The center will house the College of Christian Studies and will be located at the corner of 9th and Pearl Streets.
“This is like a dream come true,” Dr. William Carrell, dean of the College of Christian Studies, said Friday afternoon. “It will represent UMHB’s mission for a Christ–centered institution for higher education.”
“The idea has been talked about for a couple of decades around here, but to see this actually happen is really something,” he said.
The 18,815–square–foot, two–story building will house five large classrooms, the dean’s office, 10 additional faculty offices and two conference classrooms.
“One of those conference classrooms will be very unique because it will become a center for Baptist studies,” Carrell said. “It’s going to be a really nice library classroom and will contain major works on Baptist theology.
“Mary Hardin–Baylor has 2,700 students, and 220 of those are ministry students who are preparing for missions or to go into full–time Christian ministry,” he said. “With this center, we are hoping that number will grow. It will help us in recruiting toward that goal.”
Carrell said courses would be offered in Bible, theology, philosophy, ministry and world religions. He also said a new graduate program would come online to coincide with the target completion date of summer 2008. Students in the program will graduate with a master of arts degree in Christian ministry.
The building is being named for Paul J. and Jane Meyer of Waco. According to UMHB spokeswoman Carol Woodward, the Meyer’s foundation gave the lead gift of $1 million in early 2004.
“It took us about three years to get the funding together,” Carrell said, “but after the Meyers gave the initial gift, the whole thing just took off.”
The centerpiece of the new building will be a 275–seat chapel, which will have stained–glass windows and a theme of world missions.
“Baptists have a lot of major themes, but world missions is one of them,” Carrell said. “We have seven full–time faculty members and 10 adjunct faculty members. And when we all sat down and started talking about the chapel, we thought since UMHB was a Baptist university, world missions should be the (chapel’s) theme, and that the theme of the stained–glass windows would be the Great Commission.”
According to Christian tradition, the Great Commission is the instruction of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection. They were told to spread the faith to all nations of the world. It has become the tenet in Christian theology emphasizing missionary work and evangelism.
“It will be a dedicated sacred space which will have chapel services separate from those held at W.W. Walton Chapel,” Carrell said. “It will be a beautiful place. Just simple elegance. Not ornate, but workable.”
Carrell said all UMHB students will benefit from the new center and not just ministry students because all UMHB students are required to take Old and New Testament classes.
“At some point in their college careers, each student will have to come to this building. And we really like that they will have that privilege.
“This is just such a special thing,” he said. “You build dormitories and classrooms, but to build a center to train people for the ministry is such a tremendous blessing for us.
“We’ve had a religion department under humanities for 150 years, but it’s a program that’s come into its own,” he said.
“It’s providential. I can really see God’s hand in this event. For people to give their money like this, I can really see God’s hand behind this whole thing.”
