By Josh Siatkowski | Lead Writer
Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary will open a new campus in Dallas beginning next academic year, the university announced this month.
The new location is in partnership with Park Cities Baptist Church, a North Dallas church that will act as the physical home of the new location. For Truett Seminary, it is the third expansion outside its central Waco campus in the last eight years, with the Houston location opening in 2018 and San Antonio in 2021.
Like Houston and San Antonio, the Dallas location will offer four degrees: a Master of Divinity, a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry, a Master of Theological Studies and a Doctorate of Ministry.
Dr. Todd Still, Dean of Truett Seminary, said in addition to Dallas housing a large concentration of Baylor graduates — and the most Truett alumni outside of McLennan County — the decision to launch the location was prompted by the city’s rapid growth.
“One of the reasons that Dallas makes so much sense at this present time is because of the growth, particularly in North Dallas,” Still said. “Demographers tell us that there are 100,000 new people that move into the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex every year, and these people are going to go to churches we pray that are being launched, and these churches are going to need trained ministers. So that’s where we sense that there is a present need, but certainly a future one as well.”
Across its three existing campuses, Truett currently enrolls about 500 students, including 33 in San Antonio and 94 in Houston. In its first year in Dallas, the school is hoping to see an additional 35-50 students at the new location.
Still said the growth into Dallas is made possible by the longstanding partnership with Park Cities Baptist Church, which has supported Truett since the school’s founding over 30 years ago. Most recently, this support came in the form of sharing its campus via a below-market rental agreement.
“When Truett was launched in 1994, one of the churches that came alongside the school most quickly and most supportively, not only in prayer and in encouragement, but also in financial support, was Park Cities Baptist Church,” Still said.
Although Dallas and the other satellite locations are a few hours away from the main Waco campus, Still said he and the school work hard to ensure all students are prioritized. Still spends significant time in both San Antonio and Houston throughout the year, and this semester, he is teaching a course in Houston.
“These extension campuses … are not afterthoughts,” Still said. They are part of the warp and woof of Truett, and they’re a constitutive part of us.”
Vincent Reyes, a Truett student in Houston who pivoted into ministry after a 20-year career in oil and gas, agreed, saying that his experience away from the central campus has been “very positive” and that he feels “prioritized as a student.” As a husband and a father, Reyes said the Houston location gave him the theological education he was looking for without leaving his family.
“I would love to see Truett grow, not just in Texas but across the nation; I feel it’s a place where, as students, we receive a strong theological education, and it’s even better when you don’t have to leave the community that you’re serving,” said Reyes, who has a ministerial role at Centro Cristiano El Siloe, a Houston church he plans to lead when he gets his degree and his father retires.
As Truett Dallas prepares to launch, the Dean’s Excellence Fund is financing the expansion. But the school is attempting to make this endeavor as low-cost as possible, hiring only a few necessary staff and faculty and relying on already hired professors when possible.
“We launch our additional locations leanly,” Still said. “We have a director and a scaled-down staff. We gain instructors who are practitioner-scholars in the area, as well as some of our own faculty, if their course loads enable.”
Currently, the new location is still searching for its director, but Still said the position had already received 20 applications within the first month of posting. While accreditation for the Dallas campus is not yet complete, Still hopes that those interested will be able to apply by early next year.
