News Articles by James A. Smith, Sr.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Benjamin M. Skaug and Colby T. Adams were elected to new roles in the senior leadership of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary during a special meeting of the board of trustees Tuesday (Feb. 15).

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Pastor and former seminary administrator Benjamin Skaug was elected the new dean of Scarborough College, the undergraduate school of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, by action of the seminary’s board of trustees during their fall meeting Oct. 19. He will officially begin his duties as dean Jan. 1.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary board of trustees heard enrollment and financial reports, elected two scholars to the institution’s faculty, approved a new degree program and affirmed the school's recent legal actions during its Oct. 19 meeting.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- During a called meeting Tuesday (July 14), trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary unanimously approved a "conservative" budget for the 2020-2021 academic year -- at $29.7 million, 6 percent lower than in 2019-20 -- while hearing about "encouraging signs" for student enrollment. The meeting, held in executive session, was conducted via video conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trustees had decided in their April meeting to delay adoption of the 2020-21 budget until mid-July in order to provide more time to evaluate the ramifications of the pandemic.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- William "Dub" Henry Jackson Jr., pioneer of partnership missions, died Jan. 19 in Fort Worth after an extended illness. He was 95. Recognized as the 1998 distinguished alumnus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Jackson began and ended his life on the campus. He was born there in 1924 while his father was a student, and his last years were spent on Seminary Hill, where he lived and invested in students his passion for missions. He received his bachelor of arts degree in Divinity in 1951 at the Seminary.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- In radio, silence is not golden. Indeed, "dead air" -- a period of unintended silence during a live program -- is a broadcaster's nightmare. Jerry Johnson's mission in leading the National Religious Broadcasters is to protect his fellow communicators' right to exist and prevent the worst kind of dead air -- the censorship of evangelical voices on radio, television, the Internet and social media.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- When thousands of evangelical communicators who comprise the National Religious Broadcasters meet later this month in Nashville for their annual convention, Southern Baptists will be prominently featured. Southern Baptists' presence at "Proclaim 16: NRB International Christian Media Convention" is not merely a result of the fact that longtime Southern Baptist leader Jerry Johnson became president two years ago. The nation's largest Protestant denomination is well represented in the premier organization of evangelical communicators because Southern Baptists are such a key part of the evangelical movement, Johnson said.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Bill Sumners, director of Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives since 1988, will retire from his post next July, he recently announced in a letter to the Council of Seminary Presidents, which governs the organization. "It has been my pleasure and joy to serve in this position, in this place, for most of my career," Sumners told the CSP.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Trustees of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary received a report of record student enrollment for the recently concluded 2014-2015 academic year and record fall enrollment for the current academic year during their Oct. 12-13 fall meeting. In other business, the Board of Trustees responded to a referral from the Southern Baptist Convention, designated a new ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- A "first-ever" conference by evangelicals on the subject of transgenderism will be held Oct. 5 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. "Transgender Confusion and Transformational Christianity" is a preconference to the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors annual conference Oct. 5-7, which is focused this year on the subject of homosexuality.