Greenway honored with portrait at SWBTS
BY SWBTS Staff
FORT WORTH, Texas – Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary recognized Adam W. Greenway, ninth president of the institution, with a presidential portrait in an April 24 ceremony.
“We want to welcome back to the Southwestern campus the ninth president,” said President David S. Dockery, whose own presidential portrait was unveiled last month in a ceremony held in the Rotunda of the B. H. Carroll Memorial Building.
“Everyone in the room is aware of the challenges of the past seven years, but it’s our hope today that this will be a genuine step toward living out our grace filled core values and the exhortations from the apostle Paul found in Romans chapter 12, for us to live in harmony with one another, and so far as is possible for us to do so, to live at peace with one another,” he said.
“We pray today for the Lord’s divine blessings on Adam and Carla Greenway.”
In addition to his work to “navigate the challenges of the COVID season,” Dockery credited Greenway with various administrative and academic reforms, campus improvements, additions of key staff members, and bringing a number of current faculty members to Southwestern, making the seminary “stronger today” because of them.
“I want to say personally that I will always be truly grateful for Dr. Greenway’s kind invitation for me to return to my alma mater in August of 2019,” he said. Dockery earned the Master of Divinity degree in 1981.
Greenway, a 2002 Master of Divinity graduate of Southwestern who served as president from 2019 to 2022, expressed appreciation for the portrait and ceremony, noting “how good it is to be back home under the dome,” he said.
“It blesses me, and it blesses my family that you would take time out of your day to be here,” he said to guests in attendance.
“Whatever may have transpired in the past, as far as I’m concerned, it is time to put that in the past,” he said, expressing confidence that “because I trust that our God is a good God, and that His Word is true, then I do believe that the best days for the Greenways are not in the past, but in the future, wherever He leads and whatever that means. And the same is true for you.”
Greenway said, “I celebrate whatever God chooses to do and to bless Southwestern Seminary. … I will celebrate what happens from here into eternity,” quoting the first verse of the seminary hymn, “Lead On, O King Eternal.”
In addition to Carla, who earned the Master of Arts in Christian Education from the seminary in 2002, the Greenways’ children, Wade and Caroline, also attended.
Other invited guests included retired faculty member Malcolm McDow and his wife, Melba, several seminary trustees, representatives of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and the pastoral staff of Avon Park Lakes Baptist Church in Avon Park, Fla., home congregation of the Greenway family. Also in attendance were some current and former faculty and staff.
Greenway currently serves as a member of the City Council of Frostproof, Fla., and he and Carla both serve at Cornerstone Christian Academy in Avon Park.
Portraits of the institution’s first through eighth presidents are displayed in the Rotunda. Greenway’s portrait is displayed with Dockery’s outside Truett Auditorium, which adjoins the Rotunda. Southwestern was founded in 1908.
The portrait was painted by Jonathan Linton, an artist who also recently completed the official portrait of Glenn Youngkin, former governor of Virginia.
MBTS hosts 9Marks conference
By Jonathan Lumley/MBTS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Midwestern Seminary recently hosted the 9Marks at Midwestern Conference – a two-day conference on April 21-22 centered on the relevance of Scriptural truths for the pressures facing the church today. Speakers Jason K. Allen, Mark Dever, Jonathan Leeman, Jason G. Duesing, Sam Bierig, Zach Schlegel, and Philip Van Steenburgh led nine plenary sessions, each followed by a panel discussion on the respective topic.
The nine sessions addressed key marks of church life and ministry: expositional preaching, leadership, discipleship, gospel doctrine, conversion and evangelism, prayer, church membership, church discipline, and missions.
Expositional Preaching
Midwestern Seminary President Jason K. Allen opened the conference by emphasizing expository preaching as the foundational mark of a healthy church. He stated that expository preaching “is to actually interpret the text in its context, to explain the text, and to bring it to bear on the lives of the hearers.”
Allen highlighted 12 key commitments and benefits of expositional preaching, all serving one major point: expository preaching is essential to the health of the church, shaping both the preacher and the congregation.
He especially emphasized that the preacher is not simply dispensing opinions, but what the Lord Himself says: “Our people need a clear, authoritative word. They need to get it from the pulpit, and in this age—especially as we enter the pulpit with the Bible—we need to hear Paul’s instruction to speak these things with all authority.”
Leadership
Jonathan Leeman, president of 9Marks, led the second session, focusing on the biblical offices of elders and deacons. He explained that elders serve as pastors, overseers, and shepherds who provide teaching, leadership, and spiritual care for the church.
Leeman noted the New Testament pattern of a plurality of elders who lead through sound doctrine and personal example. “What’s crucial to recognize is that the work of elders only functions when there is trust between members and elders,” he said. “A healthy church has leaders who are trustworthy, but it also has members who are willing to trust.”
He also outlined the role of deacons, who serve the church by meeting tangible needs, protecting and promoting church unity, and serving and supporting the ministry of the elders. Together, these offices reflect Christ’s care for His church and contribute to its overall health and mission.
Discipleship
In the third session, Jason G. Duesing, provost of Midwestern Seminary, taught from 1 John, emphasizing that Christian discipleship is grounded in the revelation of Christ and the fellowship that flows from Him.
He highlighted Christ as the “Word of Life,” noting that the incarnation makes God truly known. “The life was made manifest,” Duesing said, underscoring God’s self-revelation in Christ.
He further noted that proclamation flows naturally from this reality: “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.” Discipleship, he stressed, is centered on the person of Christ and results in fellowship with God and His people.
Gospel Doctrine
Zach Schlegel, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Upper Marlboro, addressed gospel doctrine next, making the point that believers stand and grow in the Christian life only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. He summarized the gospel as the good news that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose on the third day for our justification so that anyone who trusts in Christ will have their sins forgiven, reconciling them to Christ.
He continued by noting that the gospel “puts the spotlight on God as the hero,” eliminating human boasting. Schlegel also explained gospel doctrine as “theological bumpers” that guard against both external pressures that distort the gospel and internal pressures experienced in ministry. Building from 2 Timothy 3:16, Schlegel proceeded to show how the entire story of Scripture brings the reader to Christ and calls for faith in Him.
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YEAR IN REVIEW: Southwestern celebrates with gratitude God’s blessings in 2024
