Seminary education in Kansas City: a model of diversity in Southern Baptist life: Midwestern Baptist theological seminary - Central Baptist Theological Seminary

Baptist History and Heritage, Summer-Fall, 1999 by Stephen R. Prescott

There are two Baptist seminaries in Kansas City separated only by a few miles and a state line. Although an American Baptist Seminary (or Northern Baptist for those too elderly to be compelled to change their speech habits), Central Baptist Theological Seminary historically had many Southern Baptists affiliated as students, professors, or trustees. The genesis of the establishment of a Southern Baptist seminary in the Kansas City metropolitan area perhaps lies in the 1950 decision of the Northern Baptist Convention to change its name to the American Baptist Convention and then to invite the Southern Baptists to join them. Northerners characterized it as an attempt at unity; Southerners more often labeled it as arrogant, noting that the smaller northern body had unilaterally adopted the name American and then called upon the Southern Baptist Convention to join them rather than proposing a jointly-developed merger plan. Whichever interpretation one adopts, and I suspect there is some truth in both, Southern Baptists largely regarded it as a hostile act and announced the end of all comity agreements, which had never really worked anyhow. (1) From that point forward, both the American Baptist Convention, later renamed the American Baptist Churches in the USA, and the Southern Baptist Convention would be national bodies, and the decade of the fifties was characterized far more by tension and competition between the two Baptist bodies than cooperation.

In May 1953, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to establish a committee to create a sixth convention-owned seminary. The Board of Trustees of Central Baptist Theological Seminary invited the committee to meet with them, and asked that the Southern Baptist Convention consider financial assistance to Central, in essence joint sponsorship. At the 1956 convention, the committee presented a report in which it recommended that a sixth seminary be established as soon as a location was chosen and sufficient funding was available. The committee report added an additional recommendation that the Southern Baptist Convention not undertake joint ownership, administration, or support of the new institution with any other Baptist body. The convention adopted the report, thus rebuffing Central's overture. (2) Three months later, the American Board of Education and Publication recommended that Central align itself solely with the American Baptist Convention and that the Board of Directors be limited to American Baptists. (3) I allude to this history because many believe it significant in subsequent events at Midwestern.

Many cities, including Jacksonville, Chicago, Topeka, Denver, Memphis, and St. Louis, as well as Kansas City, made bids for the new seminary. On May 29, 1957, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to establish the new seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. The name Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was chosen, and Millard Berquist, then pastor of First Baptist Church of Tampa, Florida, was chosen as first president. The school opened in the fall of 1958 in rented quarters in the Calvary Baptist Church. It moved the next year to its current location, the former Vivion Farm in North Kansas City, Missouri. (4)

The new seminary soon hired several faculty members who had been dismissed from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville by President Duke McCall. The precise nature of theological stance of Midwestern over the years has been a source of great debate. However, the faculty has included a process theologian, and the "critical method" of studying the Bible has been accepted and taught by many of the Bible faculty. At least during the 1980s, Midwestern was generally open to women in the pastorate. Whatever one's opinion of the accuracy or fairness of the assessment, Midwestern, along with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been widely perceived to be more moderate, or liberal depending upon one's view, than the other three Southern Baptist seminaries. In any event, during the period 1961 to 1963, Midwestern Old Testament Professor Ralph H. Elliott's book, The Message of Genesis, engendered much dissension over the doctrinal position of the professor, and ultimately led to his dismissal. I consider the Elliott Controversy, not the 1979 Southern Baptist Convention meeting, as the start of the Conservative Resurgence, The Controversy, or the Conservative Takeover, however one chooses to label it. (5) Thus, despite its comparatively short history, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has not been without significance in the larger Southern Baptist picture.

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary remained the smallest of the Southern Baptist seminaries. A major contributing factor in the comparative small size is doubtless geography. Only Midwestern is on the border of traditional Southern Baptist strength. However, the perceived theological position of the seminary, probably a result of the Elliott affair, seems also to be a factor. Many Missouri students chose to leave the state and study at Southwestern. Despite the early antagonism, Midwestern and Central did achieve cordial relations. Along with the other two seminaries in the Kansas City area, a cross registration privilege for students was established, one that continues to this day.