Baptist Theological Seminary
Tapachula Mexico
Brief History
What is now the Gary Sloan Baptist Theological Seminary started as a Missionary Institute for Church Planting. With a vision to plant many churches in the Chiapas region of Mexico, missionary Gary Sloan started the Institute in 1999. At that time with the collaboration of churches in the Costa de Chiapas Regional Convention and the support of Oak View Baptist Church in Irving Texas, 40 students enrolled in the Institute. Tragically in June 19, 1999 missionary Gary Sloan and his daughter Karla died in a drowning accident. Deeply saddened by the sudden death of missionary Sloan but determined to carry out his vision for church planting the Convention leaders named the Institute after Gary Sloan and the students continued their semester of studies after which the seminary ceased its operations. In 2018 when Drs. Brent Ray and Daniel Sanchez went to Tapachula and met with some pastors, they decided to reopen the seminary with Ramon Solis Sanchez serving as their president. He and 4 other pastors immediately enrolled in Southwestern’s Masters Degree. Today the seminary has over 50 students and has started extensions in a number of areas including some with tribal groups. The Chiapas province where the seminary is located one of the ones that has the greatest receptivity to the Gospel message. This makes theological education in this region very strategic.
Projects Involving a Champion Church/Partner
The pastors of Champion Churches could be involved in teaching intensive (week-long) courses and/or workshops for the students as well as pastors
Teams from the Champion Church could be involved in evangelism, disciplesip and ministry activities along with seminary students
Work teams from the Champion Church could be involved in renovation of classrooms and improvement of the church where the seminary has its classes
The Champion Church could provide scholarships for the professors of this seminary to enroll in online and virtual Masters and Doctoral programs that enable them to continue to teach while elevating their academic level
The Champion Church could provide financial resources for the seminary to hold workshops for the seminary professors and staff
Projects Related to Students
In light of the fact that the economy in Mexico is in such a dire state, students have a very difficult time coming up with the funds for the tuition which is held at the lowest possible point by the seminary. Scholarships or even partial scholarships could make it possible for students to get their theological education.
Some of the scholarships to students can be connected with church planting efforts thus benefitting the students as well as the National Convention
Projects Related to the Campus
Funds that enable the seminary to purchase laptop computers, data projectors, video cameras could make it possible for the seminary to offer online and virtual courses thus reaching many more students with their training
In collaboration with Southwestern Seminary, Trinity Academic can make available to this Seminary an electronic portal that will enable the seminary to offer online courses, virtual courses and an untold number of library resources to the students. A Champion Church can assist by providing the initial cost of installing this system and the very affordable cost to maintain thus saving this Seminary thousands of dollars in equipment and local personnel to maintain it.
Projects Related to the Seminary Extensions
This seminary now has 4 extensions which they are using to train people who cannot travel to the central campus to be trained.
Funds to help the seminary professors travel to and from the extensions could be very helpful
Ramon Solis
President
Email: rsolis76 15@hotmail.com