Academic chairs at SEBTS to honor Charles Page, Dorothy Patterson
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary's board of trustees unanimously voted to establish the Charles Page Chair of Biblical Theology and Dorothy Kelley Patterson Chair of Women's Studies during their April 14-15 meeting on the Wake Forest, N.C., campus.
Page, in addition to his years of a leader within the Southern Baptist Convention and as a pastor of key churches, has spent the last seven years battling multiple myeloma, a deadly form of bone marrow cancer.
"I am just so very grateful for this opportune moment to do this," Southeastern President Paige Patterson told the trustees. "We don't have a more faithful friend and supporter than Dr. and Mrs. Page."
Patterson added that Page, who is pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., "has been such a phenomenal example of how a believer ought to undergo suffering and has literally prevailed over it."
The Pages were recognized and the chair announced during a morning service on April 15 in Binkley Chapel. They were visibly moved at the outpouring of love they received at the dedication service, where they also were given the President's Award for outstanding service and support of Southeastern.
"Every time I step on this campus, I am thrilled all over again," Page told the assembled crowd. "This has become one of the world's greatest seminaries, without question."
In addition to the new academic chairs for Page and Dorothy Patterson, wife of seminary President Paige Patterson, trustees also approved three endowment accounts to help students: the Barbara and Cula Griggs Aid Fund, the Southeastern Baptist Seminary Women's Auxiliary Aid Fund and the George and Ann Harvey Aid Fund.
In other business, four professors who have been teaching at Southeastern were unanimously elected to the faculty. They are:
-- Michael Travers as professor of English.
-- George Chok as assistant professor of theology.
-- David Hogg as assistant professor of church history.
-- Phyllis McCraw as assistant professor of English and composition.
In his report to the trustees, Patterson noted that Southeastern is completely clear "for all intents and purposes" for the next 10 years with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Association of Theological Schools accreditation boards. Patterson reported that as of this semester, the Ph.D. program has been officially moved off of preliminary status.
Patterson also reported that Southeastern is currently halfway toward the $16.5 million first-year goal of the overall $50 million Scholarship on Fire! Campaign. Describing the trustees and faculty as 100 percent committed to the project, he said the early portion of the campaign will be completed by December, despite recent economic conditions across the country. Once that part of the campaign is completed, ground can be broken for a new student center.
The first question Patterson received after his report, from trustee Steve Felker of Colonial Heights, Va., concerned the departure of Ken Hemphill from the presidency of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas to become the national strategist for the SBC's Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative. Felker said he had heard a rumor that Patterson was approached to take the job.
"The healthiest thing in the Southern Baptist Convention is the rumor mill," Patterson said to howls of laughter from the trustees. "It's often not accurate but it's healthy. ... The rumor mill is incorrect. I have not been approached by the [SWBTS] search committee about the position. Mrs. Patterson and I are supremely happy at Southeastern. Southwestern has many great choices [for president]."
After the trustees meeting, Patterson expressed his great appreciation and admiration for Hemphill.
"Dr. Hemphill has a great love for the churches," Patterson said. "He has a penchant for bringing the churches and theological education together."
In other action, trustees:
-- Unanimously approved a budget of $17.95 million for the coming year, a 1.79 percent increase over the current budget.
-- Promoted five faculty members in rank: David Beck from associate professor of New Testament and Greek to professor of New Testament and Greek; Bill Brown from assistant professor of evangelism and church planting to associate professor of evangelism and church planting; Fred Williams from assistant professor of history and languages to associate professor of history and languages; Bart Neal from professor of Christian education to senior professor of Christian education; Derry Hodge from instructor of speech and preaching to assistant professor of speech and preaching.
-- Approved a sabbatical leave for John Hammett, professor of systematic theology.
-- Affirmed a total of 36 new courses in the doctor of ministry, master's and college programs. They approved various degree revisions of the master of arts in church music, master of divinity with church music programs, and master of divinity with international church planting and master of divinity with North American church planting programs.
-- Affirmed master's courses in epistemology and selected topics in philosophy of religion. They also affirmed new college courses in introduction to sociology and The Early Republic, 1798-1848.
-- Re-elected current trustee officers: chairman, Timothy Lewis of Troy, Ill.; vice chairman, Jimmy Jacumin of Connelly Springs, N.C.; secretary, Jim Goldston of Raleigh, N.C.; and treasurer, Philip Mercer of Columbia, Md.
