Far-flung satellites train leaders, strengthen churches

Sergei Nikolaev, president of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and pastor of Temple of the Gospel pronounces a blessing on the graduates receiving the master of arts in theology degree from the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, along with students receiving degrees from the St. Petersburg Academy. Also pictured are Sam Carmack, resident fellow at Carroll Institute and member of the board of governors.

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ARLINGTON—Although far removed from B.H. Carroll Theological Institute’s Arlington offices, students who recently graduated from satellite campuses in Cuba and Russia exemplify the institute’s emphasis on theological education in conjunction with local churches, said Gene Wbhcarroll four425bFour recent master of arts in theology graduates from the B.H. Carroll Institute’s satellite in Russia (left to right) Igor Zhuravlev, Vladislov Pak, Natalya Chernova and Oleg Shalamov pose with Sam Carmack, resident fellow at Carroll Institute and member of the board of governorsilkes, the school’s president.

After returning to Cuba several years as a missions volunteer, Buddy Rees, a layman at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, saw the need for theological training there. He approached Bruce Corley, president of the institute at the time, insisting, “We need to get down there and do something.”

Seven years ago, about 80 Cuban students began the journey of securing a theological education. Three-fourths maintained participation in the program, and in October, the institute presented master of arts in theology degrees to its first 22 graduates in Cuba. One student has progressed to doctoral studies.

“They have full transcripts, we have all 22 of their thesis projects on file, and that degree is transferrable to wherever they would go. This is a fully accredited degree,” Wilkes said.

The B. H. Carroll Theological Institute is fully accredited by the Association of Biblical Higher Education. It has achieved associate membership in the Association of Theological School and is pursuing full accreditation by that body.

bhcarroll plaque425Gene Wilkes, president of the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, presents a plaque during the dedication of the Buddy Rees School of Ministry to Abel Gonzales Gámez, pastor of the Baptist Church in Camagüey where the courses are held.In addition, 176 students earned certificates of advanced ministry training through ongoing studies at Primera Iglesia Bautista in Camaguey, where classes are held.

“Our goal is not to build a school—anywhere—but to build up the church,” Wilkes explained. Already, four of the graduates are teaching at the Baptist seminaries on the island.

“Our hope is to have four or five Ph.Ds on the island, then they can begin to teach and perpetuate, and we could just have a supportive role.”

The Carroll Institute developed the curriculum, “so we have now a complete master of arts in theology program in Spanish, which is transferrable to wherever Spanish would be,” Wilkes noted.


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Since most of the Cuban pastors serve bivocationally, the institute’s schedule is a bit different from a traditional seminary. Instructors periodically arrive with a syllabus, teach intensively for a week, and leave their students to do their work over the next weeks or months until the instructor returns.

“That’s why it has taken seven years for them to get a typical two-year degree,” Wilkes explained.

bhcarroll varona425Graduate Lourdes Maria Amador Varona, who leads the women’s ministry at First Baptist Church in Camagüey, hugs Bruce Corley, senior fellow at the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute. Corley has traveled to Cuba for seven years teaching courses and supervising the theses of graduate students. In the background is Adlin Cotto, fellow of Carroll Institute and director of the master’s degree program in Cuba.The students sacrifice much to prepare to be better ministers, he added. One student, Humberto, lives on a smaller island off the west end of Cuba. To get to classes, he rides a donkey, then a ferry, and finally a bus across Cuba to Camaguey.

“So, a lot of the time, when we say this is the week, they just can’t get there, so they have to piece their coursework together,” Wilkes said.

However, the school maintains the integrity of the degree, he stressed. “They are treated just like any other student.”

“Our strategy is to return theological education back to the local church. So we have a hub of administrative offices in Arlington, but our classrooms are online and in local churches,” he pointed out.

bhcarroll jimenez300Gene Wilkes, president of the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, poses with graduate Nelson Donet Jimenez from the Baptist Church in Céspedes.In St. Petersburg, Russia, four students received master of arts in theology degrees. The students already had been working with St. Petersburg Evangelical Theological Academy and the Temple of God church there.

Sergei Nikolaev, both president of the academy and pastor of the church, invited the Americans to participate in training the pastors.

The institute looked at what they already had been studying and crafted the necessary pieces to be able to award accredited degrees. All four graduates are prominent pastors in Russia.

In addition to Russia and Cuba, global students also attend class in teaching churches in Vietnam and China.

It is important for students to study in their home countries, because research shows more than two-thirds of international students who come to the United States don’t return home. Even those who go back often have difficulty, because they have become acculturated to an American way of life, Wilkes explained.

“We want to deliver the degree where they are—so they know the language, the culture and they have the relationships. We provide the tools in their heart language with as many of their teachers as we can,” he said.

bhcarroll zhuravlev425Graduate Igor Zhuravlev receives his hood from Sam Carmack, resident fellow at Carroll Institute, and Sergei Nikolaev, president of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and pastor of Temple of the Gospel.The Carroll Institute already had global graduates in South Korea, South Africa and Kenya, but their studies had been solitary distance-learning ventures. The Cuban and Russian graduates marked the first global graduates who did so through classes taught in local churches.

“Our namesake, B.H. Carroll, was pastor of First Baptist Church in Waco for 27 years. For many, their only reference to him was as founder of Southwestern Seminary and as its first president. But it was really those 27 years in that local church, where he began to have pastors over to his study and his home,” Wilkes explained.

“What we embrace is that local pastor who is training in the local-church context, and with the tools we have at our fingertips through the Internet and travel, we want the local church to be the center of that.”

Global students who attend in Cuba, Russia, China and Vietnam benefit from the generosity of partnering churches. Park Cities Baptist Church contributes to the work in Cuba, First Baptist Church in Midland supports the work in Vietnam, and South Main Baptist Church in Houston helps with the work in China. Individual donors also help underwrite the work.

“We really don’t have plans to extend the network, but we’re just keeping our hearts minds and ears open. We have had several others who have come to us, but we need to shore these up particularly,” he said.

At the same time, if a local church has an ongoing relationship with a church in another country, recognizes a need for ongoing theological training, and is willing to invest financially, “we’d be willing to listen,” Wilkes added.

“That’s the deal—church to church. We don’t want to build a building; we don’t want to build a campus. We want the church to be the locus for the training there.

“I’m pretty fired up about the model. The world is the limit. Anywhere there is a church leader, training them is a possibility.”


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