Alex Sibley

PHOENIX (BP) -- Having worked with each of this year's Pastors' Conference speakers earlier this spring on their preaching through the book of Philippians, David Allen noted text-driven preaching is expository preaching "as it should be done." Allen, dean of the School of Preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, led the Text-Driven Preaching Workshop Sunday (June 11) as the official pre-conference workshop of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual Pastor's Conference in Phoenix.

KAYCEE, Wyo. (BP) -- Mark and David Largent are fourth- and fifth-generation ranchers, respectively, in a cow ranching dynasty that began with C.M. Largent Sr.'s first purchase of purebred registered Hereford cattle in 1902. But their second line of work likely wouldn't have been envisioned by their ranching forebears.

GTI is a program of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that aims to strengthen theological education around the world by forming strategic partnerships with seminaries and Baptist conventions overseas.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BP) -- Whether serving as pastor of Indian Nations Baptist Church, a bus driver, professor or certified professional coach, Scott Tafoya strives to make disciples in whichever sphere he finds himself. The unique opportunities of a bivocational pastor, he says, "are, in some ways, no different than for any other Christian." "Though we need to 'leave our work at the office' at times," Tafoya says ministry is "tied to life as a whole and really cannot be seen as completely separate."

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's trustees received reports on the renaming of the College at Southwestern and the establishment of the Patterson Center for Global Theological Innovation during their April 11-12 meeting at the Fort Worth, Texas, campus. Trustees also approved promotions for eight faculty members and the election of seven others along with a $36,833,962 budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

Evangelistic partnerships with nearby churches have been initiated by students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has launched a new center dedicated to the study of the ancient church -- the Southwestern Center for Early Christian Studies (SCECS). The seminary has a long history of research and publications in early Christianity, but now it meets with a heightened focus. A new website, special lectures, patristic reading groups, regular graduate and postgraduate seminars, and a group of faculty and students dedicated to researching the early church will all be features of the new initiative.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (BP) -- "I've been in prison before," Michael Rios humbly reflects. "I came in when I was very young. I had the right ideas, I had the right intents: get out, get married, have a life." Dressed in a white prison uniform, Rios speaks slowly but directly, his tattooed hands slowly gesturing to accentuate his words. He has been in prison longer than some of his fellow inmates have even been alive. Though Rios had the "right intents," bad choices kept him locked up, and he is now serving a life sentence.

LAUREL, Miss. (BP) -- Next door to Mission at the Cross in Laurel, Miss., is a bike shop. There, residents of the mission -- from former drug addicts and alcoholics to the homeless and ex-convicts -- take damaged, broken-down motorcycles and completely rebuild them. Lest anyone miss the parallel between the motorcycles and the residents of the mission who work on them, the repaired bikes are referred to as "born-again motorcycles."

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- Fewer than 10 years ago, the Baptist seminary in Guatemala City was on the verge of closing its doors. Its library bookshelves were nearly bare; its only technological resources were decades-old computers; and its roof had decayed to the point that classes could not be held when it rained lest students become drenched by the impertinent dripping. Beyond that, the seminary's reach was limited, leaving would-be ministers who lived far from campus with no option but to fend for themselves.