FORT WORTH, Texas – Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary closes out the year 2025 reflecting on God’s faithfulness to the institution and expounding on the essential elements of what it means to be a “Southwesterner.”
“I want us all to understand who we are, what we believe, how Southwestern has changed through the years, and what these things mean for us now as we think about our shared future,” President David S. Dockery said during the fall convocation, defining what it means to be a Southwesterner, a recognition of the authority of Scripture, the importance of confessional theology, a focus on evangelism, and the devotion to personal piety.
“This is not just my story; this is not some individual story. This is our shared story as ‘Southwesterners,’” he said.
Southwestern celebrated the graduation of more than 760 students combined in the spring and fall commencements, the largest number of spring graduates since 2002 and the largest fall graduating class since 2000. The institution also recognized its 50,000th graduate during the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas.
“The board, faculty staff, and students are unanimous in their sense of joyful hopefulness regarding the future of the seminary as we seek, in accordance with our great heritage as a Great Commandment and Great Commission institution, to equip and educate students for service to the churches for the glory of our majestic Triune God,” Dockery said during his president’s report at the SBC Annual Meeting.
During the Alumni & Friends Luncheon in June, Southwestern recognized the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients: Ryan Lee (’12, ’19), Norma Hedin (’84, ’90), Steve Dighton (’84, ’88).
Spring and fall Board of Trustees meetings included positive reports on the state of the seminary, including an increase of $31.1 million in assets in contrast to a $15 million deficit in 2022, a third consecutive year of meeting goals in unrestricted giving, and a $10 million operational turnaround over the past three years. The non-duplicating headcount and credit hours taught also continued to increase.
“There is a renewed hopefulness with which we enter the 2025-2026 year, because of the good things that happened in 2024-2025,” Dockery said during the fall meeting on Oct. 22. “We have a sense of continuity, stability, that has not been known at this institution, unfortunately, for several years.”
During the spring Board of Trustees meeting, the Board affirmed the revised Master of Divinity program which rolled out in the spring of 2025 and can be completed in 82 hours, a net reduction of six hours, and includes the new Christian Worldview and Cultural Engagement course.
“I’m excited about the new MDiv program, excited about the work of the faculty in putting it together,” Dockery said during the April 9 meeting, adding the program is one that will “serve our students better, that will relate to churches well, that will align and cohere with our ministry assignment of the Southern Baptist Convention, and will help us help our students have a more efficient and hopefully affordable program.”
In March, Southwestern and Prestonwood Church held a ribbon-cutting for the Prestonwood Pregnancy Center located in a campus building. During a September report during chapel, Prestonwood’s North Campus pastor Jonathan Teague said the center had seen 1,200 expectant mothers through June. Southwestern also partners with Prestonwood through the church’s internship program for students and by awarding the certificates earned through Prestonwood’s School of Ministry in Spanish Certificate in Church Ministry, which in the fall of 2025 had nearly 100 students enrolled.
Southwestern also celebrated 20 years of partnering with the Bibelseminar Bonn in Germany, which graduated its 100th student in 2024.
The spring chapel preaching series focused on Christian virtues while the fall series had chapel speakers work through the Minor Prophets. Other chapel topics included panel discussions on the Cooperative Program during the Founder’s Day chapel in March, chapel panels on biblical counseling and worship, and a service celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed.
In June, Seminary Hill Press (SHP) released Shapers of the Southwestern Theological Tradition, a volume focused on the Southwestern faculty through the generations who invested their lives in training future ministers. The work was edited by Dockery, Provost W. Madison Grace II, and Research Professor Malcolm B. Yarnell III, with chapters written by various current faculty members.
Other SHP releases included the Sermons from the Psalms chapel series e-book, The L. R. Scarborough Treasury, Revised and Expanded, and When the Fires of Heaven Fell, Volume 2, a written in honor of long-time former faculty member Malcolm McDow, completing the two-volume set of which McDow authored the first volume.
Faculty members also published works including A Unity of Purpose (B&H Books) co-edited by Grace, Nicaea for Today: Why an Ancient Creed (Still) Matters (B&H Academic) co-authored by Coleman Ford, In Defense of Christian Patriotism (Broadside Books) by Daniel Darling, Children & Salvation: Biblical, Theological, and Practical Considerations (B&H Academic) co-edited by Karen Kennemur, Gospel Realities: Lessons from Galatians (Media Graitiae) by Stephen Yuille, and Ponder Anew What the Almighty Can Do: 160 Years of Change in Worship Leader Training at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wipf and Stock) by Marcus Brown.
The Southwestern Journal of Theology named Paul, Apostle of Grace by Frank Thielman as its 2025 Book of the Year. Faculty works were also named as winners and honorable mentions in various academic disciplines.
During the Southwestern Alumni and Friends Reception held in conjunction with the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting held in in November in Boston, Southwestern awarded the James Leo Garrett Jr. Award for Contribution to Christian Thought to Gregg Allison and the Curtis Vaughan Award for Contribution to the Study of Christian Scripture to Douglas Moo.
John Rayburn, former trustee member and a longtime friend of Southwestern, was awarded the inaugural J. Howard Williams Service Award during the fall commencement ceremony. For his 10 years as a trustee and his part in helping bring the seminary to a place of financial stability, Dockery said, “We owe much to Mr. John Rayburn for his service to this place.”
In addition to weekly campus prayer gatherings of faculty, students, and staff throughout the year, which were established in the fall of 2022, two special times of prayer were held on campus in 2025 in connection with the meetings of the seminary’s Board of Trustees.
Having announced Matthew 6:33 as the theme verse for the 2025-2026 academic year, during a staff gathering in November, Dockery emphasized the institution’s continued commitment to prayer, which he says will continue into the new year as the seminary relies on the Lord for its sustenance and success.
“We want to continue to trust the Lord, come before Him, recognizing our dependence on Him,” Dockery said.
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