern has formed 137 GTI partnerships in 58 nations over five continents, reaching such diverse locations as Brazil, Cuba, Portugal, Lebanon and the Philippines.

Because Southwestern President Paige Patterson was one of the architects of the initiative, trustees voted to name the new GTI center in his honor.

Faculty promotions & elections

Promoted to professor from associate professor positions were John Laing in systematic theology and philosophy; Tom Keumsup Song in church music; and Douglas A. Wood in education and worship.

Promoted to associate professor from assistant professor positions were Scott Aniol in church music; Dongsun Cho in systematic and historical theology; Paul Gould in philosophy and Christian apologetics; Madison Grace in Baptist history and theology; and Dean Sieberhagen in Islamic studies, formerly an assistant professor in missions and Islamic studies.

Elected to the faculty were Nathan Holsteen as professor of systematic theology and Andrew Streett as associate professor of biblical studies, both in the school of theology; Brandon Kiesling as assistant professor of evangelism in the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions; Matthew Harrison, assistant professor of foundations of education in the Terry School of Church and Family Ministries; Ethan Jones as assistant professor of Old Testament and Justin Hiester as assistant professor of missions, both in Scarborough College; and Brad Heller, assistant professor of English in the J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston.

Holsteen’s election is effective July 1. All other promotions and elections are effective Aug. 1.

Trustees elected new officers: chairman, Kevin Ueckert, lead pastor of the First Baptist Church in Georgetown, Texas; vice chairman, David Maron, an attorney in Jackson, Miss.; and secretary, Ronny Cooksey, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in McMinnville, Ore.

Scarborough College

Lee Rutland Scarborough, for whom the college is now named, was born on July 4, 1870, and went on to become a cowboy preacher, a fiery evangelist, one of Southwestern’s founding faculty members, the first occupant and namesake for the first-ever chair of evangelism in a seminary (“the Chair of Fire”), and the institution’s second president, serving from 1914-1942. Though B.H. Carroll, Southwestern’s first president, was the seminary’s visionary and founder, Scarborough is credited as its architect and steward.

Current President Paige Patterson, speaking of the college’s new name at the trustee meeting, said he was initially hesitant to name the college after Scarborough for fear that he was not a well-known name. But when Patterson considered the monumental contributions Scarborough made to the seminary, he realized this was undeniably the best choice.

“We are happy about the faithfulness and the example that Lee Scarborough left to us that we can now follow,” Patterson said. He added that this is an appropriate time to rename the college, as it will move into the campus’ newest building, Mathena Hall, this fall.

“The mission of Scarborough College is to create effective witnesses for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, regardless of the student’s academic pursuit,” the scarboroughcollege.com website declares. The college thus prepares students to follow in the footsteps of L.R. Scarborough, who lived “with a heart on fire with evangelistic zeal and a head filled with the wisdom of God.”

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  • Alex Sibley