Baptist World Alliance Leader Proposes New Education Outlook For Post-9/11 World
Baylor University hosted Denton Lotz, general secretary of Baptist World Alliance, who gave the keynote address April 18 at a banquet for participants in the "The Future of Baptist Higher Education" conference. Conversation and iced tea flowed freely during the meal preceding Lotz's address, "Christian Higher Education and the International Community: How Should We Proceed After 9/11?"
Lotz discussed with an audience of more than 200 students, educators and church leaders the importance of refocusing the current outlook of Baptist higher education. He proposed that educators need to construct a new outlook based on the principles of accommodation, indigenization and contextualization.
In the post Sept.11 environment, Lotz said he believes Baptist higher education must make a strategic move beyond the borders of the United States. As students begin to pursue Christian higher education across the globe, knowledge of cross-cultural differences and similarities becomes imperative. It is the responsibility of Baptist educators to retool programs of study to accommodate this adjustment.
Lotz proposed that the next step is the indigenization of educational programs begun in other nations, explaining that education opens the door to evangelism and the maturing of foreign Christian leaders. The final step to a new vision for Baptist higher education is the contextualization of faith into modern society. As educators seek to integrate faith and culture, students will learn how to more aptly apply Christian values to their lives today.
Prior to his position as general secretary, Lotz served BWA as director of evangelism and education and director of youth. Before joining Baptist World Alliance, he served as a missionary in Eastern and Central Europe and taught for 11 years at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, as an associate professor of missions and homiletics. Lotz received a bachelor of sacred theology degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1961, and his doctorate in theology from the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1970.
For more information about the Future of Baptist Higher Education Conference, contact Dr. Donald Schmeltekopf at (254) 710-7691. For more information about Baptist World Alliance, visit the web site at http://www.bwanet.org .