2 Dallas-Fort Worth Baptist colleges offer first-ever joint divinity-business degree
.JPG "Dallas Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary are offering a joint degree in divinity and business, officials announced this week.")
Two large Dallas-Fort Worth Baptist colleges are joining forces to offer, for the first time in their histories, a joint degree program involving theology and business, the school presidents announced this week.
Qualifying students will have the chance to earn a masters of divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Fort Worth, and a master of business administration from Dallas Baptist University, according to a news release from Southwestern Seminary. Randy L. Stinson, the college provost, called the partnership historic during a ceremony on Tuesday to sign a formal agreement, the release states.
Adam C. Wright, Dallas Baptist University president, indicated during the ceremony held at the Fort Worth seminary that the schools haven’t been strangers through the years, with overlapping faculty and donors. But he joked, according to the release, the schools “might as well share students as well.”
“There is so much more that we can do as Christian leaders, as institutions committed to a greater call,” Wright said during the ceremony, “when we find and we promote the things that we are all about rather than the things that we are against.”
Southwestern Seminary President Adam W. Greenway said the new partnership is a “joint venture and joint relationship.”
“This represents, I believe, a bold, compelling vision for theological education, for higher education, that really is unprecedented in our world,” Greenway said in the release.
The program is available starting this semester to students who meet both schools’ prerequisites, and it’s described on the Southwestern Seminary website as “a versatile degree for today’s church and marketplace.” Students in the program will complete coursework at both institutions, according to the release.
Greenway initially pitched the idea of a joint degree to Wright during a meeting the two had at Dallas Baptist University in the spring of 2019, the release states. Wright had sent Greenway a letter congratulating him on his then-recent election as president and inviting him to lunch at the college about 28 miles away.
They spoke about their shared interest in strengthening the ties between the schools, according to the release, and Greenway reflected on his own experience chasing a master of nonprofit administration degree at the University of Notre Dame.
He reportedly thought a joint program could benefit students at both schools.
“It is my read of our history that when we have been at our best, there has been a strong and vital relationship and connection between Dallas Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,” Greenway said during the signing event.
