title: Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary
text: # Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary
  
  35°10′57″N 89°48′52″W﻿ / ﻿35.18256°N 89.814434°W﻿ / 35.18256; -89.814434 Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary is a theological institute located in Cordova in Shelby County, Tennessee (east of the City of Memphis), with a branch campus in Schenectady, New York, and an extension campus in Oxford, Mississippi. Though its beliefs and practices are in line with the conservative wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, it is not operated by the denomination itself.
  
  ## History
  
  The school was founded in 1971 as the "School of the Prophets" in Louisiana, but no classes were held. The following year it was moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and the name was changed to Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1976 the school moved to Memphis, Tennessee, on the old campus of Temple Israel. In 1996 the school moved to a larger campus in South Germantown, Tennessee, in the quarters of the old Germantown Baptist Church. In 2006 the school moved to Cordova, Tennessee across the street from the Bellevue Baptist Church into a new $28 million facility located on 51 acres (35 donated by Bellevue and 16 purchased by the Seminary).
  
  In 2019, a campus was established at the Varner Unit prison in Varner, Arkansas and another in 2021 at the Limon Correctional Facility prison in Limon, Colorado.
  
  ## Notable alumni
  
  * Brandt Smith, member of the Arkansas House of Representatives since 2015
  