‘The Bible is the curriculum,’ Mohler says in fall convocation address
By Jeff Robinson/SBTS
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – The curriculum at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College is not about the Bible or things related to the Bible, it is the Bible, seminary president Albert Mohler told students and faculty Tuesday morning in the school’s annual fall convocation at Alumni Memorial Chapel.
Preaching from 2 Peter 1, focusing on verse 19 where Peter, having spoken in previous verses of the transfiguration of Jesus which he witnessed, said of Scripture, “we have something more sure to which you do well to pay attention,” Mohler said God’s Word must saturate the curriculum at a faithful seminary.
“This is a call to attentiveness to Scripture in all of life,” Mohler said in his 30th fall convocation address. “But let’s face it, as much as it is about all of life, here we are in this hour, in this place, asking God’s blessing upon the task of Christian higher education and theological education. We are playing with fire, brothers and sisters. We are walking right up to the edge of the precipice and looking down.
“The stakes we know are so high, and if it’s true for all Christians in all places, in all times until Jesus comes, it must especially be true of us that we do well to pay attention to it.”
Mohler said that if the Bible is the authority of all authorities for the follower of Christ, if it is, as Martin Luther put it, “the norm above norms that can’t be normed,” then the subject matter that Southern Seminary and Boyce College are called to build everything upon rings clear.
“There would be a lot of Bible in the curriculum,” he said. “There would be a lot of learning how to learn the Bible in the curriculum. But it also means that the Bible, rightly understood, is the curriculum. It means that the inspiration and authority of the Bible and the centrality of Scripture and attentiveness to the Word of God is not just about the portions of a Christian worldview curriculum directly devoted to scriptural study.
“It’s about Scripture saturating everything we do and everything we learn and everything we teach in such a way that we are doing well to pay attention to the Word.”
Ministry students must be taught faithfulness to God’s Word, Mohler said, because when Scripture speaks, God speaks. Mohler encouraged students to treasure their studies, their teachers, and their fellow students.
“What a tragedy and what unfaithfulness there would be if we fail in the task of attentiveness to the Word of God,” Mohler said. “I encourage you to treasure each other – students to treasure faculty, faculty to treasure students, and all of us to treasure every member of this community. Let us treasure the opportunity of learning and above all let us treasure Christ.”
Watch the entire convocation service here.
During the service, three SBTS and Boyce College professors signed the Abstract of Principles, the seminary’s historic confession of faith: Tyler A. Flatt, associate professor of humanities at Boyce College, Justin A. Irving, Duke K. McCall Professor of Christian Leadership, and Abraham Kuruvilla, Carl E. Bates Professor of Preaching. Irving and Kuruvilla were installed into these respective endowed chairs.
SWBTS, Lifeway en Español conference to equip the ‘pastor-theologian’
By Ashley Allen/SWBTS
FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – In effort to equip the “pastor-theologian” with the skills of biblical and theological exposition, the Hispanic Programs of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Lifeway en Español will host the inaugural “Theology Conference-Preaching and Teaching the Book of Colossians” for pastors and ministry leaders on the Fort Worth campus Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
“We seek to equip, encourage, and assist pastors and local church leaders in applying excellent study and scholarship to their ministry and develop a strong relationship with others who seek this same purpose,” said Mark R. McClellan, director of the Hispanic Programs at Southwestern Seminary and professor of missions in the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions. “We want to prepare those that attend with excellence and multiply like-minded leaders.”
Offered entirely in Spanish, the conference will feature Southwestern Seminary faculty who are also Lifeway en Español authors, including Juan R. Sánchez, associate professor of theology in the School of Theology, Edgar Aponte, adjunct faculty in the Hispanic Programs, and Giancarlo Montemayor, a Doctor of Philosophy student at Southwestern Seminary and adjunct faculty in the Hispanic Programs.
Noting that each of the “professors are also pastors,” McClellan said Sánchez, Aponte, and Montemayor will “provide teaching that can be applied to pastoral and church ministry.”
During plenary sessions offered Friday evening and throughout Saturday, attendees will learn how to preach expositionally as the main speakers preach through the book of Colossians, McClellan added. He explained, “It is important for those who attend to capture the importance of studying all of Scripture and preaching and teaching books of the Bible.”
The event will also include a conference for women focused on biblical counseling and led by Alejandra Sura, a Southwestern Seminary adjunct who teaches in the Hispanic Programs Certificate in Ministry in Women’s Studies. McClellan said Sura “has a strong theological education program and a weekly counseling ministry” with an international reach.
Registration is $25 per person and includes all sessions and Saturday’s lunch.
More information and registration can be found here.
