January 7, 2002
HISPANIC BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL consists of eight buildings on a 12-acre site, including the administration building and chapel (left) and library (right).
Hispanic Baptist Theological School
reaching unchurched 'Jose & Maria'
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___SAN ANTONIO--Like the pioneers who established Baptist universities for the growth of the Lone Star State, Texas Baptists face a unique opportunity to provide for the education of tomorrow's Hispanic Baptist leaders, according to Albert Reyes.
___As president of Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio, it's his job to promote the school. But as a friend of Texas Baptists, it's also his duty to point out the urgent need to prepare for profound changes that lie just around the corner.
___Reyes knows what's coming because he's lived and worked on the front lines of the state's much-anticipated demographic change. As pastor of a multi-ethnic Baptist church in El Paso, he preached and witnessed and ministered in a microcosm of what demographers and futurists say all of Texas will become.
ALBERT REYES with flags of the nations in the HBTS chapel.
___Those who follow church-growth issues are well-acquainted with "unchurched Harry and Mary," the prototypical spiritual seekers written about by leaders of Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. But Texas Baptists need to start thinking about unchurched Jose and Maria.
See a Timetable of HBTS history
___The most popular name given to boys born in Texas in 1999 was not Brian or David or Steve, but Jose.
___And if Texas Baptists want Jose and the rest of his family to know about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, several things must change, including how Texas Baptists think about ministerial training, Reyes said.
___"Help us build the kind of school that will build leaders for the future," he urged during a recent interview on the school's campus. "We have to have a place to train Hispanic leaders."
___The reasons for special attention to this cause are many, he explained.
___First, the high school dropout rate for Hispanics in Texas is 50 percent, he said. That means if Texas Baptists want to educate ministers for Hispanic churches, they must offer a wide range of programs, including entry points below the level of a bachelor's degree.
___Second, the emphasis must not be limited to certificate and diploma programs, he added. Texas Baptists must provide places for high-quality degree programs immersed in the Hispanic context.
___HBTS is the natural place for such an education because of the school's history, location and resources. But "we're not the only option," he added. "We need our other Baptist institutions to make way for Hispanics to go there as well."
___Third, a school like HBTS can advance Baptist heritage by teaching emerging Hispanic leaders about Baptist distinctives and doctrine, Reyes said.
___Fourth, HBTS already is the leading educator of Hispanic Baptist ministers in Texas. HBTS alumni provide pastoral leadership for 75 percent of the 1,000 Hispanic churches and missions affiliated with the BGCT.
___"Texas Baptists who are serious about impacting the future for Christ need to think about making an investment here," Reyes implored.
___This message caught the attention of the BGCT's Seminary Study Committee in 2000. As a result of the emerging needs the committee documented, the convention that year created a BGCT Adopted Budget that was projected to channel $600,000 in new money to HBTS each year.
___Because Texas Baptist churches have been slower to accept the recommended budget option than anticipated, HBTS leaders have been forced to extend the timetable on major advancements needed for the future. Rather than receiving $600,000 in new money annually, HBTS has received about $250,000, Reyes said.
___That money is greatly appreciated and is being put to gooduse, he reported. But he urged Texas Baptists to pick up the pace by moving to the BGCT Adopted Budget or by supporting HBTS directly.
___The timing is crucial for two reasons, he explained. The school is working to receive certification from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and to be accredited by the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges.
___These two goals are separate yet related. And meeting the requirements for both certifications demands money, Reyes said.
___For example, to achieve certification with the state of Texas as a degree-granting college, HBTS must enlarge its library holdings, increase the size of the faculty, install automated record-keeping systems and establish larger cash reserves. Conversations with state officials have shown HBTS must beef up two broad areas, Reyes said. Those are academic expertise and financial resources.
___Once HBTS gains state certification, it can legally represent itself as a college and can offer degrees. Without certification, as is the case now, the school can offer diplomas and certificates but not degrees. And it can bill itself as neither a seminary nor a college. That's why trustees in 1999 changed the institution's name to Hispanic Baptist Theological School from Hispanic Baptist Theological Seminary.
THANKS TO A GRANT from the High Plains Christian Ministries Foundation, students now have access to a computer lab on campus
___HBTS has applied for state certification twice in recent years and was rejected both times. But state officials have assured Reyes the Baptist school is close to meeting the goal and should be able to achieve certification in the near future.
___Reyes hopes this hurdle might be crossed by 2003. He and other administrators are carefully working a point-by-point blueprint for addressing deficiencies that stand in the way of certification.
___Meanwhile, the school has advanced to candidate status with the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges, the major accrediting agency of Bible colleges in the United States. Its member schools include Moody Bible Institute and Multnomah Bible College.
___Many of the improvements necessary for state certification also are necessary for accreditation, although the checklists for both processes differ somewhat.
___The campus has been a beehive of activity for months, as many of the physical upgrades have begun.
___Nowhere is this more evident than in the school's library. Over recent months, employees and volunteers have weeded through the overgrown collection to cull outdated and irrelevant holdings. Out of a reported 28,000 items in the library, only 11,000 were deemed appropriate.
___After BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade made an appeal for book donations in his Baptist Standard column, HBTS received 14,000 donated volumes of all kinds. Of those, 7,000 were useable for the library, bringing the total holdings to 18,000 items.
___More books and journals are needed. (See editorial .)
___A computerized database also is being installed in the library, a dramatic revolution on campus. "The technology required to operate our library to date is a sharpened No. 2 pencil," Reyes said, pointing out the old-fashioned card-catalog used there.
___The automation project alone, he said, carries a price tag of $130,000.
___Similar technological advances are planned for the school's administrative offices, where student records still have been maintained with pencil, paper, typewriters and carbon paper.
___Reyes chuckled when recalling the analysis performed on the school's record-keeping system by a certified public accountant. "What you have is a non-system system," the accountant said.
___That "non-system system" consisted of two small computers that could not interact.
BUILDING UP the number of appropriate holdings in the library is a major goal as the school seeks state certification and national accreditation. Librarian Edith Pequeño (shown with a student at right) is leading this effort, which also includes putting the library's databse on a computer for the first time.
___With funds from the BGCT, the school recently purchased new hardware and software for administrative record-keeping. Now all the data must be entered.
___Like so much happening at HBTS these days, that's a laborious process--but one that will pay big dividends for the future.
___At the same time, enrollment increased 62 percent in the last year, with 123 students on campus and 188 attending off-campus programs through the school's Center for Biblical Studies.
___Through the Timothy Project, a new initiative to address the financial challenges of prospective students, 52 first-year students attended HBTS this year tuition-free.
___Also, four faculty members have been added in the last year, and a language literacy program was launched.
___Everything that's happening at HBTS is worthy of the support of Texas Baptists, insisted BGCT Executive Director Wade.
___He commended Reyes for bringing "a passion to both the academic responsibility and the mission assignment" of the school and the faculty and student body for their "energy that is contagious."
___"We have a remarkable school in San Antonio that will influence in a profound way our ministry with and among the Hispanic population of Texas," Wade said. "Every prayer offered, every encouragement given, every dollar of support provided is an investment with eternal benefits. This is the most exciting time for advance in the history of this school."
___BGCT President Bob Campbell, who was chairman of the Seminary Study Committee, also urged Texas Baptists to catch the vision of what HBTS can become.
___"The future for Texas Baptist Hispanic work is now," Campbell said. "Because demographics tell us that the state of Texas is rapidly becoming a predominantly Hispanic state, we must have trained, qualified Hispanic pastors and laypersons to carry the gospel to the multitude of Spanish-speaking people in Texas.
___"Hispanic Theological School offers this training," he said. "However, it does not have the financial resources to meet these expanding needs. Texas Baptist churches need to be diligent in supporting both the Hispanic School and the BGCT Cooperative Program. Such support will guarantee quality graduates."
___
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