The following interview with David Smith, president of Brewton-Parker College, completes a series of interviews with each of our Georgia Baptist college presidents. This information is provided to acquaint the people and churches of our convention with the vision and viewpoints of the men leading our institutions of higher learning.

 

The Index: What are some of the good things happening at Brewton-Parker this semester?

David Smith: The Fall 2008 semester is a very important one for BPC. After a four-year trend of downward enrollment, our population on our Mount Vernon campus increased by almost four percent this fall. That includes a 15 percent increase in new students and a 25 percent increase in new, full-time students.

Our enrollment management efforts, both in recruitment and retention, are paying dividends that will be helpful for years. We replaced a graduating class last spring of 185 with an entering class this fall of 322, which has wonderful implications for coming years.

Furthermore, our student body this fall is experiencing a spiritual awakening not seen in previous semesters. At a September Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting 33 of our scholarship athletes found Christ as their personal Savior. Our Baptist Collegiate Ministries is having a good beginning, and working more than ever to make a Kingdom difference in our region.

 

The Index: What is your greatest challenge as president of BPC?

Smith: Because of our location in a rural community in South Georgia, our greatest challenge is maintaining a strong enrollment. I am confident, however, that as Georgia Baptists understand they support an unapologetically Christian and proudly Baptist institution of higher education in Mount Vernon, they will send their most talented students our way.

Studies show that most young women and men from strong Christian families who enroll in secular universities drop out of church and graduate believing their childhood faith is no longer significant. However, students from those same homes who attend schools like Brewton-Parker College are profoundly more likely to retain their faith and grow toward spiritual maturity while attaining their baccalaureate degrees.

 

The Index: What are your primary goals for the next five years?

Smith: Our strategic plan calls for BPC to increase the student population of our Mount Vernon campus by about 300 students while growing our external centers by about the same numbers. We believe that these enrollment projections will allow us to pay down our significant debt, invest in the deferred maintenance needs on campus, and begin some significant new programs.

I would like to see more of our students graduate with international experience; that is, participating in more musical tours in international settings, working on mission excursions with representatives of our International Mission Board, or experiencing educational or intercultural opportunities in international educational environments. I think all of our students should be involved in some sort of community service before graduating, either in our local community or in other venues, and I believe this should be a component in our degree programs.

Of course, there are numerous capital needs and endowment goals as well. All of these are important, and all will be driven by our success in securing strong enrollments.

 

The Index: Everyone has a worldview and the worldview of a college president is vitally important. Describe your worldview.

Smith: My primary citizenship is not of this nation, nor of this world. I am a citizen in the Kingdom of God, where I am an adopted son of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and where I have kinship with Jesus Christ who is my personal Savior.

I surrendered my heart and?mind to a Christian calling as a boy of 17 in my home church in Quanah, Texas. My father was a deacon and Sunday School teacher and my mother was WMU president, organist, and Sunday School teacher.

I believe that God gave to humankind an intellect that He desires us to develop and use. It is not a sin to learn all we can about the world He created and within which He placed us; rather, it is an imperative from the first chapter of Genesis.

I am convinced that all truth ultimately leads to God. I am convinced that if science could climb the highest mountain of unifying theory, it would stand before a loving God. I am equally convinced that if theology could create an absolute apologetic, it would make room for much of what science has discovered.

 

The Index: What is your view of absolute truth? How does absolute truth fit into a postmodern culture?

Smith: The Bible is God’s absolute and complete message to humanity. It is inspired truth, offered to humankind by a loving and caring God. Inspiration and absolute truth are no guarantees, however, that any particular individual has interpreted scriptural teachings correctly. As ancient as the writings in the Bible are, a student of them finds illumination for understanding the most recent fad or the most contemporary issue.

One only needs to look cursorily at our secularized postmodern society to see that when absolute truth is abandoned, |it is always at the peril of individual worth and societal well being. Though a particular moment in time might offer the illusion that absolute truth and consequence for actions can be avoided, a long-term view of any society and every historical period will refute that fallacy.

When individuals or civilizations ignore the outcome of irresponsible acts, their children and grandchildren inevitably pay the penalty. That makes the broadcasting of the Christian message of good news and a moral way of living the highest imperative for people of faith in these perilous times.

 

The Index: What is your view concerning evolution versus intelligent design?

Smith: God created the universe and all that is within it. Colossians tells us that Jesus was the agent of creation and that all things are held together by Christ. Neither Genesis nor Colossians nor John’s Gospel tell us exactly how God created.

The language of Scripture does not describe scientific principles. Therefore, from the Bible we know Who created all things but not how. We know that “the Word” of creation was Jesus Christ, but we do not know from Scripture what process the Lord used to speak into existence this community of sensations in which we reside.

I do not diminish the years of study that scientists have devoted to their enterprise to discern how our universe works, nor do I take lightly the truth that God brought all things into existence. The insights of theology and the ultimate truths of science will both describe the same process of creation when all the facts are in.

Meanwhile, I will live with a faith in my Father who preceded creation and in the intellect He placed within us to examine His creation in an attempt to intellectually unlock the secrets it holds.

 

The Index: When a student graduates from BPC what do you want the finished product to look like?

Smith: This is a great question. It goes to the root of BPC’s newly-written mission statement, and it is at the very heart of our motivation for Christian higher education.

First, a BPC graduate should be fully informed with all of the information and understanding needed in her or his professional field. A BPC higher education is equal or superior to that which a student would receive from any secular or alternative religious college or university.

Next, our graduates should recognize that a loving and caring God directs the affairs of humanity and a personal decision to follow Jesus Christ is necessary to lead a full and meaningful life. Our students are confronted with this reality in the classroom and within our campus community.

Many of our graduates will return to Georgia Baptist or Southern Baptist churches to become the denominational leaders God intended them to be. Finally, BPC graduates should be prepared to become actively involved in the community into which God places them. Our curriculum as well as our extra-curriculum develops servant-leaders.

 

The Index: What is the financial status of the college? What is the endowment?

Smith: Throughout my ten-year administration, BPC has operated under significant financial duress. Many of your readers will recall that in the late 1990s a financial aid scandal engulfed the college, and it literally cost the institution millions of dollars. However, Brewton-Parker College recovered its reputation and is now fully restored to an honorable membership in the community of higher education and attracting gifted students to participate in its full array of courses.

It is more difficult, however, to recover financially. With enrollments fluctuating and gifts from prominent sources ebbing and flowing due to circumstances beyond the college’s control, maintaining financial equilibrium has proven difficult.

It is difficult to appropriately value the college’s endowment at the present time because of the wild gyrations of the stock market, which generates the primary earnings of endowment investments. I believe that our endowment stands today at approximately $13 million. In my administration, the college has added approximately $5 million to its endowment.

 

The Index: What is your criterion for hiring new faculty? Must they be Baptists? Must they be evangelical Christians?

Smith: Every employee of Brewton-Parker College is hired by first advertising for the best-qualified Christian candidate for the post. Once a faculty search committee or staff supervisor has settled upon a candidate, each sits for an interview with the president.

I ask them first if they know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. If the candidate cannot fully articulate a personal faith in and relationship with Christ, then I close the employment interview and share with them my own personal pilgrimage with Him. If they properly answer the first question, I follow up with a question regarding how their faith impacts the way they live on a daily basis.

BPC has little interest in a candidate for employment who can speak of their salvation but cannot provide evidence of a daily walk with Christ. Though BPC hires committed Christians from other evangelical denominations as well as dedicated Southern Baptists, all who serve here present a positive and vibrant Christian witness and help create a community of faith that permeate all classrooms and quadrants of our campus.

 

The Index: What else would you like to share with our readers?

Smith: The Georgia Baptist Convention has shown over and over again it believes in Brewton-Parker College.

Whether it is through financial considerations or in posturing the college before prospective students, the GBC has profoundly advocated for Christian higher education in South Georgia. That is why our people regularly remind Georgia Baptists how important their support of the Cooperative Program is to the ministries of all GBC activity in our state, including BPC.