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In what President Adam W. Greenway called a “history-making moment,” The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Board of Trustees met for the first time via video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic for their spring meeting, April 7. During the meeting, trustees elected three new faculty members, approved nine new degrees and revisions to four existing degrees, deferred action on the 2020-2021 budget until July, and authorized the administration to consider a distribution from the seminary endowment as the institution evaluates long-term options for addressing the financial impact of COVID-19.
The meeting began with a report from Greenway, who assured trustees that “when challenges come to Southwestern Seminary, Southwestern Seminary always stands ready to meet the challenge.”
“We have, for now over 112 years, navigated a world that was filled with depression and war and strife and all of the other challenges that would have made lesser institutions crumble and fail,” Greenway said. “Southwestern Seminary is not, as our founder B.H. Carroll said, a ‘two-by-four’ institution. This is, indeed, an institution with a heritage that is unparalleled, with opportunities set before us that I believe are very unique and distinct. And in this moment of crisis, there is a calling upon each of us … to rise up to meet the challenge.
“It does mean a call to difficult decisions. It does mean a call to fiscal prudence. It does mean a call toward making cuts today that will enable us to not merely survive but to thrive moving forward.”
Greenway thanked the seminary’s faculty and campus technology team for making Southwestern Seminary’s transition to becoming an “all-online learning institution” for the spring and summer terms as “non-disruptive” and “seamless” as possible for students in a time of disruption because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re going to come through this,” Greenway said. “We’re going to come through this stronger than ever before. We’re going to come through this in a way that I believe is only going to glorify God.”
Following the president’s report, trustees voted on recommendations from committees.
The Academic Administration Committee recommended the election of three faculty members, all of whom were serving under presidential appointment. Trustees elected the following faculty, effective immediately:
- Jonathan W. Arnold was elected associate professor of church history and historical theology.
- Chris S. Osborne was elected professor of preaching and pastoral ministry.
- Carl J. Bradford was elected assistant professor of evangelism.
Upon the recommendation of the Academic Administration Committee, trustees voted to approve nine new degrees: in Scarborough College, the Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy, Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education, and the Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration; in the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries, the Master of Divinity, Master of Theology, Doctor of Ministry, and Doctor of Education; and in the School of Church Music and Worship, the Master of Theology.
In addition, trustees voted to revise certain degrees within the Terry School, including the Master of Arts in Christian Education, Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling, and Doctor of Educational Ministry. Also, the Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics in the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions has been revised and renamed the Master of Arts in Great Commission Apologetics.
Kevin Ueckert, chairman of the Academic Administration Committee, said of these degree additions and revisions, “Our administration is doing everything they can to make sure our degree offerings are going to produce the highest caliber servants and ministers, missionaries and leaders, that our convention, communities, and world can see.”
Ueckert said that the new bachelor’s degrees, specifically, are “a great indication of the vision for Scarborough College to flourish and become everything it can be for the Kingdom of God moving forward.”
“And so I am super thankful for all of these decisions that the board has affirmed,” he concluded, “and even more so grateful for our leadership; our faculty, who is going to carry this out; and the students who will be filling out these programs in the future and eventually making a significant difference across churches in our convention.”
Also at the recommendation of the Academic Administration Committee, trustees voted to rescind, effective immediately, the motion adopted by the Board of Trustees in its fall 2015 meeting to establish the School of Preaching as a separate school of the seminary. All areas of responsibility assigned to the School of Preaching—including faculty, curricula, degrees, centers, and programs—will be reassigned to the School of Theology, with full administrative implementation to be accomplished by Aug. 1, 2020.
“The ability to rightly understand the biblical text and to faithfully interpret the Scriptures as the written Word of God lies at the core of the mission of the School of Theology, and it is incumbent upon us to keep these disciplines inextricably linked in the training of pastors and preaching,” Greenway said after the meeting, reflecting on the action. “Administratively separating the academic disciplines of hermeneutics and homiletics by graduate school structure does not best serve our students nor accurately reflect our institutional commitments. This structural change in no way impacts current preaching students, as they will continue to receive the best homiletical instruction with all the same curricular and degree offerings that exist currently. We remain fully devoted to the task of training text-driven preachers for the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention and look forward to the discipline of preaching resuming its natural place of prominence back within its original and longtime academic home at Southwestern Seminary, the School of Theology.”
David L. Allen, who has served as dean of the School of Preaching, will continue in his faculty role as distinguished professor of preaching and as director of the Southwestern Center for Text-Driven Preaching, overseeing the seminary’s Preaching Source online resources, as well as conferencing and events related to preaching and preachers, Greenway noted.
At the recommendation of the Business Administration Committee, trustees voted to postpone the adoption of the fiscal year 2021 budget until a time on or before July 15, 2020.
John Rayburn, chairman of the Business Administration Committee, said in regard to this action, “Because of this COVID-19, the coming months are pretty hard to predict. We normally work on a budget this time of year and pass it in this meeting … but we’ve decided we need a little more time to watch what happens with this and all that’s going on in our world today before we can really come up with a realistic, informed budget.”
Trustees also voted to authorize the seminary’s administration to “execute special endowment distributions as needed on or before Dec. 31, 2021, up to the total amount of the unrestricted portion of the seminary’s endowment.”
Rayburn explained, “This is to give our administration the flexibility to deal with whatever comes up that they need to deal with, because, again, we don’t know what all of the ramifications and effects of this COVID-19 are going to be.”
Trustees also approved a routine annual recommendation from the committee to authorize the administration to designate any excess available funds at the conclusion of the current fiscal year for various purposes.
Following the Business Administration Committee’s report, Greenway introduced for the first time to the full board R. Clark Logan Jr., who was elected vice president for business administration by the Executive Committee in February. Greenway then prayed over Logan, thanking God for bringing him to this position “for such a time as this.”
“Bless his work, O Lord, as he continues with his team in preparing a budget in the midst of uncertain times,” Greenway said. “Father, we know that you own the cattle on a thousand hills—that you own a thousand hills—and we confess our trust and confidence in your sufficiency for us. … Lord, may you continue to move us toward fiscal prudence and ultimately toward Kingdom advancement because of the way our resources are stewarded here at Southwestern Seminary.”
The Communications, Policies, and Strategic Initiatives Committee brought two recommendations, both of which were approved by the full board. One recommendation was to amend the seminary’s bylaws. The second was “that the Nashville Statement be adopted and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood be reaffirmed as official guiding documents” expressing the seminary’s “convictional standards, expectations, and beliefs,” and functioning as “proper interpretations” of the seminary’s Confession of Faith signed by faculty, the Baptist Faith and Message.
The final recommendation brought to the board came from the Institutional Advancement Committee. The recommendation, which trustees voted to approve, granted approval to execute all documents pertaining to a foundation grant request to the appropriate administrative staff members.
Approval of new and revised degree programs and subsequent board actions were all passed without opposition.
The meeting concluded with the election of board officers: Philip Levant, pastor of Iglesia Bautista La Vid in Hurst, Texas, was reelected as chairman; Danny Roberts, executive pastor of North Richland Hills Baptist Church in North Richland Hills, Texas, was reelected as vice chairman; and Jamie Green, retired speech-language pathologist in Katy, Texas, was reelected as secretary.
Levant closed the meeting by inviting fellow trustees and administrators to remember that Easter Sunday is just a few days away.
“In these uncertain times, we have to remember that Sunday is coming,” Levant said, reflecting on the disciples’ uncertainty between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. “We have to remember that the tomb was only a pause; that it was not the end, but was only the beginning—of our salvation, of eternal life, of God’s plan.”
“And I have that same faith for our seminary,” he continued, “that God still is going to be using Southwestern, not just in this generation, but in the generations to come. And I have the same faith that we have given our president and his administration the necessary tools to keep moving the seminary forward in these times of uncertainty. … The sun never sets on Southwestern Seminary.”
