March 15, 2000
DAVID CRUTCHLEY receives a round of applause from trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after they elected him dean of the School of Theology March 7. Standing is former board chairman Ralph Pulley of Dallas. Crutchley succeeds Tommy Lea, who died last year. (SWBTS photo by Brian Murley)
Southwestern chooses
South African for theology dean
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___FORT WORTH--Expanding what President Ken Hemphill called the "globalization" of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, trustees last week elected a dean from South Africa, as well as a Cuban-American professor and a Korean-American administrator.
___David Crutchley, 45, who joined the Southwestern faculty last fall after 14 years at Cape Town Baptist Theological College in South Africa, was elected dean of the School of Theology. He succeeds Tommy Lea, who died last July.
DAVID CRUTCHLEY
___Esther Diaz-Bolet becomes the first Cuban-American woman elected to the seminary faculty. She will be an assistant professor of administration.
___Jong-hwan (Jonathan) Kim, a former chaplain in the Korea Air Command, was elected associate director of the seminary's undergraduate and Lay Theological Education programs.
___The elections will strengthen Southwestern's globalization--its focus on missions and evangelism from a worldwide perspective, Hemphill predicted.
___Crutchley stood out among other candidates for the top theology job because of his "vision for building a world-class faculty," Hemphill said, adding, "He knows scholars literally from around the world."
___Crutchley grew up in Rhodesia, the country now known as Zimbabwe. His parents, who now live in Cape Town, South Africa, became "Baptists by conviction" under the influence of Southern Baptist missionaries. "A missions motif runs through my family," he noted.
___He is married to the former Carol Fray, whose parents, Bud and Jane Fray, were Southern Baptist missionaries to Rhodesia. Her father also taught missions at Southwestern for several years.
___Because of missionaries' influence, Crutchley came to the United States for his education. He earned a bachelor's degree at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, and after receiving two law degrees in Rhodesia, he returned to the States to earn master's and doctor's degrees at Southwestern.
___He was a Southern Baptist missionary to South Africa, where he spent 14 years on the faculty of the Cape Town school, serving as a professor and later as acting president. He became an associate professor of New Testament at Southwestern last fall.
___As theology dean, Crutchley wants to help ministerial students "connect head and heart." He intends to lead them in a "pursuit of academic excellence together with spiritual vitality."
___He also intends to be an "advocate for the faculty," he said. "I see the opportunity to teach at Southwestern as a troth, a covenant of trust," he added, noting he affirms academic freedom guided by responsibility.
___"Southwestern stands for certain principles," and faculty will be expected to teach in accordance with them, he said.
___Of his own theological position, he said: "I'm a theological conservative, obviously, or I wouldn't be teaching here. I stand by the authority of God's word. ... The Bible is the charter for my life, the reference point for my life."
___Crutchley also stressed the importance of evangelism and missions, the role of Christ in the life of a Christian believer and Christian ethics.
___Southwestern students also must be taught that Christianity applies to individual lives in practical ways, he affirmed. "Faith must be relevant," he said. "The vertical dimension must be connected to the horizontal. Jesus rolled up his sleeves and connected to people and their lives," and ministers also must have that ability.
___Crutchley and his family attend Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth. As a seminary student, he was a member of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where Miles Seaborn, the seminary's trustee chairman, was pastor.
___Diaz-Bolet, 49, has been an adjunct professor at Southwestern since 1993. She also is a corporate services instructor for Tarrant County Junior College in the Fort Worth area and minister of adults and adult Sunday School leaders' training coordinator at Templo Bautista Emanuel in Fort Worth.
___She is a graduate of Montclair State University and Florida International University, and she earned two degrees from Southwestern.
___Kim, 36, is minister of education at Korean First Baptist Church in Dallas. He has been an assistant professor of adult education, academic counselor and associate registrar at Dallas Baptist University, an instructor at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary's Los Angeles branch and a staff member of churches in Los Angeles and Fort Worth.
___Trustees also elected four other faculty members. They are:
___William Michael McGuire, 48, as associate professor of psychology and counseling. McGuire has been professor of psychology and counseling at Criswell College in Dallas since 1998 and also has taught at Dallas Baptist University.
___He has been a counselor at First Baptist Church in Dallas and also served on other church staffs. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University, Dallas Theological Seminary and Texas Woman's University. He is a member of First Baptist Church in Dallas.
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___He is a graduate of Wayland Baptist University and Southwestern Seminary.
___
___Dana Wicker will be an assistant professor of psychology and counseling. She has been a guest professor at the seminary, a women's ministry adviser at First Baptist Church in Frisco, a vocational counselor at the University of North Texas Counseling and Testing Center and an aid for dependent children worker with the Texas Department of Human Resources.
___She is a graduate of Baylor University and the University of North Texas.
___Jim Wicker is an adjunct teacher at Dallas Baptist University. He has been pastor of First Baptist churches of Frisco, Farmersville and Lavon and has served on staffs of congregations in Plano.
___He is a graduate of Baylor and Southwestern Seminary.
___Trustees also re-elected their officers to one-year terms: Chairman Seaborn, retired pastor of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth; Vice Chairman Michael Dean, pastor of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth; and Secretary Matthew McKellar, pastor of Sylvania Baptist Church in Tyler.
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