In our Monday Morning meeting, the Senior Pastor shared a real encouraging anecdote.
To begin with, some of our more mature pastors have recently arrived from a summer residency program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Twelve of our older pastors are in the process of completing their Doctoral Studies, and a summer residency at the Fort Worth campus is required of the cohort.
A number of months ago, our Senior Pastor went to Fort Worth to meet with Dr. Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern to ask for a discount on tuition and fees for GCF students and take great consideration of the dollar-peso exchange rate! Pastor Luis said, "There is no way a Filipino pastor can afford to pay for Doctoral Studies at Southwestern." When Pastor Luis pleaded for a discount, Dr. Patterson took out a .38 calibre pistol displayed on his shelf and jokingly said, "This is self defense to the blatant 'highway robbery' you're instigating!" They laughed. Dr. Patterson went on and said in a serious Texan tone, "Luis, I don't know if Southwestern could afford to provide that much of a discount for everyone you're church is sending."
On that same day, Dr. Patterson received a phone call reporting that oil was discovered underneath the campus of Southwestern!!! Pastor Luis said, "Paige, I believe God has just provided us an answer to our need!"
Southwestern Seminary celebrates its centennial this year. Since its founding, Southwestern has sent out more than 40,000 graduates to serve in local churches and mission fields around the world. In 1908, B.H. Carroll established the seminary on the campus of Baylor University. It was moved to its current location on Seminary Hill in Fort Worth in 1910 and was placed under the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925. Paige Patterson was elected as the eighth president of the seminary in 2003.
Southwestern Seminary however is not without its controversies. The most recent major one surrounded the firing of Dr. Sheri Klouda from her post as Professor of Old Testament Languages in 2006. She became Assistant Professor two years prior to Patterson's election as President by the same Board of Trustees that elected her to her post. Klouda was the only woman in the School of Theology that conferred upon her a PhD, which in effect gave her the "authority" to teach. Dr. Klouda needed to be fired and replaced as a professor because she was a woman.
In the summer of 2006, Sheri was graciously elected to a professorship at Taylor University in Indiana, where she is appreciated for her work and for the contributions she is making to the academic community there.
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