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$2.5 Million Gift Endows New Baptist Leadership Center at Mercer

The money will pay for the university's new Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership on the Atlanta campus.

A $2.5 million grant will endow a new center for Baptist leadership at 's Atlanta campus, the school announced Wednesday.

The grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation will create the Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership. Longtime Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal will lead the center, according to a university statement. Vestal, who will also serve as professor, announced last September his intention to retire as leader of the Baptist organization effective June 30, 2012. His Mercer appointments are effective July 1.

"I can think of no two names more synonymous with Baptist leadership than John Baugh and Daniel Vestal. John Baugh for many decades provided courageous and principled leadership as a Baptist layperson, and Daniel Vestal for more than 15 years has provided courageous and principled leadership for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship," Mercer University President William D. Underwood said in a statement.

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The Baugh Center will foster research and learning in Baptist history, theology, ethics and missiology, partnering with the university’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the American Baptist Historical Society, as well as Mercer’s Center for Theology and Public Life and other organizations and programs. The Center will initiate a doctoral program in religion focused on Baptist studies. It will be interdepartmental in nature, engaging faculty from across the university and outside visiting scholars. Graduates from the doctoral program will become pastor-scholars, teachers in Baptist universities and seminaries and leaders in denominational and ministry organizations. 

"Eula Mae and John Baugh embodied integrity and Christian character," Vestal said. "This center will be a lasting legacy to their lives and will foster research, learning and community within the Baptist family. It will pursue excellence for both lay and clergy leaders by combining spiritual formation, academic study and caring collegiality."

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Prior to being named executive coordinator of the Atlanta-based Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1996, Vestal served for five years as pastor of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston. He also has served as pastor of Dunwoody Baptist Church in Atlanta; First Baptist Church of Midland, TX; Southcliff Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX; and Meadow Lane Baptist Church in Arlington, TX.

Vestal served as the first moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1990-1991. He is a former board member for George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University and through the years served on numerous other boards, including the Steering Committee for Christian Churches Together in the United States and the Executive Committee of the Baptist World Alliance.

He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Baylor University and a master’s degree and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Vestal has contributed to numerous publications and has written four books, including his latest, Being the Presence of Christ: A Vision for Transformation.

Vestal and his wife Earlene have three grown children and five grandchildren.


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