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Baptist Seminary of Kentucky Installs First Dean |
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 Now in its sixth year, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky is still experiencing events that can be called a “first.” On March 10 the Seminary installed its first dean, Dr. Dalen Jackson, in the chapel of Lexington Theological Seminary whose campus the Baptist seminary shares. Jackson became Academic Dean and was promoted to Professor of Biblical Studies in January 2007 after serving as Associate Professor since the school’s inception in 2002.
“When the Seminary was ready to choose an Academic Dean,” President Greg C. Earwood said, “e knew we had the best person already with us.” He noted Jackson’s personal commitment to the Seminary, his ability and experience in addressing academic matters, and his strong work ethic. Earwood stated: “We could not have chosen better. He is leading and will continue to lead our gifted faculty to be even more skilled in the classroom, more interdisciplinary in presenting the curriculum, and more focused in relating head with heart and hand.”
Seminary student Lisa Wood represented the student body with personal comments and a charge to the Dean, as did Dr. John Lepper of the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship on behalf of churches and organizations, Dr. Glenn Hinson for the faculty, and Trustee Chair Tanya Berry on behalf of the Board of Trustees.
In his response Jackson shared an evolving vision for the Seminary that focused on the tension between Church and Academy. He emphasized that the Seminary’s very existence is “for the sake of and in service to the church,” but noted the challenge of thinking through several underlying tensions inherent in relating academic scholarship to church life. As examples, Jackson focused on two primary areas: the clash between local and global perspectives, and the difference between popular oral styles of formulating and communicating the gospel message and written, analytical styles. “We must find ways,” he suggested, “for each to enrich the other” and do so in the context of community, “forming and reforming our identities and understandings of what it means to live faithfully as Christians and to lead others into lives of faithfulness to God in Christ.” For the full address, go to www.bsky.org .
Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, located in Lexington, Kentucky, has as its purpose to prepare men and women sensing God’s leadership for life and ministry in faithful witness to Jesus Christ in the church and the world.
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