Twelve miles north of downtown Kansas City, a 51-foot steeple rises from the Midwestern Seminary chapel. But when Wayne Lee arrived on campus in 2005 to begin serving as a trustee, the steeple did not exist.
Neither did the chapel.
At that time, Midwestern Seminary held chapel services in what is now the Spurgeon Library. Able to accommodate only around 250 people at once, “It was just four plain walls and a pulpit,” Wayne recalls.
Then-president Dr. Phil Roberts had a vision to build a larger chapel. As the central meeting place for the seminary community, a larger chapel would prepare for future enrollment growth, accommodating students, faculty, and seminary friends for chapel services and other events. A larger chapel would offer more opportunities for more people to hear God’s Word and worship Him together, advancing the seminary’s mission.
Dr. Roberts shared his vision with Wayne, who was immediately excited.
They began to pray. At the same time, Midwestern Seminary was facing a season of financial challenges, making the dream of a new chapel seem far from reach. But as they prayed, the dream didn’t die. The vision God had used to bring Wayne Lee to Midwestern Seminary made him eager to pursue it.
Rooted and Grounded in Love
Growing up on a seminary campus, Wayne gained a vision to see the Church grow. His father, Kenneth A. Lee, had followed the Lord’s call to ministry and enrolled at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1944. A preacher and soul winner, Kenneth had a heart for reaching the unchurched. Witnessing a young girl’s baptism one Sunday and noticing that her parents were absent, he and a friend visited their house that evening. Their witness soon led the girl’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. O’Neal, to a life-changing commitment to the Lord.
“Mr. O’Neal became one of the greatest Christian laymen,” Wayne shared. A successful builder in the post-WWII construction industry, Mr. O’Neal helped many young preachers both financially and spiritually. He loved sharing the gospel so much that he rarely missed an opportunity to do so.
When Kenneth Lee graduated from seminary, he headed to the West Coast for ministry, where he started groups for early church plants in Oregon and Washington and pastored a church plant in Seattle. By then, the Korean War was raging, and chaplains were needed, so he joined the Army. His family returned to Fort Worth, and while Wayne’s father served abroad, Mr. O’Neal took Wayne under his wing.
“He treated me like his own son,” Wayne shared. “He taught me how to drive a car, swim, play ball. I also learned so much about the building industry just by watching him.” Wayne watched Mr. O’Neal share the Lord wherever he went. “I saw him lead a gas station attendant, a barber, and a grocery store owner to the Lord,” Wayne recalls. “His witness affected my life.”
Building Up the Body
In 1957, when Wayne was 15, his father served as a National Guard chaplain for a unit in Kansas City. That year, Southern Baptists had voted to start a new seminary in Kansas City: Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Kenneth was very excited that a seminary was being built outside the Bible Belt. One day, he traveled to Kansas City for a National Guard meeting, bringing Wayne. They drove 12 miles past downtown into the rolling hills of the countryside where they watched builders constructing the white limestone walls of Midwestern Seminary’s first buildings.
“I had no idea that God was planting a seed in my mind that would one day grow into such a blessing for me,” Wayne reflects.
As he entered adulthood, Wayne followed the examples of his father and Mr. O’Neal and invested himself in the Church’s growth.
In 1976, Wayne and his wife, Berna Dean, returned to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and joined First Baptist Church Euless. Wayne soon began teaching Sunday school and leading a large Sunday school department, was ordained as a deacon, and served as Mission Committee chairman. He led several work teams out West and built facilities to serve churches. For the next 30 years, he was actively involved in many mission organizations and traveled with mission groups throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.
In 2005, Wayne became chairman of the Committee on Nominations for the Southern Baptist Convention. When he completed his year of service, he was asked to serve on the board of trustees of Midwestern Seminary.
His Power at Work in Us
Two years after beginning his service as a trustee, Wayne was asked to chair a committee to pursue the possibility of building a larger chapel.
He got in contact with Builders for Christ, an Alabama-based organization that leads volunteer teams to build churches. Their architect was able to design a structure to fulfill the vision for a larger chapel. But the scope of the plans required additional expertise to construct the foundation and framework, beyond what volunteers could provide.
The board of trustees voted to have the plans drawn. Several trustees, including Wayne, committed to cover the costs.
However, as the committee sought bids for the foundation and framework, even the most cost-effective came to more than $20 million. The leader of J.E. Dunn, a national construction company based in Kansas City, learned of the seminary’s vision. He offered to lay the foundation and raise the steel frame for a significantly reduced cost.
Next, the committee needed to hire an experienced superintendent to oversee the project. As they gathered for a planning meeting, trusting the Lord with their next steps, in walked a very close friend of Wayne’s from First Baptist Euless, John Humphrey. John had been a superintendent for J.E. Dunn for many years. He and his wife, Anne, were prepared to come to campus for him to serve as superintendent for as long as it took to build the chapel—and he was willing to serve for free.
“That was a divine appointment,” Wayne reflects.
With prayers answered, the trustees approved the chapel project in the fall of 2009, and ground was broken in 2010. More than 1,000 volunteers had been recruited to join the work. But new challenges arose in the cost of building materials.
“There were times when we wondered if we’d have to stop building,” Wayne said. “And all of a sudden, God provided.”
One trustee, Wendell Hudson, whom Wayne had helped bring to the board of trustees, owned a lumber company. He supplied all the framing lumber and much of the trim, shipping it from Mississippi at almost no charge, a savings of well over $1 million.
“That was divine appointment number two,” Wayne said.
For the chapel’s exterior, the committee sought white limestone to match the original campus buildings. Wayne had been purchasing limestone from a quarry in Texas for many years. He called the owner and asked him to take a plane ride to Kansas City.
On the plane, Wayne told him the story of Midwestern Seminary and the vision for the chapel. Wayne encouraged him to pray about letting the seminary purchase the limestone for simply the cost of the labor to cut and stack it.
Wayne’s friend agreed, furnishing all the stone necessary. It was another divine appointment, and Wayne gladly paid the cost. The trustee who owned the lumber company offered to have his lumber trucks load and haul the stone to Kansas City at no charge. Even more, the limestone vendor sent a crew of experienced stone masons for simply the cost of their meals, lodging, and labor, and another friend of Wayne’s agreed to cover those costs.
Yet another friend of Wayne’s provided sheetrock at nearly half-price, and another other sent a crew to hang and finish it. Wayne found another generous donor to cover these costs, and other business owners contributed the windows and light fixtures at reduced prices.
For almost three years, volunteers arrived on campus weekly to join in building the chapel. Some had construction skills, all had willing hands, and gradually, the chapel began to take shape. Some volunteers stayed several months. One electrician stayed the entire three years.
In October 2012, the board of trustees elected Dr. Jason Allen the fifth president of Midwestern Seminary. By this time, the chapel complex was nearly complete, including a large downstairs banquet hall, several classrooms, a large pavilion, and a prayer room with Jerusalem stone. The board of trustees voted to hire professionals to complete the final details of the interior, finishing the project. All but the last $1 million required was successfully fundraised—and this was soon paid off by another generous donor, Gene Downing.
To Christ Be Glory in the Church
The construction of the chapel reflects the means the Lord has chosen to advance His mission: through the Church.
“People love to give, especially if they see the vision,” Wayne reflects. “Building the chapel is just one of the blessings I’ve had through the years.”
Since its dedication in 2014, the Daniel Lee Chapel at Midwestern Seminary has hosted hundreds of chapel services and more than 25 conferences, where thousands of students, faculty, and ministry leaders have worshiped Christ and heard His Word preached. Named for the longtime pastor of the Global Mission Church, which provided great financial support for the project, the chapel complex features numerous recognitions for other faithful supporters of Midwestern Seminary including Rich and Judy Hastings and O.S. and Susie Hawkins.
Since the completion of the chapel, Wayne and Berna Dean Lee have remained generous supporters of Midwestern Seminary’s vision for the Church. In 2022, they funded the establishment of the institution’s sixth endowed chair, the Wayne and Berna Dean Lee Endowed Chair of Church Music and Worship Ministries, signifying their ongoing support of Midwestern Seminary’s mission to train ministers for the Church. In early 2023, a $2.5 million gift was given in Wayne’s honor toward Midwestern Seminary’s Missions Moonshot, a goal to produce 100 missionaries annually.
“I’ve been so blessed and privileged to be involved with Midwestern Seminary for the past 20 years,” Wayne said. “The greatest blessing is to know that thousands of alumni and graduates are now pastoring churches, serving as missionaries around the world, and leading people to the Lord.”
