Akin calls students to step out in obedience to the Great Commission
By Chad Burchett, SEBTS
During his fall 2023 convocation address, President Danny Akin charged attendees to trust God and carry the gospel to the nations, sharing the story of Yvette Aarons, longtime Deaf missionary. During the ceremony, Southeastern Seminary and The College at Southeastern also celebrated three recently elected faculty and recognized dean’s list recipients in The College.
“If you have been here for any period of time, you know that the Great Commission drives everything we do at Southeastern,” Akin commented during his address. “The stakes are extremely high. … There are more than 7,000 unreached people groups today, and there are still more than 4.2 billion people who have no access to the gospel, which means they will be born, they will live, they will die, and they will go to hell — never having even one time heard the good news about King Jesus and his salvation.”
“This is why at Southeastern you will be challenged again and again to ask, ‘Lord, not why should I go, but, Lord, why should I stay?’” Akin added.
At Southeastern you will be challenged again and again to ask, “Lord, not why should I go, but, Lord, why should I stay?”
Urging students to consider the nations, Akin explained that he would continue his convocation tradition of expositing a biblical passage alongside the biography of a faithful missionary whose life testified to the truth of the passage. Akin’s message reminded attendees to trust the Lord fully, know the Lord intimately, and fear the Lord completely — just as missionary Yvette Aarons had done throughout her life.
Narrating the story of missionary Yvette Aarons, the first Deaf missionary appointed by the Foreign Mission Board (FMB; now the International Mission Board), Akin preached from Proverbs 3:5-8 — a beloved passage that guided Aarons through many obstacles in her missionary journey.
Born Deaf into a non-Christian family in Jamaica, Aarons lacked many opportunities other children had, yet in God’s providence, she was exposed to the Bible at a young age. As a child, she often attended Sunday school where she was encouraged to memorize Scripture, and later as a teenager, she would attend church services where she was taught the gospel. When she was 16, she trusted in Christ for salvation and began her life as a follower of Christ.
It was at that time in her life that God gave her the desire to serve him as a missionary. Yvette pursued seminary training at Southwestern Seminary, and although the seminary could not afford signers, her fellow students helped her until she graduated. In 1985, Aarons applied to the FMB — only to be rejected by them because she was a Deaf woman. The FMB changed its policy in 1987, and in 1989, she was sent on special assignment to Trinidad.
Trusting God’s providence and testifying to his grace, Aarons served as a missionary in Trinidad and Saint Lucia for 13 years before being transferred to Thailand to work among the Deaf in Southeast Asia. Throughout her 29 years of service as a missionary with the International Mission Board (IMB), Yvette wrestled with the emotional and spiritual toll and isolation of often laboring alone, but she trusted God’s faithfulness and obeyed him even during challenging seasons of ministry.
Quoting Aarons comments to him in a personal interview, Akin shared her charge to fellow Christians: “We must go because the lost are everywhere in all kinds of cultures. We go because we have what they don’t have: Jesus. … Take the step. He will take care of you.”
We must go because the lost are everywhere in all kinds of cultures. We go because we have what they don’t have: Jesus. … Take the step. He will take care of you.
Akin shared that the IMB officially recognized the Deaf as one of its 9 affinities in 2008, but by the end of the year, only 14 IMB field personnel will be working among the roughly 80 million Deaf people worldwide. Among the global Deaf population, most are still unreached with little or no access to the gospel. Akin also noted that of the 58 deaf churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, roughly 40% currently need a pastor.
Urging students to consider the deaf as they surrender their lives to the Great Commission, Akin invited attendees to pray how they might take a step of obedience and join 14 IMB personnel in reaching the Deaf community with the gospel.
“My prayer for us is that hundreds will come from this school to follow in her footsteps and be missionaries to the Deaf community, telling them about Jesus,” commented Akin.
Following Akin’s address, Aarons joined Dr. Akin on stage to offer a word of encouragement, being welcomed by a standing ovation to honor her longevity in ministry and faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
During the ceremony, Miguel Echevarria, associate professor of New Testament and Greek; Scott Hildreth, associate professor of missiology; and Ben Holloway, assistant professor of philosophy and history of ideas, signed the Abstract of Principles and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 following their election to the faculty during the board of trustees’ spring meeting.
By signing these doctrinal statements, Echevarria, Hildreth, and Holloway joined the faculty in their public commitment to the authority, inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture, resolve to teach in accordance with and not contrary to historic Baptist doctrine.
Seth Bible, acting dean of The College, also recognized 91 dean’s list recipients during the ceremony. Demonstrating exceptional academic achievement, these students completed a minimum of 12 credit hours in the spring and achieved a 3.75 GPA for the semester while also maintaining good academic standing and an overall 3.0 GPA.
Immediately following the ceremony, Aarons joined students, faculty, and staff for a luncheon on campus to share more about her missionary journey. Attendees also heard about unique opportunities to get involved in Deaf affinity ministries through Southeastern’s Center for Great Commission Studies (CGCS).
To learn how you can participate in reaching Deaf people around the world, contact the CGCS at [email protected], or visit thecgcs.org to learn how Southeastern is equipping students to reach the nations.
NOBTS’ Landrum Leavell Dining Hall dedication opens new year
By Marilyn Stewart, NOBTS
NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Convocation at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Aug. 15 opened the new academic year, honored faculty anniversaries and this year, included the ribbon cutting and dedication of the Landrum Leavell Dining Hall in the heart of the seminary campus.
Leavell family members were present for the dedication that marked the reopening of the dining hall after substantial remodeling that added 2,700 square feet of floor space for student dining services, an updated and expanded kitchen, and two new conference rooms.
Convocation was held at Leavell Chapel, named for Roland Q. Leavell, the fourth NOBTS president and uncle to the seventh president, Landrum P. Leavell II. The dedication and ribbon cutting followed.
‘Seek God with desperation’
Jamie Dew, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary president, began his convocation address saying that his hope for the seminary family in the new year is that they stay focused on a simple, but urgent goal.
“There is one singular thing that ties everything together,” Dew said. “One thing that if we do this one thing, come what may, our Father will be pleased and our lives will be rich. What is that one thing? Love Him.”
Drawing from Psalm 63:1-5, Dew said the psalmist used metaphors of hunger and thirst to show he was “desperate” to know God.
“Have you ever been desperate for something?” Dew asked.
Dew told of his first mission trip years ago in Africa when his host continued to bring him food though he was full. When Dew insisted he could eat no more, the host scooped up the leftovers off his plate and gave the scraps to children at the door clamoring for food, Dew related.
“It was the first time in my life I had seen genuine hunger,” Dew said.
Dew challenged listeners to consider if they hungered for God as the children hungered for food. Dew warned that seeking a degree can become a “professional” pursuit that “turns affection for God cold.”
If nothing else is done, Dew said, may the one accomplishment be: “That you walk out of here … loving Jesus more deeply and more faithfully than we have before. Seek God with desperation.”
Second, believers must seek God with desperation because only God can satisfy, Dew said. Pointing to verse 3, Dew reminded listeners that God’s love is “better than life” itself.
“There’s something liberating, something powerful that happens in our lives when we actually find out that He and He alone is more satisfying than one more day of life, that He himself is more satisfying than any accomplishment this world can ever give us,” Dew said.
Dew concluded with “Now is the time, maybe more than ever before, to just love Him with a sense of desperation knowing that He and He alone can satisfy.”
The resurrection of Christ clarifies our task, Mohler says in fall convocation address
By Jacob Pearcy/SBTS
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – The opening convocation for the fall 2023 term of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College Aug. 29 was marked by a spirit of exuberance as the Southern Seminary community gathered in Alumni Memorial Chapel. As the faculty processed in to the opening hymn, the newly restored Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ was on full display.
Albert Mohler, Jr. delivered a commencement address that resonated with gratitude. In his welcoming remarks to the assembly of faculty, students, trustees, and families, he emphasized the profound significance of coming together to consecrate the upcoming semester to the Lord. Mohler’s address connected the activity of Southern Seminary and Boyce College back to the history of Christian faithfulness, even as the institution celebrates the present and looks forward to the future. “We are here for the prophets. We are here for the apostles. We are here for the evangelists and missionaries. We are here for the faithful throughout all the ages,” said Mohler.
Preaching from 1 Corinthians 15:19, Mohler placed emphasis on the cornerstone of Southern Seminary and Boyce College’s purpose: the resurrection of Christ. Building upon the apostle Paul’s argument, Mohler expounded that if not for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the teaching, the studying, the singing, and all else we do would be meaningless. “On the third day, He rose from the dead. That makes all the difference in the world,” said Mohler.
The resurrection of Christ, Mohler affirmed, not only forms the core of Christian belief but also clarifies the stakes. “It’s a matter of life and death.” It is because of what is at stake that Southern Seminary and Boyce College exist as an institution in service to the church. Mohler concluded, “It is our task to raise up preachers and teachers of the Word of God, servants of God in a multiplicity of disciplines – an invading force of young Christians going into the world to make a difference not just for time, but for eternity.”
During the service, three Southern Seminary and Boyce College professors signed the Abstract of Principles, the seminary’s founding confession of faith: Paul M. Akin, Associate Professor of Christian Missions, Provost, and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration, Kyle D. Claunch, Associate Professor of Christian Theology, and Adam J. Howell, Associate Professor of Old Testament Interpretation.
In signing the Abstract, professors agree to teach its doctrines “without hesitation, mental reservation, nor any private arrangement” with seminary leadership. All faculty sign the abstract before teaching at Southern Seminary and Boyce College, but those elected by the Board of Trustees sign the original document with ink and quill. The public signing of the Abstract of Principles in the original professors’ book clarifies the faculty member’s full commitment to this confession.
During the event, Mohler introduced four new faculty members: Erin E. Austin, assistant professor of business and marketing; Roberto A. Carrera, assistant professor of biblical studies; Brent J. Small, assistant professor of business administration; Jason A. Thacker, assistant professor of philosophy and ethics. These new faculty members are a demonstration of the continued vitality of Southern Seminary and Boyce College.
The opening convocation was also the occasion for the seminary to welcome two new members of its trustee board: Christopher B. Davis of Reisterstown, Md., and D. Oran Woodworth of O Fallon, Mo.
Following the convocation ceremony, faculty, trustees, students, and staff joined Mohler in front of the Boyce Centennial Library to celebrate its reopening to students after a renovation that began in December 2021.
We are a Gospel people, Allen preaches in convocation address
By Brett Fredenberg/MBTS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) – Midwestern Seminary inaugurated a new academic year during a convocation service Aug. 29, featuring a sermon by President Jason Allen on the centrality of the Gospel for life and ministry.
From Acts 9, Allen presented one of the most well-known conversion stories of all time, namely, the conversion of the apostle Paul. As he said, “Something happened in these verses that not only changed this man’s life but changed the world. These verses radiate the amazing grace of God.”
Allen reminded attendees that no matter how much activity happens at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College, the Gospel always takes precedence. From singing and teaching to working and studying, the Gospel is at the core of it all.
“We are a Gospel people,” he said. The Good News of Christ’s work to bring dead hearts to life is the foundation for all the activity at the Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College.
Additionally, he said, “We are conversionists.”
“We must come to a point in time where we encounter Christ – when our sin becomes real, repentance becomes urgent, submission becomes obvious, delight in Christ becomes attractive, and our lives are changed by Jesus.”
Allen challenged attendees to consider their own faith, and if they find themselves not in Christ to repent and believe.
He said, “The same Gospel that reached Saul in such a dramatic fashion is the same Gospel that is reaching people today. Regardless of how far from Christ you find yourself this morning or how near to the things of God you find yourself this morning, if you are not in Christ there is hope through the Gospel of Jesus who saves.”
Allen then spoke of Saul’s past. Saul was not looking for Christ in this narrative, he said, he was looking for Christians to put to death.
He encouraged attendees to consider the depths of their own sinfulness and to marvel at the riches of God’s grace in the Gospel, for Jesus loves to set His affection on those whose hatred is set on Him.
He went on to share that these verses indicate how God radically converts a sinner.
Just as with every sinner called to salvation, nothing was attractive about Saul before Christ. In the Gospel, Saul goes from being the hunter to hunted, the persecutor to persecuted, the despiser to the despised. Everything changed for Saul in the Gospel.
Allen concluded his sermon by discussing two responses from Saul and Ananias.
Saul responded in simple obedience, Allen said.
“To see the glorified Lord in all his splendor is a blinding experience. Perhaps the Lord is teaching Saul a sense of humility and dependency. Perhaps this event cements in Saul’s heart that something radical has happened. In response, Saul is committed. He moves and follows the Word of the Lord.”
Allen shared how Ananias initially responds out of fear, reminding of how people often attempt to limit God’s work.
“The Gospel can reach anyone,” he said. “But our tendency is to be like Ananias and limit the power of God. In contrast, though, we should not be surprised when the most aggressive, belligerent, anti-Christian people in the world today are reached by Christ in the Gospel. God loves to reach the otherwise unreachable, to show forth His amazing grace.”
Prior to his address, Allen presented several matters of institutional updates to the seminary and college community.
Allen recognized and welcomed four new trustees to the seminary, each of which serve as local church pastors: Jeremy Pellum, Roderick Suite, David Taylor,and Casey Williams. Midwestern Seminary trustees serve five-year terms with the opportunity for one reappointment, allowing trustees the opportunity for a decade of leadership and service to the seminary.
Moreover, three newly elected seminary faculty members signed the institution’s Articles of Faith during the service: Brett R. Akright, Joe M. Allen III, and Sam Bierig.
To view the entire convocation address, visit mbts.edu/events/chapel
