November 12, 2001
Park Place Church deeds property
to Southwestern for Houston campus
___HOUSTON (BP)--Park Place Baptist Church of Houston voted Nov. 4 to deed its $7 million site to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to be used as the seminary's Houston campus.
___About 240 people voted on the proposal at a special business meeting. The agreement allows Park Place to continue meeting in the building and performing its ministries from there.
___The church has been a landmark in Houston's east end since 1961. The eight-and-a-half-acre campus includes a 2,000-seat auditorium, educational space for 1,500 people and a gymnasium/recreation facility.
PARK PLACE BAPTIST CHURCH in Houston has deeded its property to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
___Southwestern Seminary President Ken Hemphill called the agreement "a tremendous boost for the Houston campus of Southwestern Seminary."
___"It fits well with our strategy to go with a freestanding facility," he said. "The strategic location is as central as we could have ever chosen. I think it's a visionary move on the part of the church to continue to fulfill their Great Commission in spite of the challenges they have faced. Their gift allows them to do their task while enabling Southwestern to move to a whole new level of ministry in the Houston area."
___Since 1975, Southwestern's Houston center has operated from the campus of Houston Baptist University. A search had been under way for a new location, however, because of the program's growth and a desire to make the seminary a freestanding unit. The Houston program currently enrolls about 250 students.
___Park Place Baptist Church was organized in 1918 in the southeast quadrant of Houston, just a few minutes from Hobby Airport. It was for years the leading Baptist church in Houston in attendance and in ministry. The church averaged more than 1,700 in attendance until 1963, when membership began to decline due to urban flight and the aging of the congregation. The neighborhood around the church has been in transition since the 1970s.
___Average Sunday morning attendance today is about 320, according to Pastor James Clark.
___"The church's vision has been to be a center of ministry," Clark said. "The congregation is really excited because this partnership fulfills our vision and even exceeds our dreams in terms of our ability to have a global impact. We're excited about making a contribution to something that is going to outlive all of us and to being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves."
___Church members have been very concerned to see attendance decline through the years, said Bill Harwell, a deacon and church member since the early 1960s who has served as the church's business administrator for the past 10 years. "That's why we felt so God-led when this opportunity came about."
___Southwestern unveiled plans last year to make the Houston campus a self-sustaining, degree-granting unit of Southwestern Seminary. Seminary officials are seeking to raise $8 million to renovate the Park Place Baptist facilities, establish a theological library, hire faculty and build an endowment.
___Tom Billings, executive director of Union Baptist Association, called Park Place "an excellent example of a 'turnaround congregation' from a long period of decline to a period of growth."
___"James came in and was able to help them get a new vision for their ministry," Billings said. "This move ensures the future and viability of the church and provides for good ministerial training."
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