The Great Commission is the heartbeat of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) and its students. At the beginning of each semester, Gathering Chapel brings the Southeastern community together to calibrate their hearts around these final words of King Jesus: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:16-20 ESV).

Following worship, attendees heard the testimonies of some of their fellow Southeastern students who shared about their experiences on mission trips this past year.

One College at Southeastern student shared about the time she told a Muslim girl in Central Asia a story of how Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. 

“This was revolutionary for my friend, because she had never heard a story about Jesus like this,” the student said. “She’s never read the Bible before, and there are so many people like her all over the world who can receive life, who can be made clean, but they have to hear the Bible to know. So let’s go.”

Professor of Pastoral Theology Steven Wade presented the Gathering Chapel message and urged attendees, stating, “The question is, will we take a posture of openness to the Great Commission — so that we would surrender ourselves and say, ‘God, we need your Spirit to work in us, to send us to our neighbors and the nations,’ and we would go?”

During the chapel message, Wade preached on Acts 28:17-31, challenging his listeners to ask the Holy Spirit three questions:

• Would you give us a concern for the salvation of others?
• Would you give us a commitment to the Scriptures?
• Would you give us contentment in our circumstances?

“Our concern about the salvation of others is not enough,” Wade told attendees. “We also must have a commitment to the Scriptures so that we know where to find the truth of salvation and then how to declare that very gospel.”

Not only is it vital that God’s people share His heart for the lost, but they must also love His truth and cling to the authoritative, infallible word of God. And because God is sovereign, His people can trust Him to use them wherever, and in whatever circumstances, He places them.

“Friends,” Wade said, “I firmly believe that if you and I honestly ask these questions before God, we could experience exactly the advance of the gospel that would change our world in our day.”

At the end of chapel, Keelan Cook, director of the Center for Great Commission Studies (CGCS), announced the 12 upcoming mission trips planned for the 2024-2025 school year. Each mission trip is able to be taken for class credit, and because of the generosity of Southeastern’s donors, not only is the tuition cost for class credit covered by a full scholarship, but the cost of the trip for each student is greatly subsidized.

“Each year, Southeastern Seminary has the rare privilege to send our students to some of the least reached places in the world in order to share the good news of Jesus,” Cook commented. “Working alongside our network of alumni serving around the world, both in major U.S. cities and some of the hardest to reach places across the globe, we will send a dozen mission teams this year through the CGCS. The last two years, we’ve had over a hundred participants on these trips each year. This year, our hope is to see many more go in order to serve alongside our IMB (International Mission Board) field teams as they tackle the world’s greatest problem: lostness.”

“Southeastern, we are going,” he told attendees. “The question I ask you this Gathering Chapel is, where are you going?”

To learn more about the mission trip opportunities available through Southeastern and the CGCS, visit thecgcs.org/trips.