KANSAS CITY, Kan. (ABP) — In the culmination of a process designed to improve the school's financial situation, the board of Central Baptist Theological Seminary voted May 12 to move to a suburban facility from its historic inner-city campus.
Lisa Wimberly Allen, the school's dean and vice president for advancement, said May 18 that seminary officials are targeting the move for mid-summer. The new location is a church facility in Shawnee, Kan., several miles southwest of the current campus in the central part of Kansas City, Kan. It will be the third site the seminary has occupied since its 1901 founding.
Seminary President Molly Marshall announced in February the school's intention to move. At the time, she said the decision was largely financial, because Central's 82-year-old campus was too large and too out-of-shape — including $5 million in deferred maintenance and more than a dozen buildings for only 130 students. A move to a smaller, more modern facility would save the school $400,000 a year, she said.
The new facility is located near the western edge of the Kansas City area, in rapidly-growing Johnson County. It currently houses the Westside Family Church, which is moving to a larger facility.
In a seminary press release, Marshall said the school, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, intentionally chose to remain on the Kansas side of the state line. “We wanted very much to remain in Kansas,” she said. “American Baptist Churches in Kansas have historically supported the seminary. They have sent us students and we sent them ministers.”
Allen said the purchase price for the new campus is $3.1 million. The space will require minimal alteration and will be adaptable to future development, she added.
Allen said all board members present for the meeting, except for one abstention, voted in favor of the purchase. Despite fears of it appearing as if Central is abandoning the inner city for the suburbs, Allen said, trustees decided the new facility was too good to pass on. “It has truly been providential,” she said. “The kind of opportunity this provides, the board was delighted with it.”
The seminary has not yet secured a buyer for its current property, she added, but “similar groups and non-profit consortiums are in conversations with us about buying the campus.”
While Central remains affiliated with American Baptists, it describes itself as also being “in full support of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.” Central has hosted increasing numbers of students from moderate Southern Baptist backgrounds in recent years as fundamentalists solidified control at the official Southern Baptist schools, including Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.
Central also includes students from approximately 20 other denominational backgrounds.
The move is one of several that the seminary has undertaken to stabilize its finances and modernize its ministry since Marshall was elected the seminary's 10th president in 2004. In addition to cutting staff positions, the school has rearranged its course offerings to be more welcoming to commuter and part-time students, and has begun offering classes at satellite centers in Omaha, Neb.; Oklahoma City; Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Milwaukee.
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