Lexington, Ky. (ABP) – Baptist Seminary of Kentucky held its inaugural commencement May 14, awarding master of divinity degrees to three graduates.
Urging the graduates to be “humble servants of God who follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ,” Glenn Hinson, BSK's senior professor of church history and spirituality, expressed hope “that you will be lovers of God, of yourselves and of humankind.”
The fledgling moderate seminary was incorporated in 1996 in response to the conservative shift at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and other denominational entities.
An independent board of Kentucky Baptist ministers and laypeople elected Greg Earwood seminary president in 2001 and classes began in the fall of 2002. Enrollment has grown from 15 students in 2002 to 51 students this year, including about one-third of that total who are full-time students.
The first three years of classes and the inaugural commencement were held at Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington. The school will move to Lexington Theological Seminary in August to begin fall classes.
Noting that the two schools will experience “shared space and shared grace,” Earwood said BSK is not merging with the Disciples of Christ seminary. “Both seminaries believe this sharing of space is good Christian stewardship and a positive expression of community among scholars and students,” he added.
Earwood said the seminary, which is not yet accredited, plans to pursue accreditation through the Association of Theological Schools as BSK's enrollment and financial resources increase.
The seminary's first three graduates are: Danny Adams, a member of First Christian Church in Paris; Lynn Bradley, an associate minister at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church in Lexington; and Tony Shouse, pastor of Dry Run Baptist Church in Georgetown.
During the May 14 commencement, Earwood described the event as “a highly significant 'first' in a series of 'firsts' for our new venture in theological education.”
Hinson, who taught more than 30 years at Southern Seminary before moving to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Va., in 1992, has served as a senior professor at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky since classes begin there.
Contrasting BSK and Southern in repeated references during his commencement address, Hinson declared, “In recent months, Southern Seminary has taken two steps to throw down a gauntlet in the face of modern science.
“In an obvious repudiation of evolutionary theory which is at the heart of modern scientific research, it employed someone to create a center for intelligent design, a euphemism for creationism,” Hinson said, alluding to William Dembski's appointment to head Southern's Center for Science and Theology.
In announcing Dembski's appointment last fall, Southern Seminary President Al Mohler described intelligent design as “a useful and important intellectual tool.” Mohler added that “the real significance of intelligent design theory and its related movement is the success with which it undermines the materialistic and naturalistic worldview central to the theory of evolution.”
Hinson said a second concern was Southern's recent decision to drop “the psychological component from counseling to prepare ministers for 'biblical counseling,' thus scuttling the life work of Wayne Oates at Southern Seminary.”
By contrast, he added, “You and I can recognize that there is a need for vigilance regarding developments in today's science and technology without going to the extreme of setting ourselves up as the supreme court for all of its conclusions based on increasingly sophisticated research and experimentation.”
Warning graduates about such contemporary ministry models as the corporate executive model, the authoritarian church grower model and the militant crusader model, Hinson said, “We dare not enter into Christian ministry today without consciousness that models other than the servant model Jesus set for us will try to seduce us.”
Connected with the militant crusader model “is a vision for America,” Hinson noted. He suggested that Mohler, Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell “and their cohorts in the Religious Right would like to return America to its Puritan days, establishing their values as the values of the entire country.”
Emphasizing that “you have numerous choices,” Hinson asked, “Will it be CEO, authoritarian church grower or crusader for a fundamentalist Christian America? Or will it be the model set for us by Jesus Christ?”
Hinson also urged the graduates to be individuals “who love the Bible and who spend hours listening to God through it, … but who do not substitute it for the Living God.”
The Bible “directs us to the one Holy and Living God whom we have come to know in and through Jesus Christ and who is present with us in the Holy Spirit.”