Theology classes resume in San Antonio

SMU professors teach courses
each Monday at University UMC

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
Southern Methodist University began fall theology classes at its San Antonio extension site in late August, and Taylor Boone is glad.
After a semester of flying to Dallas Tuesday evenings and returning Fridays during the spring, Boone is staying home this semester. He is taking classes in the SMU Perkins School of Theology San Antonio program.
Boone, a probationary deacon now serving Tra-vis Park UMC, San Antonio, is in his fourth year of study at Perkins. He is working toward a master of divinity degree.
By commuting for a semester, Boone racked up nine of the 24 credit hours seminarians must complete on the SMU campus in Dallas.
With three more years of part-time study, he expects to have finished as much class work as he can in San Antonio, satisfied the in-residence requirement in Dallas and completed a one-semester internship. At the same time he expects to keep up with his full-time practice as an estate-planning attorney and his appointment to Travis Park’s Corazon Ministry.
The Fall 2005 semester marks the fourth year that SMU has been offering theology classes in San Antonio. Students can take up to six credit hours per semester at University UMC, San Antonio. Classes meet Monday evenings from 5 to 8 p.m. and all day on two Saturdays each semester.
For most extension-program students in San Antonio, ministry will be a second career. Boone said if someone is exploring going into the ministry, attending Perkins San Antonio is “one way to start.”
The Rev. Robert Kohler, a staff executive with the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, said extension programs such as Perkins San Antonio make a seminary education possible for potential United Methodist ministers who would otherwise not have access to it. The average age for seminary students is 35, Kohler said. The average age for ordination is 40 to 45.
“People in mid-life usually don’t have the flexibility to attend seminary full-time, which frequently requires relocation,” Kohler said.
Tracey Ann Allred, Perkins director of student services, said these second-career seminarians are “rooted in their church and community and fully invested in their current career.”
Boone noted that his schedule is full.
“Almost everybody at Perkins in San Antonio is carrying at least one full-time job in addition to taking classes,” he said. “We’re doing this because we’re being fed by the Lord. Every course has taken me deeper into my relationship with Christ.”
Boone said that when he enrolled in the extension program, “we started with 15 to 20 people.” Some left because of family commitments and some because of the cost. Some also discovered that ministry wasn’t their calling.
At the same time, Boone said, a few have accelerated their studies. Nine students are in the upper-level classes he is currently taking.
Boone said he has scaled back his law practice and at the same time is spending about half of his disposable income on school.
“It all goes back to priorities,” he said.
The extension programs—Perkins offers classes in Houston-Galveston as well as in San Antonio—are priorities for the school as well.
“Perkins sends the top of the top” faculty members to San Antonio, Boone said. “You might as well be on the ground in Dallas.”
Alldred said, “We don’t see extension programs as ‘Perkins light.’ All professors are regular faculty members who get on Southwest Airlines and fly down there to teach.”
While the quality of instruction is the same, Boone said he misses opportunities in Dallas by being in the San Antonio program.
“On campus, you have the benefit of seeing the professors any time you want,” he said.
What he misses more, though, are the on-campus noontime worship services, which he described as “diverse and wonderful.”
What Boone has in San Antonio is a diverse group of people who make up the Corazon Ministry, an outreach of Travis Park UMC. Boone said Corazon’s Thursday noontime Bible study is for “our brothers and sisters on the street to read and understand Christ’s word, along with judges, accountants and lawyers.”
“Part of my call,” Boone said, “is to build the bridge between those with wealth and power and those without. We are all children of God.”