A Great Day

By PHILIP ATTEBERY, Ph.D.
BMA Theological Seminary President

The Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary is set to celebrate 70 years of ministry on its campus located in Jacksonville, Texas. Jacksonville Seminary began on the campus of Jacksonville College in 1949. In 1950, during its first national meeting, the North American Baptist Association accepted an invitation from Jacksonville College to make its seminary a part of the national association’s work. The association was later renamed the Baptist Missionary Association of America.
 
Seventy years ago, in Oct. 1956, seminary personnel, church members and community leaders gathered for a special occasion. In his book “Earnestly Contending for the Faith: A Fifty-Year History of the Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary” (1955-2005), Dr. John W. Gregson, the seminary’s first registrar and second president wrote, “The date of October 15, 1956, stands out as a great day in the history of [BMA Seminary], for it was on that date that a groundbreaking ceremony was held” for the seminary’s new campus. On Sept. 9, 1957, the seminary held its first classes on the new campus.

1956 groundbreaking ceremony for the BMA Theological Seminary

Dr. Gerald D. Kellar, the seminary’s first president, reported to the national association in 1956 that the establishment of the seminary was a “noble endeavor to our Baptist cause, both for the present and the future, cannot be valued in dollars and cents; but it can be valued in terms of more and better churches, qualified ministers, singers, evangelists, missionaries and educational directors, and souls won to the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Yearbook of the North American Baptist Association)
 
Thank the Lord that the BMA’s founding fathers understood His leading and took the initial steps to establish the BMA Seminary. The original facility cost approximately $170,000 to build and included a chapel, classrooms, offices and a library. Except for the developing of singers, BMA Seminary continues to use this facility as a valuable tool for strengthening churches and qualifying ministers, evangelists, missionaries and educators for His service. The association has certainly gotten its money’s worth. In fact, BMA Seminary continues to use the same facilities to train students both on campus and around the world, via online studies. Our hope is to be good stewards of the Lord’s resources for the benefit of present and future churches and ministers. Please join our seminary family in thanking and praising the Lord for His 70 years of blessing since that “great day” of groundbreaking in 1956.

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