As Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, gave his 30th report to convention messengers, he said he came with the “same message I came at the very first — to say thank you.”
“Thank you on behalf of now thousands and thousands and thousands of students and graduates who have gone on from Southern Seminary serving in pulpits and throughout the missions fields of the land,” Mohler said as he addressed the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting on June 15. “Thank you on behalf of the people who have heard the gospel because of the graduates who have gone out and preached and taken this gospel to the ends of the earth.”
‘Downstream of your churches’
The students who show up on SBTS’s campus are “downstream of your churches,” Mohler said, meaning they reflect what they’ve learned there.
“It is because of the strength of the SBC and the strength of our churches that we are at peak efficiency and enrollment, and the Lord is blessing beyond anything we could imagine,” Mohler said. “It’s not about the greatness of an institution, it is about the greatness of Christ and His churches.”
He thanked messengers for their gifts through the Cooperative Program, but he also thanked them for preaching the gospel in their churches and raising up young Christians in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
“They’re showing up on our campuses … and that means they’re now showing up in the pulpits, they’re showing up on the missions field, they’re showing up in ministry,” he said.
After the morning session, more than 500 alumni and friends of SBTS attended a luncheon with music led by Matthew Boswell, assistant professor of church music and worship at Southern Seminary.
Recognizing alumni
During the luncheon, Mohler recognized two alumni for their outstanding contributions and love of Christ — Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director/treasurer of national Woman’s Missionary Union, and Wes Fowler, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mayfield, Kentucky. Mohler presented each with the distinguished alumni of the year award plaque.
Also during the luncheon, he announced that Paul Akin, who serves as dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions at SBTS, has been named the new provost.
Mary Mohler, the president’s wife, also received special recognition for her vision and dream in 1997 to begin the Seminary Wives Institute. This year the institute celebrates its 25th year of encouraging, loving and equipping ministers’ wives. The room stood and applauded to honor her for her vision and faithfulness to wives of ministers.
View photos from this business session of the Annual Meeting here.
To see more photos from the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim, click here.
For more stories from the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, visit thebaptistpaper.org/sbc2022.
