Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary will open a Dallas campus to complement its home campus in Waco, Texas, and existing satellite campuses in Houston and San Antonio.
The Dallas campus will be located at Park Cities Baptist Church in North Dallas and is scheduled to open in fall 2027.
Dallas already is home to several well-known seminaries and theological schools, including the nondenominational Dallas Theological Seminary; Perkins Seminary at Southern Methodist University, which now includes a Baptist House of Studies; Criswell College; and Dallas Baptist University, which offers eight master’s degrees in its Graduate School of Christian Ministry. While DBU offers a master of arts in theological studies, it does not offer the master of divinity degree, which is the standard degree for seminary education. DTS and SMU and Criswell do offer the M.Div.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s six seminaries, is located in Fort Worth, which is 30 miles west of Dallas. Truett Seminary at Baylor was founded in 1993 in response to the SBC and Southwestern taking a dramatic turn toward more conservative theology, including prohibitions on women serving as pastors.
Truett Dallas will offer master of divinity, master of arts in Christian ministry and master of theological studies degrees through in-person instruction. A news release said doctor of ministry degree cohorts could be added in the future.
Truett Seminary opened its San Antonio campus at Trinity Baptist Church in 2021 after Hardin-Simmons University trustees closed Logsdon Theological Seminary, which had a satellite campus at the San Antonio church.
Truett Seminary opened its Houston campus, now housed at Lanier Theological Library and Learning Center, in 2017.
Houston and Dallas are the two largest population centers in Texas.
The Baylor news release said opening the Dallas campus is an outgrowth of the university’s strategic plan, “Baylor in Deeds.”
Steeple clock at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas (Photo: Park Cities Baptist Church via Facebook)
Park Cities Baptist is a prominent “tall steeple” church located in one of the most affluent neighborhoods of Dallas. The church has a longstanding relationship with Baylor and, once upon a time, was a key supporter of Southwestern Seminary until the so-called “conservative resurgence” upended traditional alliances. Park Cities Baptist also has strong ties to DBU.
PCBC, as its members call it, no longer affiliates with the SBC or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but retains its alliance with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which nominates one-fourth of Baylor’s board of regents.
The history of Baptist theological education in Dallas is interwoven with denominational intrigue. Although Dallas Theological Seminary is nondenominational, its ties with Southern Baptists are more apparent today than before.
Criswell College was founded in 1970 as a conservative alternative to Southwestern Seminary. That school is named for W.A. Criswell, legendary pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. Today, the college offers six undergraduate degrees and four master’s degrees, including the M.Div.
Criswell’s predecessor at First Baptist Dallas was George W. Truett, for whom the Baylor Seminary was named years later to signal a departure from the fundamentalism of Criswell.
Also, SMU is a Methodist seminary with a Baptist House of Studies, while Truett is a Baptist seminary with a Wesleyan House of Studies.
Truett Dean Todd Still noted the geographic importance of having campuses in Houston, San Antonio, Waco and Dallas: “Upon coming to Dallas, Truett will have an additional location at every point of the ‘Texas Triangle.’”
Baylor has posted a job opening for a full-time director of the Truett Dallas campus.