MBTS President Jason K. Allen’s ‘Letters to My Students: Vol. 2’ released by B&H
By Michael S. Brooks/MBTS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) – Midwestern Seminary announced today that the second volume of Letters to My Students, authored by President Jason Allen, was released by B&H Publishing on June 1.
The series, which launched in the summer of 2019, aims to provide accessible guides for ministers and ministers-in-training and was inspired by Allen’s interest in and interactions with the book Lectures to My Students by renowned British pastor C.H. Spurgeon. This 176-page second volume – “On Pastoring” – brings both biblical and practical wisdom to bear on the task of pastoral ministry in particular.
Within the book, Allen highlights four themes related to the pastor’s role and responsibilities: the pastor’s calling, his duty to minister the Word, his commitment to high accountability and his responsibility to tend to his flock.
Ultimately, Allen said his goal in penning this second volume is to provide pastors, in any phase of their ministries but particularly those in the early stages, with an accessible, practical guide to the everyday tasks involved in pastoral ministry.
“Letters to My Students, Volume 1: On Preaching dealt with the primary responsibility the pastor undertakes – preaching,” Allen said. “For every local church minister, the preaching and teaching of the Word of God must be priority number one.
“Yet so much more happens during the week outside of the pulpit. That’s where faithful pastors are called to stand in the gap for their people day in and day out. Indeed, the complexities of our times, the rapidly shifting culture that we inhabit, and the multifaceted challenges confronting local churches mean that pastors need to be well-equipped, deeply devoted and joyously realistic about what is before them. I hope this book will serve pastors toward these ends.”
Revised, expanded ‘Profiles of Faithfulness’ highlights 38 ‘legacy servants’ of SWBTS
By Katie Coleman/SWBTS
FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Seminary Hill Press, the publishing arm of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is releasing during the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville a revised and expanded edition of Profiles of Faithfulness. The book tells the stories of men and women who played key roles in establishing and stewarding the seminary’s vision from its founding in 1908 to the present day. Originally published in 2019 with 16 profiles, this new volume profiles an additional 22 “legacy servants.”
Attendees to the Southwestern Seminary Alumni and Friends Luncheon to be held during the SBC annual meeting will receive free copies. The luncheon will also honor three new distinguished alumni: D. Hance Dilbeck, Thomas J. Nettles and the late Roy J. Fish.
“This book is an introduction to that faithful corps of faculty – as well as other legacy servants – in Southwestern Seminary’s history whose ministries have contributed greatly to the building and advancement of the institution B.H. Carroll founded – one which has indeed enjoyed the ‘favor of men and smiles of God,’” SWBTS President Adam W. Greenway writes in the book’s foreword.
Quoting from an address by the seminary’s founder, Greenway added: “It is my prayer that today’s generation of Southwestern Seminary faculty and staff will fulfill Carroll’s charge of ‘hard, faithful, honest work’ as we seek to prepare current and future generations of ministers of the Gospel for more faithful service that glorifies God and fulfills the Great Commission. May the examples provided in and through the lives of those who have gone before us inspire us toward greater commitment to serve the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention and to advance the cause of Christ and His Kingdom until Jesus returns.”
The book profiles a total of 38 individuals from Southwestern Seminary’s history, from early giants like B.H. Carroll and L.R. Scarborough to more recent names like Cal Guy, William J. Reynolds and James Leo Garrett Jr. While the 16 chapters of the original volume were written by Southwestern Seminary’s news writing staff, the 22 new chapters were written largely by current faculty members, many of whom are also alumni, who each wrote about the forebears in their respective fields.
