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SBC DIGEST: Samford elects new president; MBTS launches Center for Biblical Counseling; SWBTS volume compiles Carroll sermons


Beck A. Taylor elected 19th president of Samford University

By Samford University Staff

BIRMINGHAM, Ala, (BP) – The Samford University Board of Trustees today (March 10) elected Beck A. Taylor as its 19th president, effective July 1, 2021. Taylor succeeds Andrew Westmoreland, who is retiring after serving as president since 2006.

The new president’s election came at a special meeting of the university’s board of trustees. Taylor, 51, was recommended to the board by a 23-member presidential search committee following a six-month national search involving more than 80 nominations and applicants.

“We could not be more pleased with the appointment of Beck Taylor as the 19th president of Samford University,” said trustee chair William J. Stevens. “He brings an exceptional record of academic leadership, demonstrated success in fundraising, and a personal commitment to Samford. We unanimously and confidently agree that President-elect Taylor possesses the experience, strategic vision, and alignment with our values to continue building Samford’s reputation as a leading Christian university.”

The current president of Whitworth University, Taylor is no stranger to the Samford community, having served as dean and professor of economics for Samford’s Brock School of Business from 2005-2010.

“I am profoundly honored and excited to return to Samford University, and to follow my good friend, Andy Westmoreland,” Taylor said. “Samford is a crown jewel in Christian higher education, and it is committed to pursuing excellence at the intersection of faith and learning. My wife Julie and I already love this place and its people, and we look forward to the journey ahead.”

Taylor’s tenure as the 18th president of Whitworth, a position which he has occupied since 2010, has been highlighted by a renewed emphasis on community involvement; efforts to enhance academic programs and quality; the building of new campus infrastructure to facilitate the university’s academic, athletic, and student life programs; the creation of newly endowed faculty positions and centers; overseeing the school’s largest-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign; and an emphasis on overall institutional effectiveness.

Read the full story here.


MBTS launches Center for Biblical Counseling

By Michael S. Brooks/MBTS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) – The previously announced Center for Biblical Counseling at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary officially launched today (March 10). The center aims to “to provide students with opportunities to obtain and practically employ the skills necessary for soul care within the local church,” MBTS President Jason Allen said.

“Establishing this new outpost is a significant undertaking in the life of our institution,” Allen said. “The center, capably led by Dr. Dale Johnson, puts service in and through the local church squarely in the focus of all our efforts to train and equip the next generation of counselors. Further, Dr. Johnson brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the table, coupled with a compelling vision for the center’s activities in years to come.”

Johnson, the center’s director, said the center’s offerings are unique.

“In addition to the strong curriculum base in the seminary’s biblical counseling programs, the center provides opportunities for hands-on training and observation practicums which will allow students to be supervised and mentored as part of their formal training process,” Johnson said. “There is also a scholarly component of the center’s planned activities which offers students a publication platform for posting quality, peer-reviewed academic work and a forthcoming lecture series on topics broadly related to pastoral theology, secular views of mental health, and counseling ministry in the local church.”

Johnson said a major focal point of the center’s programming will be its partnership with local churches through internships and via resources provided by the center to counselors already in local church settings.

“In addition to formal supervision by our faculty, we also seek to provide opportunities for our students to counsel within the context of the local church, the preferred and natural context for this ministry. Churches wishing to partner with the center can join as ‘Counseling Intern Partners,’ and students will be assigned on an as-needed basis for further training in a practical setting.”

Biblical counseling certification now available through Midwestern

The formal launch of the Center coincides with the announcement of the CBC as a certified training center for the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC), a partnership which provides opportunities for certification for Midwestern’s biblical counseling students.

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New volume collects 40 sermons from SWBTS founding president B.H. Carroll

By Alex Sibley/SWBTS

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Seminary Hill Press released today (March 10) The B. H. Carroll Pulpit, a collection of 40 sermons and addresses from the founding president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Seminary Hill Press is the publishing arm of Southwestern Seminary.

Adam W. Greenway, ninth president of Southwestern Seminary and editor of the Carroll Pulpit, writes in the book’s preface, “Benajah Harvey Carroll, our founder and first president, was a towering figure in Texas and Southern Baptist life during the last half of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century. … While his most enduring institutional legacy was the seminary he founded in his later years, he was first and foremost a pastor and preacher of the Gospel – and his sermons were first and foremost his means of communicating God’s truth.”

Describing the collection as “a primer of Carroll’s homiletical and persuasive powers,” Greenway said the 40 sermons and addresses are noteworthy “both for the importance of the subjects addressed and for the influence wrought by the messages.”

The volume reprints sermons originally published in the works Baptists and Their Doctrines and Evangelistic Sermons, as well as 19 additional messages from Carroll’s time as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Waco and president of Southwestern Seminary. The messages are a representative sample of the main themes and concerns of Carroll’s nearly 50 years of Gospel ministry in the pulpit, from his church and from denominational platforms.

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