The Historical Record of the
James & Rosa McKissic School of Christian Studies
"This record is not merely institutional history — it is a covenant testimony. The names etched into these walls, the courses taught in these classrooms, and the ministers sent from this campus are the legacy."
The James & Rosa McKissic School of Christian Studies bears the name of two pillars of the Little Rock faith community — a covenant family whose investment in Arkansas Baptist College spans generations and whose legacy now shapes the next generation of church leaders.
Rev. James McKissic was a towering figure in the African American Baptist tradition of Arkansas — a preacher whose pulpit was matched by his passion for Christian education. He understood that the church without an educated ministry was a church without a future, and his investment in Arkansas Baptist College was a covenant expression of that conviction.
His vision was not for programs — it was for people. He believed that every young man or woman who answered the call to ministry deserved a rigorous academic foundation equal to their spiritual calling. His name on this school is not a memorial — it is a mandate.
Rosa McKissic stood as the sustaining force behind the family's covenant with the Little Rock community and with Arkansas Baptist College. Her investment was not merely financial or institutional — it was deeply personal. She understood that education transforms families across generations, not just individuals within a single lifetime.
Her name on this school honors the women of faith who have always been the backbone of the Black church's educational enterprise — intercessors, educators, and builders who rarely occupied the headlines but always shaped the outcomes.
Arkansas Baptist College was founded in 1884 by the Colored Baptists of Arkansas — a denomination born out of the determination of freed men and women who understood that their spiritual liberation demanded an educational infrastructure. From its earliest days, ABC was never simply a college. It was a covenant institution: a pledge made by a people to their children and their children's children that education rooted in faith would be available, accessible, and excellent.
The School of Christian Studies carries forward the specific dimension of that covenant that has always been most central to the Black Baptist tradition: the formation of ministers, educators, and leaders who are equipped not merely with degrees, but with a theology of purpose — a conviction that their calling is inseparable from their academic formation.
"We are not training graduates. We are forming stewards. The difference is not academic — it is theological."
— Dr. Nathanael A. Palmer, D.Min. · McKissic School of Christian StudiesThe School of Christian Studies is founded on a distinct formation philosophy that refuses to separate intellectual rigor from spiritual depth. This is not a school where faith is added as an elective — it is the foundational operating system of every course, every practicum, and every capstone experience.
The B.A. in Christian Studies requires 122 credit hours across four concentration tracks — Theology & Biblical Studies, Pastoral Ministries, Christian Education, and Intercultural Studies — all anchored in a shared core of biblical literacy, theological reasoning, and ministerial ethics. Students graduate not merely credentialed but called, equipped, and sent.
As a Historically Black College and University, Arkansas Baptist College brings to Christian Studies a context that no majority institution can replicate. The Black church is the oldest surviving democratic institution in America — the sanctuary, the civic center, the school, and the movement headquarters of a people who built a civilization under the most hostile conditions imaginable.
The McKissic School trains ministers and educators to lead within that tradition — to honor its genius, to address its wounds, and to equip it for its next chapter. Our graduates are not simply Christian — they are contextually rooted Christian leaders, formed in the soil of the African American religious tradition at one of its oldest institutional homes.
"At ABC, you don't just study the church. You study YOUR church — the one that kept the community alive when nothing else would."
— Rev. Henry L. Parker, Jr., MM · Co-Author, McKissic Legacy RecordFrom ABC's founding in 1884 to the naming of the McKissic School of Christian Studies — key moments in a 140-year journey of faith and formation.
The Colored Baptists of Arkansas establish Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock — the first institution of higher learning for Black Baptists in the state. The founding vision is inseparable from Christian formation: education rooted in the Baptist tradition, accessible to a liberated people building a new future.
From the institution's earliest decades, religious studies and theological training form the nucleus of the ABC curriculum — equipping pastors, church educators, and denominational leaders for service throughout Arkansas and beyond. The Baptist preaching tradition is nurtured through formal academic instruction.
Rev. Henry L. Parker, Jr. serves as Chair of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at ABC from 2007 to 2022, and as Associate Professor from 2021 — building a vision for holistic Christian formation that integrates worship, arts, and theological education. His tenure shapes the cultural and spiritual infrastructure of the institution.
Nathanael A. Palmer earns his B.A. in Religious Studies from Arkansas Baptist College, graduating Summa Cum Laude — beginning a journey that will take him to Memphis Theological Seminary (M.Div., Summa Cum Laude) and Beeson Divinity School at Samford University (D.Min.), before returning to ABC to shape the next generation.
Rev. Henry L. Parker, Jr. formally joins ABC's academic faculty as Associate Professor, bringing his decades of experience in worship studies, arts education, and ministry leadership to bear on the development of the Christian Studies program's integrated formation philosophy.
Dr. Nathanael A. Palmer is called as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Highland Park, Little Rock, Arkansas — continuing the tradition of McKissic School faculty who don't merely teach ministry but actively serve in it. His dual role as professor and senior pastor embodies the school's conviction that the academy and the pulpit must remain inseparably joined.
Rev. Henry L. Parker, Jr. and Dr. Nathanael A. Palmer co-author A Legacy of Faith, Formation & Leadership — the official historical record of the James & Rosa McKissic School of Christian Studies. Published by the Division of Academic Affairs, this document establishes the institutional memory and forward vision of the school for the next generation.
The McKissic School is built on three inseparable convictions — the same convictions that animated the founders, shaped the faculty, and now form the students who carry the legacy forward.
Every course, every practicum, every capstone is anchored in a living theological conviction — not faith as a prerequisite, but faith as the animating center of intellectual life. The McKissic School refuses the secular academy's divorce of scholarship from spiritual formation.
A degree is not the goal — a formed leader is. Formation at the McKissic School means integrating intellectual rigor, spiritual discipline, ethical accountability, and cultural rootedness into a single, coherent human being. We form whole people, not just credentialed professionals.
The McKissic School trains leaders — not managers, not career ministers, but genuine leaders who enter the room tested, equipped, and ready. The legacy of James and Rosa McKissic demands graduates who lead with sober-minded confidence: people who have conquered the ordinary to manage the extraordinary.
The McKissic Legacy Record was authored by two faculty members whose combined tenures at Arkansas Baptist College represent decades of investment in Christian formation, academic excellence, and institutional covenant.
Rev. Henry L. Parker, Jr. holds a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Arkansas at Monticello (2021) and a Doctor of Worship Studies from Webber Institute of Worship Studies. He served as Chair of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Arkansas Baptist College from 2007 to 2022, and as Associate Professor at ABC from 2021.
Rev. Parker's vision for the integration of worship arts and theological formation has shaped the McKissic School's understanding that Christian education encompasses the whole person — mind, spirit, and creative voice. His co-authorship of the Legacy Record reflects his lifelong investment in the institutional memory and forward mission of ABC.
Dr. Palmer is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Arkansas Baptist College and, since July 2024, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Highland Park, Little Rock, Arkansas. He earned his B.A. in Religious Studies from ABC (Summa Cum Laude, Class of 2010), his M.Div. from Memphis Theological Seminary (Summa Cum Laude), and his D.Min. from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University.
Dr. Palmer is the McKissic School's signature story: an ABC alumnus who returned to invest in the next generation — simultaneously scholar, pastor, and practitioner. His co-authorship of the Legacy Record is itself an act of covenant: the graduate returning to shape the institution that formed him.
History is not merely the chronicle of events — it is the testimony of a people to the faithfulness of God and the courage of those who carried the covenant forward under pressure, in obscurity, and often without recognition. The McKissic Legacy Record was written to ensure that the story of this school — and the family whose name it bears — is never lost to institutional amnesia.
Every institution that survives its founding generation does so because someone decided to remember. This document is that act of remembrance: a declaration to students who will walk these halls in 2046 and 2066 that they are not starting something new — they are continuing something holy.
"The names James and Rosa McKissic are not carved in marble for decoration. They are inscribed in this institution as a charge — a covenant obligation to every student, every professor, and every administrator who passes through this door to honor the sacrifice those names represent."
— From the Preface, A Legacy of Faith, Formation & Leadership, 2026The James & Rosa McKissic School of Christian Studies is not a monument to the past — it is a living institution, forming the next chapter of the legacy right now. Your enrollment is your covenant entry.
