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FROM THE SEMINARIES: MBTS, SBTS


EDITOR’S NOTE: “From the Seminaries” includes news releases of interest from Southern Baptist seminaries.

Today’s From the Seminaries includes items from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Midwestern to host Great Awakening prayer summit
By Staff

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MBTS) — Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will host Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd for “A Regional Summit on Prayer for the next Great Awakening” at the Kansas City, Mo., campus Aug. 27

The event, which will be an extension of the seminary’s Aug. 26-27 “For the Church Conference,” will begin at 10 a.m., as Floyd will preach in chapel. Following the chapel service, local and regional pastors and members of the seminary community will join Midwestern President Jason Allen for a luncheon and interview session with Floyd. The luncheon will culminate in a time of prayer seeking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the local church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the nation for a Great Awakening.

“Midwestern Seminary is honored to host this regional gathering for pastors and ministers to come together and consider prayer, revival and the SBC,” Allen said. “I’m grateful for Dr. Floyd’s emphasis on spiritual renewal, and I pray that this event will further that cause.”

Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas since 1986, was elected as SBC president in June. As he took office, Floyd vowed to commit his leadership to Southern Baptists coming together in “explicit agreement, visible union and extraordinary prayer” for the next Great Awakening in the U.S.

Even prior to his election, Floyd organized multiple national prayer events and has been a vocal advocate for the local church to refocus its energy toward prayer for a great movement of God.

“I believe with all of my heart that our greatest need in this hour is for the next Great Awakening,” Floyd said. “This summit is an opportunity for me to encourage pastors and ministers in this region to join me in leading our churches to move into a strong commitment in the days ahead to extraordinary prayer — asking God to pour out upon us, the next great move of God in our nation. As we pray extraordinarily, we must evangelize aggressively, disciple intentionally and reach the nations exponentially.

“It is obvious to me that we need a mighty, fresh manifestation of the presence of God in our lives personally, that I would call personal spiritual revival,” Floyd continued. “Our churches need that mighty manifestation of God’s presence through the life of the church. There is no question that the greatest need in American life is a spiritual awakening.”

The 10 a.m. chapel service is open to the public. Local pastors and ministry leaders are asked to register for the luncheon by Aug. 20 at the following link: https://midwesternprayersummit.eventbrite.com.

Southern names admissions director, 4 Boyce College faculty
By Staff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (SBTS) — Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has named Kody Gibson as its new director of admissions, heading into an academic year with anticipated record enrollment.

Meanwhile, four new faculty members have been named for Boyce College, the seminary’s undergraduate school, to play key roles in its academic programs, including its worldview degree and new business management program.

Gibson, 29, graduated from Southern Seminary with an M.Div. in 2012 and most recently served as the seminary’s associate director of admissions. He replaces Ben Dockery, who held the role since October 2012.

SBTS President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said Gibson is the “right leader for this strategic team at this time, and I am looking forward to seeing his influence in our admissions process.”

Gibson said Southern Seminary “has seen a great enrollment increase at both the seminary and Boyce College, and I’m looking forward to seeing those numbers grow. There are a host of challenges that face the landscape of theological education, but we have a great team in place that will see this historic growth continue.”

Gibson, a native of Edmond, Okla., earned his undergraduate degree from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. He and his wife Julie are members at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville.

Dockery will remain senior pastor at Vine Street Baptist Church in Louisville while he completes his Ph.D. at Southern Seminary and helps start a consulting firm for Christian higher education with his father, Trinity International University President David S. Dockery, former president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn.

“For Southern Seminary and Boyce College,” Mohler said, “admissions is a ministry, not a marketing program,” Mohler said. “Both of these fine Christian leaders embody that vision.”

During his annual report to SBC messengers in June, Mohler said the seminary’s fall enrollment will exceed a record of 4,600 students, including more than 1,700 master of divinity students. Those pursuing the M.Div. comprise the largest such group assembled at one time in one institution in the history of theological education, Mohler said.

Gibson said a simple practice will help the seminary maintain those historic enrollment numbers: “One concept we’ve mastered is that everyone at Southern is an enrollment counselor and I want to attract alumni, students and friends of the seminary to keep doing that for us.”

Boyce College’s four new faculty members including Louisville native Kevin Jones as assistant professor of teacher education, in which he will coordinate field and teaching experience for students in addition to teaching courses in Boyce’s teacher education program.

The college’s dean, Dan DeWitt said Jones “embodies exactly what Boyce seeks to offer with its teacher education program: a passionate teacher who is dedicated to the ministry of the Gospel in the classroom, church and home. Students will be able to learn from both his instruction and his godly example.”

Jones previously served as assistant professor in Kentucky State University’s school of education, where he is an alumnus, and has taught in the public school systems in Fayette, Franklin and Jefferson counties.

“I long to see Christian teachers and leaders impact the lives of students nationally and internationally, teaching and leading to the glory of God,” Jones said.

His 10 years of experience also includes youth ministry and a pastoral internship under Southern Seminary professor Kevin L. Smith. Jones and his wife Demica, members of Immanuel Baptist Church, have three children, Kennedi, Kevin Jr. and Karsynn.

A graduate of Spalding University’s doctor of education program, Jones is a board member of the Louisville-based urban missions initiative Love Thy Neighborhood.

Also joining the Boyce faculty:

— Bryan Baise, 30, who will oversee and direct the college’s worldview and apologetics degrees and serve as assistant professor of worldview and apologetics. Baise earned an undergraduate degree graduated from the University of Kentucky and his master’s degree from Southern and is a Ph.D. candidate at the seminary.

“Bryan provides an intelligent, energetic personality and a winsome voice that will excite young Christians to think carefully about their worldview and how to engage other beliefs with confidence,” DeWitt said.

Baise hopes to instill an intellectual curiosity in students through his classes, which will include metaphysics, the problem of evil, religion in the public square and ethics. He wants students who leave Boyce College with an apologetics degree to be well-equipped to face life and the diverse philosophies they will encounter, whether in ministry or in the workforce.

“I want it to be a program that’s encouraging, equipping but also engaging,” Baise said. “I firmly believe that philosophy is absolutely everywhere. It’s inescapable; it’s in everything we do; it’s in everything we touch.”

Because philosophy is everywhere, Baise said he wants the program to help students develop a concrete knowledge of what the Christian worldview is and how it applies to all aspects of life.

Baise and his wife Danielle have two children, Madelyn, 5, and Collin, 2, with a third child due in November.

— Scott Moodie, who will oversee the college’s new degree in business administration as assistant professor of business management. The degree is designed to integrate business and missions to prepare students for three avenues: intercultural business, nonprofit organization efforts and local church administration.

Moodie, a Wisconsin native, currently is completing his Ph.D. in management science at Spain’s ESADE School of Business, consistently listed as one of the best business schools in the world.

Boyce College global studies coordinator John Klaassen said Moodie “has been a part of international churches everywhere he has lived and will bring not only expertise on the business front but a thorough understanding of what it means to live globally, be a churchman internationally and work with businesses cross-culturally. His perspective will be unique among business leaders and his gifting will serve the church in ways that we have never experienced before.”

More information about degree programs at Boyce College is available at boycecollege.com.

— Oren Martin, 39, as assistant professor of Christian theology. After teaching for a year at Northland International University, Martin returns to the school where he earned his M.Div. in 2007 and Ph.D. in 2013.

“Oren is a capable theologian who is dedicated in service to the local church,” evidencing “knowledge in the classroom and faithfulness to his congregation,” DeWitt said.

Martin, 39, has served on the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and was an elder at Clifton Baptist Church and an adjunct professor at Boyce during his first stint in Louisville. He grew up in Houston, Texas, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston.

“Nothing compares to the joy of stepping into the classroom to teach the most glorious, life-changing truths that have been made known to us by our great and gracious God,” Martin said. “I love Christ and His church more through the years we spent here, and I am excited to pass on to others what has been passed down to me.”

Martin, who first moved to Louisville with his family 10 years ago, said he “never dreamed that I would come back to teach at the school that has invested so much into me.” He and his wife Cindy have three children, Jonathan, Anna and Benjamin.
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Compiled by Baptist Press editor Art Toalston from reports by the communications offices of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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