The Mission purchased property at the corner of Ramón Falcón and Bolaños in the barrio of Floresta in Buenos Aires and gained permission for the Seminary to meet there. Outstanding students became leaders in the Baptist work and some of them went on to be professors. There were women students practically from the start and soon they represented half of the enrollment: missionaries, church workers, writers, teachers and directors of departments of theological institutions, as well as pastors’ wives.
An Education Board oversaw the institution, first under the leadership of Santiago Canclini and then William Cooper, until it was replaced in 1953 by a Board of Trustees with members from Argentina and the bordering countries of Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile. The Baptist Bible Institute and the Women’s Bible Institute from Rosario were incorporated, and the Foreign Mission Board set about recruiting missionary professors with graduate degrees in various fields. The reorganized and renamed International Baptist Theological Seminary soon became the preferred institution for training Christian workers in the South Cone.
Dr. Cooper resigned as Seminary president in 1966 to finish off his missionary career in the field, in the Province of Misiones. Dr. Jack Glaze was elected in his stead and Ben officially welcomed him in his capacity as President of the Board of Trustees. Ben was President of the Board and of the Mission when a proposal was submitted to have half the members of the Board of Trustees elected by the Mission and half by the Argentine Convention. The nationalization process continued to advance as more qualified Argentine professors became available and began to occupy an increasingly higher proportion of the faculty and staff positions. The first Argentine president, Dr. Daniel Tinao, was named in 1975 and all twelve members of the Board were elected by the Convention by the end of that decade.32
But now the Seminary professors were stretched to the limit and decided that a full-time coordinator was required to keep up with the challenge of the Decade of Advance. They invited Ben as Director of Practical Activities and Professor of Practical Theology beginning in 1967. He used the months between the invitation and the beginning of the school year in March to contact and meet with the pastors and representatives of all the Associations of the Capital and Greater Buenos Aires to learn their requirements.
When classes started, it was his job to find places of service for around 100 students and pass on requests for help from the professors, as well as to coordinate logistics. Some of the students were ready to pastor and others to preach, teach or lead worship. Some of the churches were able to cover the students’ weekend travel and boarding expenses, while others required help finding funding, for example through the Fraternal Aid program. Constant contact had to be maintained both with the churches and the students to ensure that things were running smoothly and make adjustments on the way. Ben’s filing cabinet filled up quickly.
Just Be Natural
“But, Professor, shouldn’t the Holy Spirit be the one leading us to witness?”
This argument was put forth by nervous students in Ben’s Evangelism class to cloak their reluctance to speak to strangers in a mantle of spirituality.
“Of course, but I’m sure that you will have many opportunities every week and will be led to act on at least one of them. It will soon become natural.”
In addition to writing, each student was required to witness to at least one person during the week. They were then to recount their experiences on tape, so their professor could hear all of them, and take turns sharing with the whole class. The initial grumbling was gradually replaced by excitement as they began to gain confidence and see the fruits of their efforts in many who listened to what they had to say and came to know Christ personally. They also learned to deal with rejection and became more sensitive to when people were ready or willing to listen.
Ben himself never left home without some kind of literature to give away and his trusty little Agenda Bautista, a yearly pocket planner put out by the Publication Board of the Convention that included a directory of all the churches and pastors in the country. If he took a taxi, for example, he almost always found some way of bringing the conversation around to Christ, give away a portion of the New Testament and write down the name, address and telephone number of the nearest church or pastor, or, if the driver wished it, take down his name and information to pray for him and help put him into contact with a church.
Students shared their weekend experiences in the various churches where they were assigned in the Practical Work class. Here, among other things, they learned the nuts and bolts of ministry: how to visit, baptize, give the Lord’s Supper, officiate at business meetings, perform wedding ceremonies, dedicate children, organize church ministries, and so forth.
Ben had all the Seminary students in Practical Work and Evangelism, whether they were working toward a degree or a special diploma, and taught other classes as needed. Some courses were designed by track so that, for example, for Old Testament Jack Glaze taught the degree students and Ben the special diploma students.
They had just really gotten into the routine of the school year when the Foreign Mission Board reported that the Sunday School Board wanted to produce a film portraying the fictitious story of a young man from his calling to ministry through his preparation at the Seminary. Several scenes were shot there, including one in the Practical Work class. Ben’s was the only voice not dubbed by actors. The film was used countless times to promote missions and Christian education in the United States.
The producer, Don Fearheiley, wrote the following letter on October 31, 1967.
Dear Ben:
Let me thank you for your contribution to the film, FOR MANY TOMORROWS. I believe you did a fine job for us in the film, as we were able to get into your classroom. It isn’t easy to act in such a situation. But a great part of acting is just to be natural. And being natural, I feel you came across as good as any other teacher I have photographed. Not only in this film, but others that we have made through the years.
Colleagues and Coworkers
Coordinating Seminary student and professor placement throughout the churches of the Greater Buenos Aires area took networking to a whole new level. Building on skills acquired over years of associational and area missionary work, Ben kept the telephone wires humming, clocked up the miles on the car and public transportation, and sent La Nell’s fingers flying over the typewriter keyboard.
There was already a good working relationship with many pastors, especially in the South Zone, and now the circle was broadened. Heretofore most of Ben’s contacts with other missionaries had been on committees, but now he saw those who were professors on a regular basis and pressed them into service where there were empty pulpits.
Jack Glaze was President and taught Old Testament. Interestingly enough, Ben was President of the Board of Trustees when Bill Cooper resigned. Up until then the Foreign Mission Board had nominated new presidents and the Trustees had simply approved the candidates. Ben and Secretary José Missena now argued that if the Board was truly to be the governing body it should elect the president. The FMB agreed and Jack Glaze was the first president both nominated and approved by the Seminary Board of Trustees. He had a unique way of admonishing his students to “Take care!” (aiming a finger at them in the manner of a pistol) that was wickedly imitated in many skits. Once, early in their missionary careers, he and Ben were at the market searching for popcorn kernels, but neither of them could remember how to ask for them in Spanish. In their defense, the variety of terms used by Argentines can be confusing: maíz pisingallo, pochoclo, palomitas de maíz, pororó or even pururú. Finally,