In the late 1950s, a young man named James O. Maxwell enrolled at Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, Texas, about 30 miles east of Dallas.
Maxwell’s time at Southwestern — the only historically Black higher education institution associated with Churches of Christ — changed his life, and he became one of the fellowship’s most influential ministers.
“I was inspired to preach when I attended Southwestern and witnessed students preaching at such an early age,” Maxwell told The Christian Chronicle in 2010. “Before this time, I believed that preachers had to be ‘perfect,’ but when I saw that many of those students’ deportment was not as good as mine, I was convinced that I could preach.”…