Magazine Issue Archives — Southern Equip

Apply to Southern Seminary
Visit the Campus

The Whole Bible for the Whole Congregation

If you are responsible for preaching to an assembly, make it your goal to serve them from both the Old and New Testaments. The Lord has inspired sixty-six canonical books for the nourishment of his people.

Mitchell L. Chase

What Does it Mean To Be a Shepherd Leader?

When God raised up human leaders as shepherds, he was calling them to participate in his work of rescuing his people, remaining with them, and providing for them. This calling did not elevate leaders to positions of sovereign lordship over the people; instead, it placed them in positions of sacrificial stewardship among the people of Israel.

Timothy Paul Jones

Trusted for truth in the training of preachers

Southern Seminary takes the training of pastors seriously.

HERSHAEL W. YORK

Five Ministry Challenges I Didn’t Anticipate

Life and ministry have changed rapidly and radically over the past forty years. Reared in a pastor’s home, I was not, on the one hand, totally unprepared for the complexities and complications that awaited me when I accepted my first full-time ministry assignment at only twenty years old. On the other hand, no one was prepared for the sweeping changes that the next four decades would produce.

Hershael W. York

From The President

Do You Want to Be Encouraged?

Come see what God is doing at Southern Seminary as the next generation of “soldiers of Christ, in truth arrayed” is readied for deployment. These students are serious, convictional, devotional, and joyful. They know the landscape of the post-modern world and they are determined to preach Christ and lead gospel churches. They match seriousness with sweetness. God is doing something marvelous in this generation and right here at Southern Seminary and Boyce College. Come see it for ourself, pray for us, and thank God for calling out the called in this generation. How kind of God to let us be a part of all this.

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Confessional Integrity in a Time of Theological Crisis: The Abstract of Principles Then and Now

From the very beginning, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has been a confessional institution. Every professor must sign our confession of faith, the Abstract of Principles, agreeing to teach “in accordance with and not contrary to all that is contained therein.” This pledge has remained unchanged since 1859, but the history of Southern Seminary is a history with many twists and turns.

The Changing Face of Apologetics in a Secular Age

We live in a society marked by secularization. And when I use that term, I’m talking about the sort of secularism that we’ve only experienced in the wake of the Enlightenment and the advent of modernity; we live in a society where theism has lost its binding authority. I’ve lived long enough to watch it happen, and it still surprises me.

Onward

Everything we are, everything we do, everything we teach, is based upon the knowledge that God’s Word is truth – inerrant, inspired, infallible, totally true and trustworthy. The theme of this issue of Southern Seminary Magazine is truth—truth unchanged and unchanging.

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Trusted for Truth: The great challenge of the age

At Southern Seminary and Boyce College, we face the honor and challenge of raising up a generation of young Christian leaders, preachers, ministers, and missionaries who will be people of the truth.

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

No other gospel

What we believe about the character of God, the identity of man, the nature of sin, and the work of Christ are put on full display when we articulate the gospel.

R. ALBERT MOHLER JR.

The centrality of Scripture yesterday, today and forever

The errors that Luther countered in 1517 and throughout the Reformation have persisted even into our own day.

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Preaching in a secular age

With the advance of secular pluralism, expository preaching must become the church’s strategy for survival.

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

A Prophet of Cultural Engagement

Christians have always wrestled with the question of how to live in and engage most faithfully the culture around us. That challenge has, perhaps, never been more difficult than it is at this moment. The moral and intellectual foundations of Western nations, and those influenced by them, are currently changing at an unprecedented velocity. This…

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

How Will We Live Now?

Francis Schaeffer’s “How Should We Then Live” after 40 years

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

5 Quotes from Francis Schaeffer’s “How Should We Then Live?”

“Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles. But people with understanding realize that their presuppositions should be chosen after a careful consideration of which worldview is true.” “The ironic fact here is that humanism, which began with Man’s being central, eventually had no…

Uncompromising Faithfulness

We are called to be the people of the truth, even when the truth is not popular and even when the truth is denied by the culture around us.

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Stories

The Spirit and Flesh of James P. Boyce: A History of the Library at Southern Seminary

On my first visit to Southern Seminary, I thought, “This library is worn.” The floors were worn. The desks were worn. The books were worn. The campus, professors, and legacy were top notch, but the library . . . underwhelming. My perspective has since changed. If I had voiced my impression of a worn library to James Petigru Boyce he would have responded, “Yes, as it should be.” Tattered floors and desks revealed that the faithful and educated ministers Boyce envisioned to lead Southern Baptists shared his convictions.

Travis C. Hearne

The Same Yesterday and Today and Forever

From its inception in 1859, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has existed primarily to educate, train, and prepare pastors for a lifetime of ministry faithfulness. Over the past 160 years, the commitment of Southern Seminary to train pastors, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, has not changed. However, the context in which pastors are called to minister continues to change rapidly. Today, pastors face challenges such as the rise of secularism, the decline of religious participation, and the increasing complexity of social issues.

Jacob Percy

Why The Briefing?

As we celebrate Dr. Mohler’s thirtieth anniversary as President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, it is fitting to recognize the incredible work that he does to ensure his dedicated listeners wake up to a new episode of The Briefing each weekday morning.

Caleb Shaw and Graham Faulkner

Recovering Faithfulness in Theological Education

In Southern Baptist life, we now enjoy the benefit of conservative leadership in our boards and seminaries, but it has not always been that way.

Joshua W. Powell

Seminary Wives Institute: 25 Years of Faithfulness

In February of 1997, Mary Mohler met with a few wives of Southern Seminary faculty members to share a burden and a vision that wives of seminary students needed to be encouraged and trained, and in the fall of that year, Seminary Wives Institute (SWI) was born.

Jeff Robinson

How Narrow Should a Church Confession Be?

I did a double-take when I read the sign in front of a small, white church beside a two-lane blacktop that snaked through the hills of western North Carolina. I stopped and backed up my SUV to get a second look. The weathered 12’-by-18’ sign read: “Welcome to Trinity Baptist Church. We are an Independent,…

Jeff Robinson

How Do You Cast a Confessional Vision in a Non-Confessional Church?

“I agree with every word, but only Roman Catholics read creeds.” I was walking down the sidewalk with a member of our congregation, and we had just finished discussing why our church reads creeds and confessions during congregational worship. The issue was at once simple and decisive—our church should not read creeds during congregational worship…

Raymond Johnson

From the Editor

May the celebration of God’s work to use Dr. Mohler over the past thirty years at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary encourage you to delight in the goodness and grace of our God as we consider an example of Recovering Faithfulness.

Jacob Percy

3 Key Truths For Better Apologetics

Apologetics is the reverent, reasonable, and humble defense—through our words and through our lives—of the hope we have in the risen Christ

Timothy Paul Jones

You Don’t Have To Be an Expert to Share the Gospel

Lost people are born again not because of impeccable argumentation but by the will and power of God working through the verbal witness

Timothy K. Beougher

We Argue that Jesus Is the Only Way, But Are We Living It Out?

If we live like Jesus is the only way, we will be courageous. We will testify to the truth in Christ. We will not trim our convictions to please others, but in our teaching, preaching, and writing we will be faithful to our Lord.

Thomas R. Schreiner

Apologetics and the Glory of God

Though I’ve been teaching, preaching, and writing about church history, theology, pastoral ministry, the Christian life, and much else for the past 25 years, all those things really boil down to one thing: a defense and proclamation of the glorious, saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jeff Robinson

Mohler Elected President of the Evangelical Theological Society

Southern Seminary’s president was elected to the role in November during the society’s 72nd annual meeting.

Jeff Robinson

Boyce College Remembers Nick Challies as a Young Man “Living and Breathing for God”

Friends, family, and faculty members gathered to honor the life of the 20-year-old student who died suddenly three days earlier.

Jeff Robinson

Confident in God’s Unchanging Word

Lenny Hartono’s ministry in the hardest circumstances

Jared Kennedy

“If You Have No Morphology, You Have No Theology”

Peter Gentry Retiring After 22 Years of Faithful Service

Jeff Robinson

From Oregon to Louisville to the Deep South

SBTS grad patiently revitalizing Georgia church

Jeff Robinson

An Academic Center with a Missionary Heart

Jenkins Center Going Strong in Equipping Students and Laypersons to Engage Islam

Jeff Robinson

An Oasis of Truth in a Secular Wasteland

The church must draw from deep springs of truth even as it lives as a moral minority in a hostile world.

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

A CHURCH BUILT ON TRUTH

How a renewed commitment to preaching transformed Raymond Johnson’s Philadelphia congregation

Andrew J.W. Smith & Emil Handke

What makes a Christian college actually Christian

3 ways you can know an institution is still faithful to the call

MATTHEW J. HALL

The unseen ministry of Mary Mohler

Southern Seminary’s First Lady has played a crucial — but often behind-the-scenes — role in the school’s past 25 years. Here’s her story.

Kate Brannen Smith

The 122-year legacy of Consolidated Baptist Church

Two Southern Seminary alumni lead historic African American Baptist church in Lexington, Kentucky.

RuthAnne Irvin

Beyond the Pulpit

A day-in-the-life of Southern preaching professor and pastor Hershael W. York.

Emil Handke

Encountering God in the Silence

Inspired by Francis Schaeffer, Chad Nuss combines art and evangelism in a new worldview adventure

S. Craig Sanders, photography by Emil Handke

Simple Conviction

Matt Bevin didn’t expect a political career. Now his faith gives him nothing to lose.

Andrew J.W. Smith

The leadership influence of Albert Mohler

Southern celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation

SBTS Communications

Ask Anything

Andrew J.W. Smith & Sarah Haywood

Fuller Hall nears completion

Sarah Haywood

Leader influences

SBTS Communications

Leader Influences

SBTS Communications

Fall News and Events

Fall Festival, new apologetics program, classical education at Boyce, and more

SBTS Communications

Who Most Influenced Your Understanding of Expository Preaching?

Leader influences

SBTS Communications

Leader Influences: Christianity and Culture

Southern Seminary Magazine

Fall News and Events

SBTS Communications

What Teacher Most Influenced You?

“Leader Influences” asks prominent leaders and teachers a question about who, or what, influenced them in a particular area.

Southern Seminary Magazine

Southern Seminary Magazine Through the Years

Since the late 19th century, Southern Seminary’s alumni magazine has appeared in various iterations.

Southern Seminary Magazine

Spring News and Events

Trustees meetings, 9Marks at Southern, and more

Ways to Support Southern Seminary

Invest in the next generation of gospel ministers.

Southern Seminary Magazine

Feeds for Your Soul

Four podcasts extend the seminary’s ministry to thousands

Seminary Communications

A Legacy of Wisdom and Discipleship

How Dale and Mavis Smith support Southern

Jared Kennedy

Treasuring the Message

Remembering the life of Barbara Bartow

Travis Hearne

Three Fall Giving Campaigns Raise $1.5 Million for the Southern Fund

Donors support Southern through the Fall Giving Day, Heritage Golf Classic, and Year-End Giving Campaign

Travis Hearne

Gratitude for God’s Unchanging Grace in Ever-Changing Times

Every challenge in a Christian’s life must be met with God-honoring resolve.

Edward Heinze

‘Take the gospel far as the curse is found,’ Mohler told graduates at SBTS winter commencement

Andrew J.W. Smith

Trustees vote to adopt ‘The Nashville Statement’ as an official confessional document

Andrew J.W Smith and Grant Mitchell

Why a Pastor’s Spiritual Life Matters

The pastor’s inner spiritual life is critical to the spiritual development of his people.

Matthew D. Haste

Faculty & Alumni

Kitchens, SBTS Alum, Promoted to Air Force Chief of Chaplains

Kitchens will lead the Department of the Air Force Chaplain Corps—consisting of 2,200 active and reserve chaplains and religious affairs airmen.

Travis Hearne

WE HAVE TO LIVE OUT OUR FAITH: HOW ONE SBTS ALUM IS LEADING HIS CHURCH AMIDST THE RUBBLE OF A DEADLY STORM’S WAKE

THIRTY TO SIXTY SECONDS. That’s how long it took for the storm to explode Wes Fowler’s carefully regimented weekly schedule and, of profoundly more importance, to change his life and the lives of Mayfield, Kentucky’s citizens forever.

Jeff Robinson

Alumni Updates

Alumni News

Southern News

Alumni News

Updates from our alumni serving to the ends of the earth.

25 YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE: TOM SCHREINER, TOM NETTLES, & HERSHAEL YORK

In 1997, three conservative scholars joined the faculty at SBTS, and their presence loomed large in the re-embrace of biblical and theological fidelity at Southern Seminary.

Jeff Robinson

The Published Works of Seminary Faculty and Alumni in 2020–21

Seminary Communications

Cultivating Dependence and Calming Fears

An interview with Gregg Allison

Jared Kennedy

Help! I’ve Lost My Greek and Hebrew

Howell and Plummer discuss strategies and motivation for retaining Hebrew

Forrest Strickland

The Glory of God at the Heart of Pauline Theology

An interview with Thomas R. Schreiner

Jeff Robinson

Deep Personal Convictions about Corporate Worship

An interview with Matthew Westerholm

Jared Kennedy

Faculty Profile: Paul Akin

Jeff Robinson

Faculty Profile: Tyler Flatt

Jeff Robinson

Seminary Adds Three Professors to Faculty

Jeff Robinson

Considering covenants

Thomas R. Schreiner

Gratitude is a ‘deeply theological issue’

Mary Mohler’s new book provides a strategy for ‘growing in gratitude’

Annie Corser

How the Lord’s Prayer will turn the world upside down

R. Albert Mohler Jr. explains how Christians have understood the Lord’s Prayer for centuries — and why it matters more than ever today

Andrew J.W. Smith

Overcoming the shadow of racism

Williams and Jones discuss new book on race and the Southern Baptist Convention

S. Craig Sanders

Greenway discusses appointment to the SBC’s Evangelism Task Force

Faculty Books

SBTS Communications

‘Blessed are the flourishing’

Pennington discusses his book on the Sermon on the Mount.

Andrew J.W. Smith

Faculty Books

S. Craig Sanders, Annie Corser, & Andrew J.W. Smith

Faculty News

SBTS trustees’ election of Haykin, Taylor Flatt joins Boyce faculty, ETS 2016, CBS revision

SBTS Communications

. Vol. , No. .
Copyright © 2024
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Southern Seminary Editorial Board:

Southern Seminary Magazine Staff:

Subscription information: To receive a free subscription to Southern Seminary Magazine, change your address, or cancel your subscription, you may contact SSM in one of the following ways:

Mail: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Communications, 2825 Lexington Road, Louisville, KY 40280

Online: www.sbts.edu
Email: communications@sbts.edu
Call: 1-800-626-5525, ext. 4000

Southern Seminary Magazine is published biannually by The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2825 Lexington Road, Louisville, KY 40280. Subscriptions: Free.

Connect with Southern Seminary:
News.sbts.edu
Facebook.com/theSBTS
Twitter.com/SBTS
Instagram.com/SouthernSeminary