Coy sees life’s apparent detours as preparation in leading Southwestern’s language programs

Terry Coy’s journey to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to lead Language Programs followed a circuitous route through South America, construction sites, counseling offices, denominational service, and decades of ministry experience. Each life chapter unexpectedly prepared him for a role he would assume when most others would be retiring.

Though born in Oklahoma City, Coy spent much of his formative years far from the plains of the Sooner State. From age 6 to 16, he grew up in Chile, where his parents served as missionaries with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. Spanish became his first language of ministry, and Chile became his first sense of home.

Most of Coy’s childhood memories are of ministry lived out on the road. His father served as a field missionary, traveling long distances to support and plant churches across Chile. Coy often rode along, sitting in the back seat on late Sunday nights, knowing school awaited him the next morning.

“I remember going with him Sunday nights in Chile,” Coy recalled. “Sunday night is the main service, not Sunday morning. We’d drive, to me, I felt like we were driving forever. It was probably 45 minutes to an hour and a half, you know, at most.”

His parents would serve as missionaries for more than 35 years, moving the family from the coastal city of Viña del Mar to Santiago, where Coy’s father later became president of a seminary. Though Coy returned to Oklahoma to finish high school, the formative influence of cross-cultural ministry never left him.

During high school, he joined Putnam City Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. It was there that he met Sandy, who would become his wife.

“We were both part of a youth singing group that they put together,” Coy said. “And I took a look at her and said, ‘I need to get to know her better.’”

More than five decades later, their marriage stands as one of the great constants of his life.

Coy’s early adulthood was marked by exploration rather than certainty. After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Oklahoma City University, he briefly worked in youth counseling, served as a probation and parole officer, and spent several years in the construction industry, eventually co-owning an asphalt and concrete paving company. The oil bust of the 1980s brought that venture to an end. It was during those uncertain years that Coy surrendered to a call to ministry.

“I was driving to a job, and I just finally said, ‘Okay, Lord, I’ll do whatever You want me to do, and I’ll surrender; I’ll do what You want me to do,’” Coy recounted. “And then I said, ‘What do You want me to do?’ And there was silence for two years.”

Eventually, through his best friend at the time, an opportunity opened in biblical counseling. Coy served in this ministry for six years, eventually rising to a leadership role overseeing a sizable staff and volunteer base.

Serving in this role also sparked his desire for theological education. In 1989, while still serving in Oklahoma, Coy began seminary studies through Southwestern’s then extension program. Later, he felt a call to pursue doctoral studies, and in 1992 he and his wife moved to Fort Worth with their two young daughters so he could complete his MDiv and PhD on campus.

“I had started seminary and realized, ‘Hey, I want to go get a PhD,’” Coy said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I felt called to get a PhD.”

Describing Coy as busy during his seminary studies would be a dramatic understatement. He worked with the Tarrant Baptist Association with Hispanic and ethnic church ministries, drawing on his cross-cultural background and fluency in Spanish. Working multiple jobs simultaneously, Coy also worked as a substitute teacher, as a teaching fellow, and an interim pastor.

“You know, at one time I think I had four jobs,” Coy quipped.

Coy completed his MDiv in 1994 and his PhD in 1999. He recalled the pride he felt when his father, at the time still president of the seminary in Chile, was able to be on stage during his doctoral graduation ceremony.

“My dad still had some little bit of connections here, so my dad was able to be on the stage during the graduation program and to do one of the prayers,” Coy recalled. “It was fun being able to be hooded with PhD and then hug my dad right there on stage.”

Upon graduating, Coy remained in Fort Worth and began working for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. For 14 years, he served in various roles including church planting and director of missions, an administrative role that broadened his leadership experience across cultures, languages, and ministry contexts.

For years, however, Coy questioned why God had led him to earn a PhD if his work remained largely outside the classroom. Although he received an offer from a school in Kentucky and considered moving back to Oklahoma City, he continued feeling compelled, both for his family’s sake and personally, to remain in Fort Worth.

“I was often wondering why in the world that I got a PhD,” Coy said. “I mean, I enjoyed it. I’m glad I have it.”

The answer came later than expected when in 2015 he began an adjunct position teaching church history in English on-campus and in Spanish online at Southwestern.

In 2022, Coy began working with Mark McClellan, then director of Hispanic Language Programs and professor of missions at Southwestern, to help recruit for the program. In 2024 when McClellan retired, Coy became interim director.

“At that time, I was getting ready to turn 70, and I said, ‘We need a younger Hispanic guy,’” Coy recalled. “I don’t need to be the face of the program. I’m too old. I’m too white. I’m too tired. And so, I said, ‘I’ll do interim.’”

The role grew on him and in 2025 Coy was appointed director of an expanded role to direct all language programs and associate professor of theology, overseeing Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese programs, supporting faculty and strengthening administrative foundations. His decades of cross-cultural ministry, convention leadership, and academic training converged in a role uniquely suited to his experience.

“I look back and think, ‘Well, I guess the Lord did know what He was doing.’ You know, just kind of that providential taking care, moving here and there,” Coy said, pointing to his lifetime of experience in various ministry roles as preparation. “So, I am where I am now because I got the PhD, but I’ve also got all that experience working with associations and conventions with ethnic groups.”

Asked whether he would change anything about his winding path, Coy answers without hesitation: no. Though marked by uncertainty, loss, and anxiety, he sees now how each step was redeemed and repurposed.

“There are things that I wish hadn’t happened, but if that had not happened or I had not made that decision, then the next thing wouldn’t happen, and I wouldn’t be here,” Coy said. “It’s just the Lord redeeming bad decisions, the Lord redeeming unfortunate circumstances. I remember at the time, telling myself, intellectually, ‘Lord, I know You’re going to use this. How are You going to use it?’”

Outside the classroom and office, Coy enjoys relaxing with his family, traveling with his wife, reading history and political biographies, and spending time with his five grandchildren, all Texans by birth and, to his amusement, devoted Oklahoma Sooners fans. Sunday evenings often mean family dinners and card games.

Looking ahead, Coy’s vision is shaped by both realism and hope.

At age 71, he knows this chapter is probably not a decades-long career, and he is already thinking about succession, praying for the right leader to follow him and working to leave the programs stronger than he found them. His main goal now as director of the Language Programs is growth, ensuring that foreign language programs stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their English counterparts.

“I want every language program to grow in quantity and quality,” Coy stated. “I want them to be as good or better than anything in the English program.” He aspires to set up the next director with a “great, solid foundation.”  

But for now, because of God’s timing and guidance, Coy knows he is where he is supposed to be.

“I guess I finally know what I want to be when I grow up,” he quipped.