ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)–Although started by two local churches in the San Francisco Bay area more than a half-century ago, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated its 50th anniversary as a Southern Baptist Convention-owned seminary during the school’s annual alumni luncheon June 14 in Orlando, Fla.
“We are grateful to Southern Baptists for their prayers, their support and the gift of their sons and daughters as we have sought to provide effective leaders for churches and mission settings around the world for these last five decades,” seminary President William O. Crews said during the luncheon held in connection with the June 13-14 SBC annual meeting.
“The greatest gift, and the most sacred responsibility we have as a seminary, is the gift of the sons and daughters of Southern Baptists all across the country,” Crews said. “They come to Golden Gate with a heart for God and they are being shaped as leaders to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
Since being “adopted” as an SBC seminary in 1950, Crews said, Golden Gate Seminary has grown beyond its residential campus just north of San Francisco to include four other regional campus in the growing mission centers of the western United States: Brea, Calif.; Vancouver, Wash.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Englewood, Colo.
Crews told the luncheon, as well as messengers attending the SBC annual meeting, that Southern Baptist churches have contributed nearly $80 million to Golden Gate during the last 50 years.
“It is a remarkable commitment that Southern Baptists have made to their seminary in the West,” Crews noted. “We believe that Golden Gate — through those gifts — has become a vibrant and vital force in Southern Baptist’s efforts to share the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout North America and across the globe.”
