July is the hottest month of the year in Texas. This is one reason my wife and I head to the cooler climate of the mountains around Red River, New Mexico during this time of the year. We not only cool down while we are there, but we rest and find time to re-create and spend time with long-time friends. My highpoints of the trip include preaching at the Community House on one of the Sundays we are there and making the summit of Wheeler Peak with friends. I always return refreshed, cooler, and ready to engage our shared vision of delivering accredited theological education to Christ-centered leaders in their contexts through a network of ministry partners.
While I escaped the heat of Texas the mission of B. H. Carroll continued in red-hot fashion. Our Alpha term of courses and our doctoral fall seminars begin in a few weeks. Thanks to our faculty and staff who make these offerings possible in so many venues and at so many levels. I am pleased for you to know we will be partnering with new Teaching Churches this term, and we are laying the foundation for a fully developed diploma program to equip church leaders who desire to complete their undergraduate theological training with us.
I am excited to announce that our first domestic student will travel with the faculty to Cuba in September in order to take classes with the students there. The trip we had publicized is now closed due to the scarcity of hotel rooms because of the new US-Cuban relations, but I hope more of our US students will travel with faculty when possible to experience such a cross-cultural learning environment. We already have global students who attend Carroll courses via video conferencing and online courses. We’d love to serve more of them too!
I was recently questioned about the number of graduates Carroll has produced over our short history. We currently have granted 142 degrees since 2008 when we became certified to do so. These graduates live and serve in 26 states and 7 countries. That may seem like a small number compared to a state university’s graduation numbers, but we are on pace and above average with seminaries older and more established than we are.
Our mission is to equip missional leaders—no matter their formal educational status. A look through our records shows we have given 1,034 certificates of training to those who have completed our courses of study. These are not accredited degrees, but the church leaders are equipped with the knowledge and practical application a degreed student has been exposed to. Add these to our graduates with formal degrees, and we have trained 1,176 church leaders and members. And, we have no idea the number of people trained by those we have trained! We give God the glory for the lives we impact every day with the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through theological education.
Please join us in prayer for our students, faculty and staff. Give generously to support our shared mission to build up Christ’s church through equipping its leaders.
Serving with you,
