SHAWNEE, Kan. (ABP) — Central Baptist Theological Seminary will be able to build a chapel on its new Shawnee, Kan., campus thanks to a $2 million gift from a prominent Baptist family foundation.
The John and Eula Mae Baugh Foundation of San Antonio pledged the money toward the seminary’s $8 million “Cultivating Excellence” campaign, school officials announced March 12. The gift from the foundation — which has provided support to several moderate and progressive Baptist organizations, including Associated Baptist Press — brings total pledges in the campaign to $6.2 million.
It will fund Central’s proposed Baugh-Marshall Chapel. The building’s name follows Baugh Foundation practice in memorializing the charity’s founders and honoring the president of the institution to which the building is donated, in this case Central President Molly Marshall.
 Master plan for Central Seminary’s Shawnee, Kan., campus with the Baugh-Marshall Chapel. |
“I am humbled by the generosity of the Baugh family,” Marshall said, according to a school press release. “The prospect of having my name linked with theirs is a signal honor for me.”
In a move designed to cut high maintenance costs, the 107-year-old seminary announced in 2006 that it would sell sell its historic campus in nearby Kansas City, Kan. It purchased and remodeled a former church facility in Kansas City’s fast-growing southwestern suburbs, turning it into classroom, office and library space. The chapel will provide dedicated worship and meeting space on the Shawnee campus.
Other portions of the capital campaign include endowing faculty chairmanships, upgrading Central’s library, providing housing for international students and visiting scholars and expanding the school’s technological capabilities.
“With this pledge, every component of the campaign has received a pledge,” said the seminary statement. “In the current financial climate it truly is an amazing gift and a wonderful affirmation of the mission of Central.”
School officials indicated construction on the Baugh-Marshall Chapel would begin this summer or fall. Spokesperson Robin Sandbothe said March 16 that architectural renderings were not yet available for the building because “before this gift, we didn’t know we’d get to begin building it so soon.”
The seminary has, historically, been affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. While it remains so, Central describes itself as also being “in full support of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.” The school has hosted increasing numbers of students from moderate Southern Baptist backgrounds in recent years as fundamentalists solidified control at the official Southern Baptist divinity schools, including Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.
Central also includes students from approximately 20 other denominational backgrounds.
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.
Related ABP articles:
Central Seminary launches capital campaign (11/24/2008)
Mo. church’s $2.2 million bequest largest in Central Seminary history (7/31/2008)
Central Seminary picks suburban site for money-saving campus relocation (5/18/2006)
Central Seminary announces plans to find new campus (2/23/2006)