Unique school serves South Texas
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___CORPUS CHRISTI--The Baptist Learning Center of South Texas has had a stormy past, but now the school is beginning to pour out blessings of its own.
___The ancestry of the school begins with the University of Corpus Christi, which was founded as a Baptist university. That is until Hurricane Celia came along and damaged the campus so badly that the Baptist General Convention of Texas decided by 1972 that the school was beyond its ability to repair. An attempt was made to give the school to the state, but by that time debts had accumulated, and the state declined.
___A number of people in Corpus Christi refused to take no for an answer, however, and the school operated as a community college for a couple of years until the indebtedness was paid off. The state then accepted the school, and it became Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
___Texas Baptists displayed prescience, however, and kept 10 acres of undeveloped land.
___Those 10 acres are where the Baptist Learning Center of South Texas now sits, developing ministers to better serve churches in the area.
___"We're the only Baptist school in this part of the state," President Lynn Self pointed out. "We needed to be a blessing to churches and a resource to ministers."
___Ministers who were forced to travel to other parts of the state for training were not as likely to come back to the southern coastal region to serve, he said. "If we are able to provide them what they need here, the odds of them serving in this part of the state go way up."
___The Learning Center provides ministerial training through partnerships with Howard Payne University in Brownwood and Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene.
___Students go to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi or a community college to get basic courses and then transfer those hours to the Howard Payne program, where additional theological education will earn them a bachelor's degree in Christian studies or Christian ministry. Students also can minor in bivocational ministry.
___Not trying to provide all the courses necessary for a four-year bachelor's degree enables the school to hold down costs, and thus tuition, Self said.
___"We have had the concept from the beginning that we were going to provide a quality education at a significantly lower cost. We're not a full-service university and don't plan to be," he asserted. "We're much cheaper than any of the main campuses."
___Howard Payne's partnership with the Learning Center has been mutually beneficial, said Howard Payne Provost Robert Bicknell. "We feel like it's something that has met a need, but it has also served as a model for us."
___Another new partnership now enables students to earn graduate degrees in ministry through the Learning Center. Through Logsdon School of Theology, students may earn a master of divinity degree.
___"We think there's a great need for theological education in South Texas," said Vernon Davis, dean of the Hardin-Simmons University theology school.
___Because of the diversity of educational opportunities, Self said, the student body at the Learning Center is likewise diverse. While some students fit the traditional college profile, others are deacons, Sunday School teachers and ministers seeking courses that will allow them to better serve their churches.
___The school also is denominationally diverse. Self estimates members of 15 or more denominations come to the school. "That makes for a very stimulating student body," he said.
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