EDITOR’S NOTE: BP Ledger carries items for reader information each week from various Southern Baptist-related entities, and news releases of interest from other sources. The items are published as received.
Today’s BP Ledger contains items from:
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisiana College
Douglas Blount to join Southern Seminary
faculty July 1 as philosophy professor
By Andrew J.W. Smith
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) — Douglas K. Blount will join the faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as professor of Christian philosophy and ethics July 1. The Board of Trustees unanimously elected Blount at their April 20-21 meeting. President R. Albert Mohler Jr. told trustees Blount is a “spectacular” addition to the faculty.
Before Southern, he was professor of theological studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He also taught at Criswell College and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“Dr. Douglas Blount is well known and well respected among Southern Baptist and evangelical scholars,” said Gregory A. Wills, dean of the School of Theology. “He is deeply committed to the truth of the scriptures, and is humble and engaging. He arrives with a wealth of classroom experience. Students will profit greatly from his courses.”
Blount earned degrees from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He completed his Ph.D. in 1998 at Notre Dame, where he studied under a faculty that included noted philosopher and theologian Alvin Plantinga.
He has contributed to numerous books, including the Exploring Christian Theology series, the Holman Illustrated Study Dictionary, The Apologetics Study Bible, and Why I Am a Baptist.
“I’m honored and pleased to be joining the faculty of Southern Seminary,” Blount said. “It’s a great privilege to serve at an institution so well known for both its confessional integrity and commitment to excellence at every level, a privilege that brings with it the responsibility to continue and contribute to both those institutional distinctives. I take that responsibility quite seriously and am committed to fostering those ends.”
While at Notre Dame, his dissertation, “An Essay on Divine Presence,” explored God’s relation to space and time. Blount’s academic interests include the divine attributes, theoretic and applied apologetics, hermeneutics, faith and science, and faith and culture.
“My passion is to help students develop their ability to think Christianly, especially in a culture increasingly hostile to our faith and its Founder,” Blount said.
Blount will be joined at Southern Seminary by his wife, Andrea, and their two children, Katie and Andrew.
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LC business class team achieves
3rd place ranking, globally
By Lauren White
PINEVILLE, La. (Louisiana College) — It’s a game, The Business Strategy Game. But four students at Louisiana College took the online academic competition so seriously that they earned a third-place ranking among more than 5,000 teams globally.
Whimsically named the Anti-Armed Penguins, the LC team included four classmates: David Marler, Amber David, Matt Scott, and Kayti Beamen. This team excelled far beyond any of LC’s previous participants, ranking in all four of the judged categories: overall game score, earnings per share, return on average equity, and stock price.
“What our students achieved is beyond commendable,” said David Culp, assistant professor of business at Louisiana College. “No set of students in any of my classes has ever impressed me more. They worked hard, they worked smart, and they put LC on the global map of classroom endeavors. I am very proud of them.” The game also serves as a large portion of students’ overall grade in the capstone business course, Culp added.
Created by Art Thompson, Greg Stappenbeck and Mark Reidenbach, The Business Strategy Game is an intricate online simulation that requires students to work as a team to make challenging business decisions, gain profit, maintain a positive company image, create a successful virtual business, apply all that they have learned in the classroom, and hone their understanding of strategic business concepts.
The business department at Louisiana College provides its students with a rigorous and well-rounded program, Culp said. But true understanding of the inner-workings of business cannot be gained in the classroom and must be learned through real-life experiences and application. The game also serves as a large portion of students’ overall grade in the capstone business course.
Culp, along with more than 300 universities globally, discovered during the last five years that this understanding of business might best be found through The Business Strategy Game.
Competing against each other, the LC teams started the game as 11 year-old shoe companies. All companies are initially in the same financial condition so that advancement is based upon subsequent decisions made by each team, whose members must utilize each other’s individual strengths to make decisions regarding the financing of company operations, celebrity signings, pricing, and product quality.
Through Intelligence Reports, teams track decision results then collaborate and make alterations as needed to grow their companies in the global marketplace and outsell their competition. The Anti-Armed Penguins efficiently utilized and unified the individual strengths of its team members to create a successful shoe company.
When asked to explain their main objectives, David Marler answered, “We’re trying to make a successful business.” Amber David interjected, “and become better business leaders through the process.” This mindset is what carried them to rank 32 in the top 100, tying them with 41 other teams for third place, globally.
With healthy class competition as their motivator, The Anti-Armed Penguins quickly learned their competitions’ reach extended beyond the classroom and across the globe. With worldwide success in mind, they continued to strategically plan decisions that caused them to grow and surpass other teams.
“This is an excellent teaching tool,” said Dr. Rick Brewer, president of Louisiana College. “The Business Strategy Game epitomizes our ‘3Rs’ of relevant, relational and rigorous.”
The relevance of a Louisiana College degree is readily seen in three of Culp’s former students, who have excelled in the business world: a Subway restaurant owner, a CiCi’s Pizza owner, and a graduate of Tulane law school. “Each one sets the example for what thoroughly prepared individuals can achieve,” Culp said.
Through its comprehensive and relational approach, The Business Strategy Game teaches students how to manage every aspect of a real business by encouraging teamwork and ingenuity throughout the process, and by giving ambitious students a glimpse of what it means to be true business leaders.
“What Professor Culp and these four students have achieved is commendable for several reasons,” Brewer said. “This is significant our Division of Business, which recently got encouraging news from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).”
On June 6, the ACBSP granted a 10-year reaffirmation of accreditation to LC’s Division of Business.
“Achieving ACBSP reaffirmation is a rigorous process,” said Dr. Cheryl Clark, LC’s interim vice president for academic affairs. “Each accreditation standard assesses a college’s ability to perform in critical areas, such as teaching, research, curricula development, and student learning.”
“This reaffirmation of accreditation for our Division of Business is a credit to our exceptional faculty, who clearly and compellingly teach with a commitment to quality,” she said. “Every one of our professors cares deeply about the college and about making sure that students have a tremendous experience during their years at LC.”
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