Chloe Bonner (left) was one of 301 graduates honored at Southwestern Seminary's spring 2024 commencement ceremony.
FORT WORTH (BP) — As the end of the 2024 calendar year approaches, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) community reflects with gratitude on the past 12 months, looks ahead with hope as the state of the institution continues to see improvements and commits to stay true to its six core values, said President David S. Dockery.
“All of us at Southwestern join together to express our gratitude to God for His providential kindness during this past year,” Dockery said. “We have been blessed to see good things take place in almost every area of the institution. We rejoice to see the renewed sense of hopefulness among students, staff and faculty alike.”
He noted the seminary’s core values are grace-filled, Christ-centered, scripturally grounded, confessionally guided, student-focused and globally engaged.
During the spring and fall Board of Trustees meetings, Dockery announced that Southwestern has seen improvement over the past two years in its finances and enrollment, as the institution moves “from instability to stability, from a time of crisis and challenge to a time of hopefulness … only because of God’s goodness and grace to this institution,” Dockery told trustees on Oct. 23.
From 2022 to 2024, the seminary saw increases in total tuition, unrestricted gifts and operating revenue, while lowering operating expenses and eliminating short-term debt. Cash reserves increased from $1.7 million in 2022 with a short-term debt of $4.2 million to more than $12 million cash on hand with no short-term debt in 2024. Dockery also described enrollment increases in the last two years: non-duplicating headcount, 3,403 to 3,586; annual credit hours taught, 33,253 to 35,984; and traditional full-time equivalent, 1,375 to 1,471.
During the spring convocation, Dockery spoke to the Southwestern community about the history of the seminary being confessionally guided, emphasizing the importance of having a “shared community of faith commitments.
“Confessing our faith is something that each follower of Jesus Christ should do, but we do so not just in an individual way, we do so in community as we have done this morning,” Dockery said during the Jan. 23 address.
During the fall convocation on Aug. 27, Dockery focused on encouraging Southwestern and Southern Baptists across the nation to be grace-filled by having a spirit of conviction, cooperation and collaboration as Southwestern prepares to celebrate its 100th year as part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) during the 2025 SBC annual meeting in Dallas.
Distinguished Baptist theologian Timothy George gave the Founder’s Day address on March 19, recalling the life of Albert Henry Newman, founding dean and an inaugural faculty member of Southwestern.
“Founder’s Day is a very special day,” Dockery said during the Founder’s Day chapel service. “It’s a time in which we just pause, take a step back, reflect upon God’s providential care for this institution for 116 years.”
During its spring and fall chapel services, the seminary highlighted the institution’s core value of being scripturally guided by providing faculty the opportunity to preach through 1 & 2 Thessalonians in the spring and a collection of Psalms through the fall semester.
The seminary provided a variety of events throughout the year, including the Sending Church Summit, Preaching Workshop, Gospel-Centered Counseling Conference and hosted Carl Trueman as the lecturer for the Day-Higginbotham lectures in October, as Southwestern continued to look for opportunities to equip students, alumni and the community with the knowledge and training they need to live their callings.
Southwestern Seminary leaders played key roles in the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, as Dockery gave a report on the seminary to the convention and School of Church Music and Worship (SCMW) Dean Joe Crider and SCMW students led in worship. Southwestern recognized and honored alumni during the alumni luncheon, presenting distinguished alumni awards to Stanton Norman, president of Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, Ark.; Jarrett Stephens, senior pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston; and Darin Wood, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Midland, Texas.
Southwestern continued to hold fast to its core value of being globally engaged by participating in a number of mission trips and other evangelism opportunities in 2024. Faculty and students went on trips stateside to New York, Boston and Oklahoma during the spring and fall reading days, and international trips to Germany and Spain during the summer and winter breaks. Members of the Southwestern community also participated in the Revive this Nation initiative in the spring and Crossover prior to the Southern Baptist Convention in June. In September, the campus held a Global Missions Week which included opportunities for students to hear from and meet with evangelism and missions faculty, visiting missionaries and Gordon Fort, senior ambassador for the International Mission Board (IMB).
Southwestern celebrated its community in a variety of areas, such as through the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Southwestern Music Academy, which provides students the opportunity to refine their music skills through teaching, while members of the community are provided with musical lessons.
During the fall, the institution recognized Jack Terry for his 55 years of uninterrupted service to the seminary in a variety of roles, including professor, dean of the School of Religious Education and vice president for institutional advancement. The current Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries was so named in 2009 in his honor. Southwestern and the city of Fort Worth recognized Nov. 15 as Dr. Jack D. Terry Jr. Day, while Southwestern expressed their gratitude to Terry with a reception on campus that day and a video tribute during the annual Prelude to Christmas musical presentation.
Carl J. Bradford, a two-time alumnus, was named the new dean of Texas Baptist College. Kevin Rodgers, professor of evangelism and missions, and Cristian Rata, professor of Old Testament, were also added to the faculty in 2024.
In December, Southwestern Journal of Theology announced its Book of the Year Award winner was Kevin J. Vanhoozer for his “Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What it Means to Read the Bible Theologically” (Zondervan Academic), as well as other awards and honorable mentions in 12 academic disciplines.
Southwestern faculty also produced a variety of works in 2024:
- “Special Revelation and Scripture” by David S. Dockery and Malcolm B. Yarnell III
- “The Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture: Revised and Expanded,” edited by David S. Dockery and Malcolm B. Yarnell III
- “When the Fires of Heaven Fell: Volume 1” by Malcolm R. McDow
- “Criswell: His Life and Times” by O. S. Hawkins
- “Confident Witness: Evangelism and Apologetics for the 21st Century,” edited by David S. Dockery
- “Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls: Learning the Act of Pastoral Ministry from the Church Fathers” by Coleman M. Ford and Shawn J. Wilhite
- “1 & 2 Chronicles: A Commentary for Biblical Preaching and Teaching” by Joshua E. Williams and Calvin F. Pearson
- “God” (Volume 1 of the series “Theology for Every Person”) by Malcolm B. Yarnell
Southwestern celebrated the graduation of 301 students in the spring and 292 in the fall, continuing in the seminary’s goal to remain student-focused, equipping students as they prepare to live out God’s calling on their lives.
In October, Southwestern launched its new online platform, “Equip The Called,” a site that houses a variety of resources, including faculty blogs, sermon starters, chapel sermons, Southwesterners’ Forum and podcasts, as well as Southwestern Journal of Theology, Artistic Theologian, Southwestern News, and Preaching Source. The new site also has an alumni portal with information and resources for those who have already graduated and are serving out their calling in a variety of ways.
“The Lord has helped us along the way,” Dockery said during a staff gathering in November. “And it’s all been undergirded by a commitment to prayer that’s been shared by the campus. … All of us have recognized our need for complete and total dependence on the Lord. He has provided for us and sustained us, and we’re in a much happier, stable place than most of us could have imagined.”
During the fall trustee meeting, Dockery ended his report with “four words that summarize the heart of the Southwestern campus: Thanks be to God.”
