LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — More than 250 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary students received degrees ranging from certificates to doctorates during spring commencement exercises on the seminary lawn.
“This great assembly is humbled by the knowledge that you will go where so many of us have never gone,” R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, told the 210th graduating class.
“You will go to churches of all shapes and sizes and contexts. You will go into the streets with mercy and into the cities with compassion. You will go into homes with care and into places marked by both light and darkness,” Mohler said. “You will go to preach the Word, to declare the good news of salvation, to make disciples. You will teach and preach and care and pray. You will lead and learn and point people to Jesus.
“Our fervent prayer is that, as you go, you go with the longing to be asked the question that was so famously asked of Peter and John: ‘By whose power or by what name did you do this?’ We long to hear you answer, ‘This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’
“That question may land some of you in jail,” Mohler said. “It will be asked of others in jungles. But wherever you are asked and regardless of who does the asking, the answer is always the same: ‘In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!'”
Also at graduation, Mohler presented the Findley B. and Louvenia Edge Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence to Russell D. Moore who, in addition to his role as dean of the school of theology and senior vice president for academic administration, has served as professor of Christian theology and ethics. This was Moore’s final commencement before beginning as president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission June 1.
Mohler presented a posthumous master of divinity degree to Heather Weeks on behalf of her husband, Wesley Matthew Weeks, who died March 28 after a short battle with cancer. Matt Weeks served as the administrative pastor at First Baptist Church in Kissimmee, Fla.
–30–
Compiled by the communications staff at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. R. Albert Mohler Jr.’s address is available in audio and video at the SBTS resources page, www.sbts.edu/resources. A complete transcript of the address is available at www.albertmohler.com.
