Grace Theological Seminary - Xapis / Grace Yearbook (Winona Lake, IN)

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Thirty Years Two circumstances unite to make the publica- tion of the GRACE 1967 an appropriate occasion for rehearsing briefly the blessing and providence of God in the sustenance and growth of Grace Theological Seminary. First, the year 1967 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the organizing of the school. Second, this year’s annual is the first deal- ing with Grace Seminary separately from Grace College to be published since the collegiate divi- sion was begun in 1948. The Seminary has been supported throughout its existence especially by the prayers and sac- rifice of Brethren people, and therefore it seems fitting that it originated in a prayer meeting in the home of Rev. J. C. Beal, a Brethren pastor, in the summer of 1937, and began its operation the following October 4 in facilities provided by the Ellet Brethren Church of Akron, Ohio. Two full- time faculty members and thirty-nine students participated in that beginning. The faculty mem- bers were Dr. Alva J. McClain, as president and professor of Christian theology and apologetics, and Professor Herman A. Hoyt, as professor of New Testament and Greek. They received con- siderable part-time assistance in other teaching fields such as Old Testament, practical theology, and church history, especially from Professor Homer A. Kent, Sr., who was to join the full-time faculty in the autumn of 1940. Soon the school received from Dr. W. E. Bied- erwolf a heartfelt invitation to relocate at Winona Lake, Indiana. As president of the Winona Lake Christian Assembly, Dr. Biederwolf believed that such a move would by mutually advantageous, since the Brethren Church had been meeting in annual conference at Winona Lake for more than fifty years, and since the northern Indiana area could be expected to benefit much from the pres- ence of this conservative institution of theological education. The Free Methodist Publishing House arranged to lease the upper story of its building to the Seminary. Thus after two school years in Akron, Grace Seminary began the fall term of 1939 in these new surroundings. The quarters in the Free Methodist Building brought with them the fortunate opportunity to use the library of the The Faculty, 1947-48. Front Row: Homer A. Kent, Alva J. McClain, Herman A. Hoyt. Back Row: Paul R. Bauman, Harry Sturz, Robert D. Culver. Winona Lake School of Theology, which used the same facilities during the summers. The student enrollment in the years following the transfer to Winona Lake rose continuously, as the following figures indicate: 1940, thirty-seven; 1942, fifty-four; 1944, sixty-nine; 1948, eighty-five; 1949, ninety-nine; 1950, 144. In addition to this increase, in 1948 a two-year collegiate division was added, to prepare students with no college training for entrance into a Bachelor of Theology program in the Seminary. By 1950 there were fifty students enrolled in the collegiate division, bringing the total number of students at Grace that year to 194. During its first ten years, the seminary’s faculty was considerably augmented. Professor Homer A. Kent, Sr. became full time in church history and Old Testament in 1940. In the following years others, including John M. Aeby, Harry Sturz, and Robert D. Culver, served for various periods as full-time instructors in their respec- tive fields of competence. Mr. Aeby taught Christian theology during several terms when Dr. McClain was prevented by illness from fulfilling his academic responsibilities. Mr. Sturz served as seminary librarian and instructor in New Test- ament Greek for two years before answering the call time to a full-time pastoral ministry. Pro- fessor Culver was in charge of Old Testament and Hebrew from 1945 to 1951. During the years of Dr. McClain’s illness in the early 1940’s Professor Hoyt assumed the presi- dent’s administrative duties, and one year after joining the faculty as professor of homiletics and apologetics in 1947, Dr. Paul R. Bauman became executive vice-president. In the same year Dr. Hoyt was made dean, and in 1951 Dr. Bauman gave up all teaching responsibilities to become

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History The foundation ... let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.—I Corinthians 3:10-11

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full-time Director of Public Relations for the Seminary, a post he retained until 1962. Already in 1945 the Board of Trustees had begun to plan a building to provide a permanent home for the school. The projected size of the building was expanded several times as the atten- dance of the Seminary (and later of the collegiate division) rose rapidly. The structure as finally completed in 1951 is designed to serve four hun- dred students, and is located on a campus which now comprises sixty acres at the east edge of Winona Lake. This new building was dedicated on August 30, 195t, and the service was highlighted especially by the presence of Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer. This was virtually Dr. Chafer’s last public appearance prior to his home-going almost exactly one year later, and he brought warm greetings and con- gratulations from his own institution, Dallas Theological Seminary. During the early 1950’s Grace Seminary ex- perienced two other major additions. One was the expansion of the collegiate division into Grace College, a four-year liberal arts Christian college, and the other was the emergence of several new, young seminary faculty members whose contribu- tions were to prove valuable and permanent. In 1953 a third year was added to the collegiate division program, and in 1954 a fourth year brought Grace College into reality. This is not the place to recount the history of the College, but a few remarks on its relationship to the Seminary will be of value. In the first instance, the chief mo- tive in the establishment of the College was to pro- vide a place where preseminary students might receive an adequate liberal arts preparation for theological studies, a preparation received in a Christian framework and with an emphasis conducive to channeling men and women into full-time ministry in the Brethren Church. This purpose has indeed come to fruition through Grace College. Already dozens of men and women have studied in both Grace College and Grace Seminary and gone forth into the pastoral or mis- sionary ministries of the National Fellowship of Brethren Churches. In addition, of course, the College’s simultaneous development in close proximity with the Seminary in subsequent years has contributed immeasurably, in untold ways, to the richness and depth of the Seminary’s own experience. Among the younger teachers who joined the faculty in the early 1950’s, ultimately to remain for a lengthy ministry, were Homer A. Kent, Jr., specializing in New Testament and Greek, James L. Boyer, also concentrating in New Test- ament and Greek, S. Herbert Bess, teaching He- brew and later other Semitic languages and Bib- lical archaeology, and John C. Whitcomb, Jr., specializing in Old Testament and later in apol- ogetics. These men, with widely varying back- grounds of academic training and experience, each had much to contribute to the deepening and broadening of the Seminary’s curriculum. Simi- larly, Donald Ogden, who was subsequently to contribute so much to the musical life and min- istry of both Seminary and College, appeared at this time as a teacher with great promise. The Free Methodist Building, Winona Lake, the home of Grace Theological Seminary for twelve years, 1939-1951.