BLUEFIELD, Va. — Bluefield College celebrated its history and culture with an annual Baptist Heritage Day ceremony in October, featuring a keynote address from Baptist historian Bill Leonard, founding dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School.
For the 12th consecutive year, the entire campus community came together to “celebrate the college’s Baptist tradition and its ongoing relationship with Virginia Baptists.” The occasion, according to vice president for student development David Taylor, is designed to “help students, faculty, staff and the community at-large remember that Bluefield College is a Baptist college,” and as a Baptist-affiliated institution there are “certain ideals the college cherishes and celebrates.”
Bill Leonard, founding dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School, speaks to Bluefield College students during the school’s Baptist Heritage Day. (Bluefield College photo)
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Since its founding in 1922, Bluefield has been affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
As part of the annual celebration, Bryant Moxley, head of BC’s department of music, led participants in singing traditional Baptist hymns, including “How Firm a Foundation.” He also shared how early Baptist congregations did not allow hymn singing during services. He closed the musical portion of the program by leading BC’s select student voice ensemble, Variations, in additional Baptist favorites, including “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Leonard, retired dean and current professor of church history at Wake Forest’s divinity school, spoke about the context of faith by sharing personal stories of the circumstances of his own faith, including his first Sunday school teacher, his first Bible and his profession of faith.
He also recounted personal experiences in Baptist churches, Appalachian churches and African-American churches, all to encourage BC students to consider the way in which religion or faith was introduced to them.
“Faith comes to us in context,” said Leonard, author of Baptists in America and Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers. “These moments, these personal experiences shaped my faith. The context of faith shapes how we understand it.”
Faith, he said, also comes to us in traditions — the tradition of the King James Version of the Bible, the quarterly Sunday school booklet, the old offering envelope, baptism and communion. It also comes through Scripture itself, he added.
“The text of Scripture can take us to places we never thought to go,” said Leonard, who holds the first James and Marilyn Dunn Chair of Baptist Studies at the divinity school, “and allow us to accomplish things we never imagined.”
Leonard joins a long list of Baptist historians who have helped Bluefield College celebrate its annual Baptist Heritage Day, including J. Bradley Creed, a former Baptist pastor and longtime Baptist higher education professor and administrator; James M. Dunn, former executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty; and Joseph T. Lewis, a Petersburg, Va., pastor and former president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
Chris Shoemaker (cshoemaker@bluefield.edu) is director of marketing and public relations at Bluefield College.