In 1906, anticipating statehood, messengers from the Baptist Convention of Indian Territory and the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma Territory came together in Shawnee to form what is now known as the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. One of the new convention’s first items of business was the establishment of an education commission, who, in 1910, made a motion to found The Oklahoma Baptist University.
What those early Baptist pioneers did was nothing short of amazing! Our founders could have established a seminary, a two-year college, a Bible college, or a male only school, all worthy beginnings and all very common in that day. But rather than holding to conventional wisdom, those Baptist pioneers founded a four year, co-educational, Christian, liberal arts university – one that would impact every area of society and culture.
We often talk about OBU’s founders. We think they would be pleased to know that their dream of impacting every area of culture and society is being fulfilled by the more than 18,000 graduates serving in business, medicine, ministry, law, government and education.
Many of the academic programs first imagined by those early Oklahoma Baptist leaders are found today in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. As you will read in this edition of the OBU Magazine, the faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences are pressing forward with exciting innovations while holding true to the founder’s dreams of the Christian liberal arts.
You will also read about our most recent Promising Teacher Award recipient and how he dedicates his life to challenging and educating his students to be world changers for Christ. You will read about OBU’s master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and how an alumnus is changing lives in his practice as a therapist.
As you turn the pages of the magazine, you will see our mission lived out in many powerful ways as we transform lives to live worthy of the high calling of God in Christ.
May God bless you as He continues to bless OBU.
David Wesley Whitlock
OBU President