Alumni News
Bethany Baptist Graduate Scholarship
Criswell College is thrilled to announce a new scholarship provided by Bethany Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas! Our partnership with this church began when the current pastor of the church, Jeff Campbell, began attending Criswell College in the fall of 2003. He will be graduating this May with an MA in Ministry, having already completed his BA in Biblical Studies.
Pastor Jeff can relate with the challenges faced by a young pastoral student. But, he says, a financial burden should not be one of them. For this reason, Pastor Jeff and his church have founded the Bethany Baptist Church Graduate Scholarship. The church has been contributing to Criswell College for years, but this new focused giving is meant to directly impact the life of a pastor-in-training.
No one could explain Jeff's vision for this scholarship as he can. In his own words:
I came to saving faith in Jesus on September 15th 2002 at First Baptist Mansfield. Shortly after that, I felt God calling me to Pastoral Ministry. There was a day that I was sitting in a nursing degree program at a local community college when God impressed upon me that it was time for a change. I left that class at break and never returned. I enrolled at Criswell College in fall of 2003 and have received my BA in Biblical Studies and am finishing my MA in Ministry. I will graduate in May of 2008.
I believe, as my church does, that Criswell College is one of the finest schools for training pastors, bar none. I know the demands of life for someone who is trying to balance family, school, and church and want to bless someone the same way I have been blessed. I will graduate from Criswell College without having incurred any debt. I am able to do that because people provide help for students and because they believe in what the college is doing.
This scholarship is geared toward men who are working on a graduate degree and are entering or currently serving in pastoral ministry in the local church. Bethany Baptist has supported the college on a regular basis in the past. We are simply increasing our support and dedicating it to a specific function.
Bethany Baptist Church exists to love God through worship, grow people through discipleship, and serve the Lord through ministry. Our church is unique in that we are a multi-generational, multi-ethnic church, which reflects our community context in the Pleasant Grove area. Bethany Baptist believes that Criswell College trains the kind of pastors which have the same convictions as us and are interested in furthering the Kingdom of God. Of all the things that a pastor should be concerned with, it is our belief that tuition to the school to which God has sent them should not be one of these concerns.