Baptists mark centennial of social work education for churches

Posted: 8/31/07

Baptists mark centennial of
social work education for churches

By Vicki M. Kabat and Franci Rogers

Baylor University

Looking back, Mallory Homeyer recalls how her desire to help other people was nurtured during her early years at First Baptist Church of Kenedy, where her mother was deeply involved in Woman’s Missionary Union.

“From a young age, the faces of the WMU women in my church were the faces of missions for me,” she said. “I grew up wanting to model my life after them,” she said.

But it wasn’t until Homeyer enrolled at Baylor University in 2002 and discovered its School of Social Work that she discovered her love for God and for helping others could be expressed through a profession she didn’t know existed—church social work.

Rena Groover of Pidcock, Ga.; Clemmie Ford of Knoxville, Tenn.; Alice Huey of Bessemer, Ala.; and Ella Jeter of Walters, Okla., were the first women to move into a rented house provided by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on Nov. 26, 1904. The four had chosen to live together as roommates independently, but the seminary became worried about their safety and urged them to move into a place it rented for them. Three years later, the WMU Training School began as a partnership between Woman’s Missionary Union and Southern Seminary, with the goal to provide a formal education for young women called to serve God. (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Photo)

“It combined all the things I have a passion for,” said Homeyer, who will serve as an intern at Elkins Lake Baptist Church in Huntsville next spring.

The Baylor School of Social Work’s fall class represents the 100th year of social work education for the church, and it’s a milestone Diana Garland, dean of the School, has made sure students recognize. The school has hosted centennial celebrations throughout the past year, with another planned for the Woman’s Missionary Union National Convention Oct. 17-20 in Little Rock, Ark.

“The role of social work is moving to the heart of the church,” Garland said. “The Greatest Commandment stands on two legs—the love of God and the love of our neighbor. Social work, especially in the church, helps us to know how to love our neighbor.”

The WMU Training School began in 1907 in Louisville, Ky., as a partnership between the WMU and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, with the goal to provide a formal education for young women called to serve God.

Students came primarily from economically disadvantaged or rural areas, and they depended on the women of WMU to help them with tuition. In 1912, the Baptist Settlement House, later called the Goodwill Center, was established and was the beginning of the field component of social work education.

“Louisville, at that time, had a lot of immigrants who were struggling with poverty, language and culture, who came to the Goodwill Center,” said Laine Scales, professor of social work and author of All That Fits a Woman, a history of the early years of the WMU Training School. “Students would go there to implement and practice what they learned in the classroom. It is where they learned the heart of social work.”

The WMU Training School was renamed the Carver School of Missions and Social Work in the 1950s, and in 1957 it was deeded to the Southern Baptist Convention due to financial difficulties. Its assets were merged with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which later dismissed the Carver School faculty and reframed social work as a major within its School of Religious Education.

Anne Davis, a graduate of the last class of Carver, joined the seminary’s faculty in 1970 determined to rebuild what had been lost. Davis called Garland, a young academician and clinician to join her, along with Rob Rogers, today an associate professor at the School of Social Work. They and a few others developed a master’s program.

“At that time, the social work profession was rather allergic to the church, to anything that smacked of faith and ministry,” Garland said. “Social work was considered a mental health profession. In the Baptist world, however, Christian social ministries was recognized as an important mission of the church.”

In 1984, the Carver School of Church Social Work was established with Davis as its first dean. But in 1995, the new president of the seminary, with the backing of its trustees, closed the graduate social work program, stating that social work education was incongruent with conservative theology. Garland, who had been named dean in 1993, was dismissed.

Out of that turmoil, however, the legacy of graduate education in social work for the church re-emerged at Baylor University. Preston Dyer, then chair of the social work program in the sociology department, invited Garland to help him develop a master’s program in social work at Baylor.

In 1999, the first master of social work class of 14 was enrolled. In fall 2007, that master’s program has mushroomed to 124 students, including 14 in a dual degree offered in conjuction with Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary. In 2005, the school was ranked in the top 100 graduate schools in U.S. News & World Report. That same year, the school officially became Baylor’s 11th academic unit, with Garland as its inaugural dean.

“Many churches are involved in a wide variety of ministry to people,” Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade said. “The more churches do this work, the more they see the need for carefully trained leaders, people who cannot only do social work ministry, but also can equip and train church volunteers to do it in a more effective way.”

Today, the legacy of those pioneering WMU women to provide quality education for young women who felt called to serve God continues at Baylor. WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee is pleased that the tradition has a new home.

“In 1907, the women had a place to call home” at the WMU Training School, she said. “We are grateful that the Baylor School of Social Work is there today to pick up the mantle of what was started 100 years ago.”

Wade values the faith-based, holistic perspective that informs the social work education at Baylor.

“There is social work education offered all over the country, but only at Baylor is the focus on helping train skilled people for working in social ministries as part of the church mission,” he said.

The school’s leaders hope for a new facility to accommodate its growing student enrollment, faculty and staff. A strategic plan, more than two years in development, has been drafted that calls for a doctoral program and increased international education opportunities.

Notably, the school has received more than $6 million in grants since 1999 to conduct research that explores the interrelationships between faith and service and its impact on churches, religiously affiliated organizations and the social work profession.

Social work student Homeyer, whose education is being partially subsidized by WMU scholarships, has found the home and the profession she has longed for since going to WMU meetings as a child with her mother.

“These women probably never realized how they shaped the church,” Homeyer said. “They were willing to be radical and to step out there. And now we need to do the same.”