Endowments
The Center for Christian Studies has established endowments in order to build a foundation for a sustainable future. We are grateful to our generous supporters who share our vision of the urgent need to address the church's declining biblical and theological literacy, and who have given sacrificially to sustain CCS. You can join these supporters by giving online, or mailing checks to 12407 N. Mopac Expy. Ste. 250-530, Austin, TX 78758. Contact us for additional details.
The McNicol-Weed Endowment
The Center for Christian Studies McNicol-Weed Endowment: Ensuring an enduring legacy of quality Christian Education for the church.
Celebration of a Legacy: Launching the McNicol-Weed Endowment, October 23, 2022
We are pleased to share the video of our "Celebrating a Legacy: Launching the McNicol-Weed Endowment" event. We gathered on October 23, 2022 to celebrate the service of Allan and Patricia McNicol and Michael and Libby Weed, and to launch the endowment in their honor.
A Legacy of Christian Education
For nearly 50 years, Allan McNicol and Michael Weed served the church together in equipping Christians, and especially ministers, to better understand and practice the Christian faith. Allan and Michael have been friends since meeting at Abilene Christian College, now University. After graduate school, Allan joined the faculty of the University Avenue Church of Christ Bible Chair at the University of Texas in 1972. Michael joined him in 1974, and together they provided guidance for the institution that would later become the Institute for Christian Studies and then Austin Graduate School of Theology. The guiding principle for Allan's and Michael's work in education was the need to focus on the church. Michael coined the phrase "Scholarship for the Church" for the work in which he and Allan and other faculty at AGST engaged. Over the many years of their service, hundreds of ministers were formed by this principle, and the faith of many more Christians was strengthened through both their teaching and their publications. The same is true for Patricia McNicol and Libby Weed. Patricia's years of teaching classical piano, her love for truly excellent music, and her dedication to helping the church understand the significance and beauty of the hymns passed down through the ages has helped countless Christians better understand and appreciate Christian worship. Libby Weed's commitment to Christian education is apparent in her dedicated service at Brentwood Christian School for decades. Her deep concern for children and for the passing on of the Christian faith has helped to maintain the faith of thousands of children over her years of service, and her labor continues to bear fruit as those students now raise children and grandchildren of their own. The Center for Christian Studies is grateful to inherit this long legacy of providing quality education to strengthen the church's faithfulness. The mission of the Center for Christian Studies (CCS) is to help Christians better understand, practice, and pass on their faith. We do this through publications, live seminars and classes, and online video courses that make biblical and theological learning more accessible to churches and church leaders. The McNicols and Weeds have contributed four lifetimes of labor toward this mission. At CCS, we are continuing their legacy of scholarship for the church and passing on the Christian faith to the next generations.
Allan J. McNicol (PhD, Vanderbilt Univ.) served as professor of New Testament for nearly fifty years at Austin Graduate School of Theology, teaching and mentoring hundreds of students, many of whom entered full-time ministry across North America and the world. A brilliant New Testament scholar with many academic publications, Allan has demonstrated commitment to providing outstanding resources and edification for the church in his beloved books on baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Patricia Burke McNicol (trained at Texas Tech and Univ. of Texas) is a highly accomplished Piano Guild instructor who has spent her career introducing hundreds of students to the beauty and possibilities of truly excellent music. Dedicated to helping the church understand the beautiful inheritance it has in Christian hymnody, Patricia led a children’s choir at church for many years and served on the hymnal committee for Great Songs of the Church, Revised.
Michael R. Weed (PhD, Emory Univ.) taught at Austin Graduate School of Theology for nearly forty years and served as the founding editor of their journal, Christian Studies, for over thirty years, all toward his stated mission of “providing scholarship for the church.” He worked to bring theological insight to the church responsibly and intelligently, in order to assist Christians in living in the Kingdom of God. Michael’s legacy is reflected in the faithfulness, theological acumen, teaching, and preaching of his students.
Mary Elisabeth (Libby) Weed (PhD, Univ. of Texas) has a heart driven toward Christian education. Through many roles in her professional life, Libby has been dedicated to helping children better understand and practice their Christian faith. She published Bible study materials, taught in church and school, wrote curriculum and trained teachers to use a biblical worldview, and was longtime elementary principal at Brentwood Christian School. Libby has influenced countless lives, helping children and adults seek to live the Christian faith.
The McNicol-Weed Endowment will support scholarship for the church for years to come.
The 21st century has proven to be a difficult one for churches. Pressures from the culture have proven to be incredibly erosive of Christian faith. Biblical, theological, and moral literacy have reached lows not seen in centuries, and churches are hard-pressed to pass on the faith to the next generation. If the church is to secure her faithfulness in this difficult time, she must invest in quality education that will help Christians understand more clearly and resolutely the tenets of the faith and its practical outworking in daily life.
The McNicol-Weed endowment is thus established to ensure the continued legacy of the years of service of the McNicols and Weeds by securing the financial stability of the Center for Christian Studies toward the fulfillment of its mission.
We invite you to partner with us in securing this legacy of scholarship for the church. Please consider honoring the McNicols and Weeds in providing a contribution to the endowment fund, and also consider becoming a continuing supporter of the Center for Christian Studies.
To partner with CCS online, click the "give to CCS" button and select the McNicol-Weed Endowment. Once there, choose an amount for a recurring donation or a special gift.
Should you wish to give by different means, mail to: Center for Christian Studies, 12407 N. Mopac Expy. Ste. 250-530, Austin, TX 78758, or contact either Keith Stanglin or Todd Hall.
Bill And Becky Stewart Fellowship
The Center for Christian Studies established the Bill and Becky Stewart Fellowship in order to address a need for education in churches, especially small churches. In their life’s work, Dr. William Stewart and Becky Blake Stewart were dedicated to ensuring and offering quality education, with Bill’s longtime work with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating board and adjunct teaching for Austin Graduate School of Theology, and Becky’s decades of service as a teacher, 38 of her 44 years of teaching at Brentwood Christian School in Austin. After Bill’s death in 2003, Becky continued her teaching ministry with Brentwood Christian, retiring in 2016. Continuing her lifelong service to the church, Becky also serves as a founding Board member and treasurer of the Center for Christian Studies.
For the term of this endowed Fellowship, the Stewart Fellow, named in honor of these servants of God, will be appointed to produce a substantive, timely work of scholarship for the church. Specifically, the Stewart Fellow will research and write on the theme of “Hope for Small Churches,” a cause that is central to the vision of the Center for Christian Studies. With this work, we hope to help small churches more effectively fulfill their mission and calling. The large majority of Christian congregations are indeed “small churches,” and they are the ones who benefit most from the resources of CCS.
In order to fund the part-time work of the Stewart Fellow, our goal is to raise $50,000. Through the end of February, the CCS Board has pledged to match up to $25,000 of donations, which would bring us to our goal and enable us to commission this work for the sake of the church. So, between now and the end of February, double the effect of your gift by donating to the Stewart Fellowship, in order to honor Bill and Becky Stewart and to help us help small churches.
Help fund the Bill and Becky Stewart Fellowship by giving to the Center for Christian Studies. Send a check, or give online by clicking the “Give” button at the top of the page, or text “CCS” to 888-444-8774. Include “Stewart Fellow” in the memo line.
Fellows of the Center for Christian Studies are experts in their respective academic fields but also teachers and writers in their congregational contexts, for the sake of the church.