Welch President Matt Pinson Elected to TICUA Board

by jowens | Mar 1, 2016

By Josh Owens, Director of Media and Marketing

Nashville, TN—In February Welch College President Matt Pinson was elected to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA). The sixty-year-old organization serves as the professional organization for the 34 regionally accredited, private colleges and universities in the state of Tennessee.

According to the TICUA website, the Association “engages Tennessee’s private colleges and universities to work collaboratively in areas of public policy, cost containment, and professional development to better serve the state and its citizens. TICUA’s 34 member colleges and universities educate over 80,000 students from across the state, country, and throughout the world and confer more than 19,000 degrees a year. TICUA is dedicated to the preservation of student opportunity and choice in higher education.”

The 15-person TICUA board is currently chaired by Dr. Randy Lowery, president of Lipscomb University in Nashville. Most of TICUA’s directors are presidents of Tennessee private colleges and universities; however, board members are also elected from the Tennessee business and non-profit sectors.

TICUA President Claude Presnell said, “I’m so excited the TICUA Board chose and the full membership ratified Dr. Pinson to serve as a Director on the TICUA Board of Directors. He will bring a wealth of experience and unique perspective toward advancing the future of TICUA. Dr. Pinson’s leadership at Welch College suits him well for keeping TICUA focused on serving the more than 80,000 students enrolled at TICUA member colleges and universities.”

For more information on TICUA, please visit their website at TICUA.org. For more information on Welch College, please visit Welch.edu.

New M.A. Degree Changes Organizational Structure

by jowens | Jan 29, 2016

By Josh Owens, Director of Media and Marketing

Nashville, TN—With the addition of Welch College’s new Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Theology and Ministry, two employees will be assuming new roles. Dr. Kevin Hester and Dr. Jeff Cockrell have been designated as graduate faculty. Though they will continue to teach on the undergraduate level, their primary responsibilities will be associated with the new M.A. program.

Dr. Kevin Hester, Chairman of the Department of Theological Studies since 2011 and faculty member since 2003, will serve as the Dean of the School of Theology which will house the M.A. He will oversee faculty and curriculum throughout the school on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Thus the Department of Theological Studies will now be known as the School of Theology and will administer both undergraduate and graduate degrees in theological studies.

Dr. Hester came to Welch College in 2003 from a teaching position at Saint Louis University where he also worked in the Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence. A 1993 graduate of Welch College, he holds the M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary (1997) and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Saint Louis University (2002). Hester had previously served in ministry positions at Free Will Baptist churches in Tennessee and Missouri and worked with Stephen Ministries (St. Louis, MO).

Dr. Hester is a member of the Commission for Theological Integrity of the National Association of Free Will Baptist. He was recently appointed to the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education. Hester is the author of Eschatology and Pain in St. Gregory the Great(2007) and Free Will Baptists and the Priesthood of Believers (2010) as well as numerous scholary and popular articles.

Newly appointed faculty member in New Testament, Dr. Jeff Cockrell, will serve as the Program Coordinator for the M.A. degree in Theology and Ministry. In this capacity, he will be responsible for admissions, recruitment, and supervision of the M.A.

Dr. Cockrell has served as a Free Will Baptist pastor for nearly thirty years in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Most recently he served as senior pastor of Ahoskie Free Will Baptist Church in Ahoskie, NC, which also operates a Christian academy. He has served in a number of denominational posts at the local and state levels and currently serves as a member of the Historical Commission of the National Association of Free Will Baptists.

Dr. Cockrell holds a Ph.D. in Theology with a concentration in New Testament from the University of Wales Trinity St. David in the UK, an M.A. in New Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a B.S. and M.A.R. from Liberty University. In addition to his pastoral work, he has held adjunct faculty status at a number of institutions, including Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Liberty University, and North Carolina Wesleyan College. He is the author of a number of scholarly and popular articles and papers.

Welch College will be the first Free Will Baptist college to offer a regionally accredited credential on the graduate level. The thirty-three hour M.A. consists of hybrid courses, in which a portion of the coursework is done online and the other portion in one-week, on-campus intensive sessions. Generous financial aid is available, including institutionally funded scholarships and federally guaranteed loans.

There is still time to enroll in the first session, which begins on February 15 and will feature two courses: The Arminian Theological Tradition, taught by Dr. Hester and President Matt Pinson, and Church Growth and Mission, taught by Drs. Barry Raper and Ronald Callaway. The second session begins April 15. Admission to the program is continuous, and students can apply for admission with each new session. For questions or for enrollment information, please email Dr. Jeff Cockrell at jcockrell@welch.edu.

President’s Home to be Built on Gallatin Campus

by jowens | Jan 12, 2016

By Josh Owens, Director of Media and Marketing

By resolution of the Board of Trustees, Welch College will construct a president’s home on its new 66-acre campus site in Gallatin, Tennessee, according to David Williford, vice president for institutional advancement.

“The most recent plans for phase one did not include a president’s home; President Pinson felt that all resources and energies needed to be focused on the building of the core campus,” Williford said. “Plans changed when the lead donor to the Building on the Legacycapital campaign for campus relocation, Mrs. Alicia Celorio of the Do Unto Others Trust in Miami, FL, promised an additional gift that would make it possible for the home to be built without diverting any funds from the core campus.”

“In December of 2014, Mrs. Celorio completed the most significant pledge of the Building on the Legacy campaign. While visiting the West End campus over the years, she had spent time in the president’s home and saw how the home was a hub of ministry to college students and the college family. It was her desire to see that replicated on the Gallatin campus.”

James and Mary Beasley of Turbeville, SC, subsequently made an additional, significant pledge above and beyond their Building on the Legacycommitment. As directed by the Board of Trustees, the funds for the president’s home will not come from gifts to the Building on the Legacy campaign, but from special gifts made above and beyond Building on the Legacy gifts, as well as from the president’s housing allowance.

“We’re grateful to our two lead donors in the silent phase of the Building on the Legacy campaign, who had a special interest in seeing a president’s home built on this land into which they have already poured such great resources and wanted to give above and beyond their original pledges,” Williford said. “Rather than taking a personal housing allowance, President and Mrs. Pinson wanted their monthly housing allowance funds placed back into the new Welch campus through the construction of a president’s home for future generations of the Welch family.”

“In the long tradition of college presidents’ homes, the president’s home on the West End campus was a symbol of the sort of Christian community, hospitality, and mentoring we’re attempting to foster at Welch,” Williford said. “It provided a wide variety of wonderful community-building events for students, faculty and staff, and the wider Welch constituency. We’re so glad, thanks to these generous donors, this tradition can continue in Gallatin.”

The design of the house is underway, according to Relocation Consultant Bob Bass, and construction is set to begin on the house this month.

Bass will oversee the construction of the home. Mike Murdock, a member of the Donelson Fellowship, a Nashville Free Will Baptist congregation, has been selected as construction manager to design the home and manage the building process.

“Mike has designed and built scores of excellent homes in the greater Nashville area,” Bass said. “He’s stepping up to the plate and doing this for the college at a fraction of what he would normally receive for the expertise he brings to the table. He sees it as kingdom work. Mike will produce an excellent president’s home that will mesh well with the overall design of the new Welch campus.”

“It’s great to see the amazing progress on the construction of the new Welch campus,” Bass said. “We are now completing the foundations and are about to see some vertical activity. After more than twenty years of work and anticipation on this project, it’s a wonderful sight to watch it all come together.”

To learn more about campus relocation or to give to the Building on the Legacy campaign, visit BuildingontheLegacy.com.

Welch College Obtains Accreditor Approval for M.A.

by jowens | Jan 8, 2016

Both of Welch College’s accreditors have approved its Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Theology and Ministry, according to Kevin Hester, Chairman of the Theological Studies Department at Welch College.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the regional accrediting body for the southern states, reviewed Welch College’s Application for Level Change in December. Later that month, Dr. Larry Earvin, Vice President of SACSCOC, contacted Welch president Matt Pinson with notification of SACSCOC approval.

The Association for Biblical Higher Education had previously contacted Welch College with news of its approval in November. In his congratulatory letter, Dr. Ron Kroll, Director of the Commission on Accreditation said, “May God bless your continued engagement in biblical higher education!”

With these approvals Welch College has reached a milestone by becoming the first Free Will Baptist college to offer a regionally accredited credential on the graduate level.

Enrollment in the M.A. degree in Theology and Ministry is underway. For general questions or for enrollment information, please email M.A. Program Coordinator Dr. Jeff Cockrell at jcockrell@welch.edu.

The first two courses begin online February 15 and go through April 15, with the on-campus intensive March 14-18. The first two courses will be Mission and Church Growth (taught by Dr. Barry Raper and Dr. Ron Callaway) and the Arminian Theological Tradition (taught by Dr. Kevin Hester and Dr. J. Matthew Pinson).

“The 33-hour M.A. consists of hybrid courses, in which a portion of the coursework is completed online and the other portion in one-week, on-campus intensive sessions,” Hester said. “Two courses will be offered at every week-long intensive. This means those wishing to complete the M.A. in 16 months can do so by taking two courses at a time. Those who take only one course at a time will take 32 months to complete the degree.” Free campus lodging for students will be available during the intensives.

Generous financial aid is available in the first cohort, including institutionally funded scholarships and federally guaranteed loans. Seats in this first cohort are limited, and students wishing to pursue the degree in sixteen months will receive priority seating.

“There’s a lot of excitement about this new degree,” said President Matt Pinson. “Please be in prayer for us as we start this new program, and for our graduate students as they seek to advance their ministries through further study.”

“There is still time to enroll in the first classes, which begin on February 15,” Pinson said. “We encourage interested students to contact us about starting the M.A. in February or in the second session, which begins in April. I especially encourage churches to make a way to help their pastors who desire further education to enroll in this program.”

More information about the M.A. program in Theology and Ministry may be found at https://www.welch.edu/masters or by contacting Dr. Jeff Cockrell at jcockrell@welch.edu.