DBU inaugurates first endowed professorship

DALLAS—Dallas Baptist University marked a milestone in missions education Feb. 17, when it inaugurated the Piper Chair of Missions—the first endowed professorship in the school’s history.

Gathering for the inauguration of the endowed Piper Chair of Missions at Dallas Baptist University are (left to right) Kent Reynolds, executive director of the Christ Is Our Salvation Foundation; his wife, Katy Reynolds; and donors Paul Piper Jr. and Shirley Piper. (DBU PHOTO)

Bob Garrett, a former missionary to Argentina and longtime missions professor, holds the chair, DBU President Gary Cook told an audience composed of missions students, DBU faculty and staff, friends of the university and missions advocates.

The Piper Chair of Missions is supported by a $1 million endowment, Cook said. Paul and Shirley Piper of Wilson, Wyo., donated half that amount as a challenge to other donors to contribute the balance. Through its foundations, Christ Is Our Salvation and Christian Mission Concerns, the Piper Family has supported numerous missions and ministry causes across Texas and beyond.

DBU’s missions emphasis, which is strengthened by the Piper Chair of Missions, comes at the right time in history, Garrett told the audience.

“There’s never been a time when there were more opportunities to share the gospel than today,” he said. Of Earth’s 6 billion people, “at least one-fourth of the world still lives without a witness of Jesus. They could live and die and never once hear that Jesus saves. Somebody ought to do something about that.”

Bob Garrett

And DBU will do its part, pledged Garrett, who taught missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth after he returned from Argentina and before he joined the DBU faculty.

“My first impression of Dallas Baptist University was ‘God is up to something here,’” Garrett said. “Our students have a kind of happy holiness here. … DBU will continue to be a place of fervent, happy faith, where we realize God is moving in the world, and we are privileged to be on mission with him.”

The fact the Piper Chair is DBU’s first endowed professorship indicates “missions is in the DNA of the university,” he noted, adding plans call for increasing the opportunities to prepare for careers in missions.

His vision includes a degree program concentrating on church planting, as well as creation of a global center.

“You are an inspiration to me. You are thoughtful and conscientious stewards … and role models,” he told the Pipers. “You enable others to fulfill dreams that never would be possible without you.”

The emphasis of the missions chair will be preparing missionaries to share the gospel with people everywhere, Garrett pledged. Addressing himself to missions students, he told them: “You are the hope of the world.”