B. H. Carroll Theological Institute is an accredited Christian Baptist institution in Irving, Texas with multiple sources of funding and a self-perpetuating board of governors. It is named after Benajah Harvey Carroll and teaches Baptist principles and practices. It operates in cooperation primarily with Baptist churches, and also cooperates with other Great Commission Christians. The institution offers classes in both conventional classroom settings and by innovative means. It trains students in "“teaching churches” located in multiple Texas cities, as well as through interactive lessons taught over the Internet", with 20 such "teaching churches" in operation throughout Texas as of November 2006. The school plans to focus on the use of distance education to make it easier for students to obtain theological education. As of 2006, the school's second year of operation, B. H. Carroll Theological Institute had 300 students taking courses and an additional 300 students auditing courses. Bruce Corley was Carroll's first president; Gene Wilkes is Carroll's second president. In January 2007, the institute was certified to grant degrees by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and was later exempted from such certification through a ruling of the Texas State Supreme Court. In late February 2012, B. H. Carroll Theological Institute received accreditation status from the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). Carroll is listed among Institutions and Programs accredited by recognized U.S. Accrediting Organizations by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation(CHEA). In 2017, Carroll received accreditation as a member of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS). History The institute's founding chancellor is Russell H. Dilday, a former president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dilday was fired from Southwestern in March 1994 by what had become majority conservative-leaning board of trustees during the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence. Dilday wrote of a 'lively renaissance of Baptist theological education at the edge of a new millennium' prior to the launch of the institute. At the 2006 installation of the institute's president and first administrators, Dilday indicated that 'the time is right for such a school as the Carroll Institute.' The four inaugural faculty members at Carroll all formerly taught at Southwestern. including Corley, who was a professor of New Testament and Greek and the Dean of the School of Theology there. Corley was awarded both a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Doctor of Theology (Th. D.) from Southwestern.