Thom Rainer came to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1994 as founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth, where he anticipated staying until his retirement.

But in 2005, God led in a new direction when Rainer was elected president of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. On Oct. 12 Rainer bid farewell to Southern in a chapel sermon as a part of the Louisville, Ky., seminary’s annual Heritage Week.

“I think about the incredible opportunity that [Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr.] gave me as God called me to come to start a school,’ Rainer said.

“And these 11-plus years, almost a dozen now, have gone like the blink of an eye. I came here as a man in my thirties, and now I am 50 years old. I came here intending for this to be the last ministry stop. I planned to retire here. So I hope that you hear the heart and the heritage that I want to share with you.”

Preaching from Acts 16, Rainer spoke of principles that have motivated him to have a passion for evangelism, principles he offered as parting advice for students. He said evangelism must begin with an urgent compassion for lost people.

“As we send students out, we send them even with a great compassion—a compassion for those with physical needs, a compassion for those with social and emotional needs, a compassion for those who are hurting, a compassion for those who are lost,” Rainer said.

Christians must accompany their compassion with a great conviction that the Bible is true and that believing the Gospel is the only way to be saved, he said.

Rainer recounted how as a student at Southern in the mid-1980s, he had questions about the truthfulness of the historic Christian faith. But through conversations with fellow students, Rainer firmed up his doctrinal convictions, and those convictions drove him devote his life to reaching lost men and women with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he said.

For Christians to love their neighbors rightly and share the Gospel with them, they must believe in the inerrancy and authority of God’s Word, Rainer said.

“We cannot love others until we love God, and we cannot love God unless we believe His Word totally, completely, without error,” he said.

When believers have compassion and conviction simultaneously, a commitment to the Great Commission will follow, Rainer said.

“If we love the Lord, if we believe His Word, if we truly have a great compassion and a great conviction, we cannot help but speak about that which we have seen and heard,” he said.

“If we truly say we believe the Word of God and we get into our deep theological discussions and we look at the nuances of theology that we rightly should discuss but do not leave this place and share the Gospel, we are missing the point.”

Sharing the Gospel must be accomplished with urgency because life is short and we never know when God might call us home to heaven, Rainer said.

“If there is a central theme that I would carry through this about the great compassion, the great conviction and the Great Commission, it is this: it’s urgent,” he said. “Time is growing so very short.

“I wish I had the sense of urgency when I sat where many of you students sit when I was a man in my twenties and thirties at Southern Seminary. I wish I had that same urgency that is growing within me even as I am a middle-aged man of 50.”

Rainer pleaded with students to take advantage of the gift of life by proclaiming the Gospel to lost men and women.

“Life is a precious gift,” he said. “There are no certainties. We are so fragile and time is escaping so fast. Please, for the sake of the Gospel, for the glory of God, treat each day as a gift and share the great compassion, hold firm in your great conviction and share Christ in the Great Commission.”

Calling it “a hallmark in the history” of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, President R. Albert Mohler Jr. announced Wednesday a fully-funded $1 million endowed professorship, named in honor of late Alabama Christian statesman Albert Lee Smith, Jr.

Mohler announced the creation of The Albert Lee Smith, Jr. Chair of Christian Leadership during a chapel service that was part of Southern Seminary’s annual Heritage Week, Oct. 10-14. Smith served Alabama’s 6th District in the United States House of Representatives during the 96th session of Congress from1981 to 1982.

“These endowed chairs are so very important to us because they really are the heart of the financial security of this institution going forward, and they are also a way of honoring one who is rightly to be honored,” Mohler said.

“The proceeds will help to fund the salary of a professor and the cost of providing instruction. This kind of investment helps keep tuition as low as possible. This is a down-payment on the future so that generations yet to come will have greater opportunities than what are represented by this institution even now.”

Smith joined the Jefferson Pilot Life Insurance Company in 1956 and worked with distinction for 41 years as a chartered life underwriter, winning numerous professional and service awards.

As a congressman, Smith demonstrated Christian concern for the strength of American families by sponsoring the Family Protection Act. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Smith to the National Council on Aging, an appointment subsequently confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Smith, who died in 1997, served for many years as a deacon at First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Ala., and also served as chairman of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). His wife, Eunie, who was present during the announcement of the endowed chair, serves on the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the SBC.

“Albert Lee Smith Jr. left a lifetime legacy of Christian commitment as a husband and father, churchman, friend and national leader,” Mohler said. “He served as a role model and mentor for many – demonstrating his skill as a leader in the fight for truth and the cause of Christ as a defender of the Christian faith.

“His legacy has been perpetuated in the lives of so many, and now in a very special way, everyone in this institution will be touched by his life.”

The Albert Lee Smith Chair of Christian Leadership is Southern Seminary’s 18th endowed chair.

To meet the demands of a steadily increasing student enrollment, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary may offer more classes during the early morning and evening, President R. Albert Mohler Jr. told the seminary’s board of trustees Tuesday during its annual fall meeting.

Southern welcomed 679 new students for the fall semester—an 8.8 percent increase in enrollment—bringing the seminary’s on-campus student body to 2,314. Including its extension centers and Internet students, Southern’s total fall enrollment stands at 3,138, Mohler said, and is expected to reach 4,000 by the end of the 2005-2006 academic year.

“This is the kind of problem that represents real health,” Mohler said. “When you are looking at how to make maximum use of your facility in order to make certain that you can serve the largest number of persons with that greatest degree of effectiveness, that is great.

“But the bottom line is that we have reached a point of saturation on the campus in terms of peak hours. Everything is filled to capacity. Classrooms, the cafeteria, you name it, everything is just very, very full.”

With increasing numbers come additional challenges to the seminary’s infrastructure such as parking and classroom space, he said. Instead of investing large amounts of capital in new buildings and parking decks, Mohler said the seminary’s growth will be handled through a more efficient use of its current campus.

In the near future, some classes may be offered at 7 a.m. and others at night, Mohler said. Presently, the bulk of on-campus activity takes place between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., leaving both classrooms and parking lots filled to capacity.

“One of the most popular times to take courses at Southern Seminary is on Monday and Tuesday nights,” Mohler said. “So there is a three-hour block [available] on those nights.

“We can’t grow from about eight in the morning until two in the afternoon, [so] we have to grow at other times and here is the good news: given the nature of our society and the nature of the workplace and other issues, this is very possible. We will be looking at the data that need to be factored in to figure out where to put classes and when.”

In other business:

* Mohler introduced trustees to Charles E. Lawless, Jr., new dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism, Missions and Church Growth. Mohler appointed Lawless to succeed Thom Rainer, who is the president-elect of LifeWay Christian Resources.

“God called me to preach when I was 13-years old,” Lawless told trustees. “It was a huge struggle for me because I had wanted to teach since I had been five years old, and I wrestled with that and struggled with that and battled with that and never dreamed God would allow me to do both preach His Word and teach His Word.

“Now I have the privilege of teaching His Word and teaching about evangelism and church growth every day and preaching His Word on Sundays, and I am living my dream in that sense.”

* The board elected two professors to endowed chairs: Thomas R. Schreiner to the James Buchanan Harrison Chair of New Testament Interpretation and Mark A. Seifrid to the Mildred and Ernest Hogan Chair of New Testament Interpretation.

Peter Perl’s apprehension grew the minute he saw the roommate list for his trip to the Middle East.

For three weeks, the long-time newspaper journalist would be rooming with a Southern Baptist seminary student – and he was uneasy.

“What will it be like to live for three weeks with someone who might try to save my soul?” Perl mused silently.

“Will the student believe that people like me who do not trust in Christ alone for salvation will spend the afterlife in the flames of hell? Will he believe that the Bible is literally the Word of God?” Perl had numerous questions and concerns about his new temporary roommate.

For 23 nights Perl bunked with Matthew Cates, a master of divinity student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and later admitted he had learned—through the uncompromising but gracious witness of Cates—one thing about Southern Baptists he had least suspected: their desire to spread the grace of God in Christ is born out of a genuine love for people.

Perl and Cates were fellow travelers on an annual summer trip called the Middle East Travel Seminar (METS), a pilgrimage to notable Middle Eastern sites. The group was an eclectic blend of 20 spiritual sojourners including conservative and liberal Protestant seminary students and practitioners of the Jewish faith.

Perl wrote of his experience and detailed a budding relationship with Cates that flowered as the trip wore on in a lengthy first-person article that ran in the Aug. 21 edition of the Washington Post under the headline “With God as their Witness.” Perl’s article may be viewed in its entirety at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081601226_pf.html. Perl is a staff writer for the Post.

Cates, a Burlington, N.C. native, said he was pleased with the way Perl represented him in the article. Though Perl, a self-professed pluralist, considers the truth claims of Christianity to be too narrow and restrictive, he respected Cates’ unyielding, yet gracious, view that Scripture is the Christian’s infallible, sole fountain of knowledge and that faith in Jesus Christ is the only path to heaven. Perl even allowed Cates to view and assess early drafts of his article, a practice that is normally taboo in secular newsrooms.

“Peter was very gracious to me in the article,” said Cates. “The article went through three edits. He was very gracious to allow me to look at it and have input...I don’t think that is a common practice within journalism, so I really admire Peter for that.”

Throughout the article, Perl describes his various discussions with Cates regarding the faith. He also shows Cates interacting as a Christian with other METS members. Overall, Perl depicts Cates as unwilling to bend on the truth claims of Christ, but gracious in his conversations with his fellow travelers.

Individual group members volunteered to lead a devotional in the evening. Cates read passages from Romans 3 and 5. Perl describes how the devotional upset several members of the group, including a seminary student who told Cates that the exclusivity of Paul’s message, “did not give everyone a place to stand.”

Cates said his aim was to prayerfully and humbly present the Gospel—and all of its claims to exclusivity—without compromise. The aversion some group members displayed toward Paul’s message led Cates to write in his METS reflection paper, a requirement for each participant, “I hope that they are wrestling with you, God, and not just me.”

Cates said members of the group mirrored the postmodern culture in that it found the exclusive claims of the Gospel to be the most scandalous aspect of Christianity. Paul’s assertion of human depravity did not exactly resonate with the group either, he said.

“People have such negative thoughts about any kind of system that is not defined by their own wills,” Cates said. “They see anything not defined by themselves as restrictive. But I tried to get the point across that God is who we are accountable to and not just some earth-bound authority.

One lesson Cates said both he and Perl seemed to learn during their time together was the reality of stereotype. Religions are often stereotyped in the mainstream media, and their most radical elements often gain the most attention, Cates said.

Cates said Perl exhibited a desire to represent evangelical Christianity accurately, an approach Cates said he wants to take in interacting with and articulating the grace of God with those of other faiths.

“My delight in the trip was being able to interact with people who hold positions that I don’t hear on a regular basis,” he said.

“It is deceiving to think that this is a popular view that we are surrounded by (at Southern Seminary). It is very strange to some people and there are stereotypes that go with it. Sometimes the stereotypes override what you really want to emphasize and we have to move beyond the stereotypes and talk honestly with each other.

“I think Peter realized that religion is often stereotyped and I think that is why he wanted to write the story. He did want to wrestle honestly with some of the issues having to do with evangelicalism.”

Cates said the trip reminded him that Christians must be honest about the centrality of Christ and the authority of Scripture.

“A lot of what I saw on the trip was just terminology and the casings of Christianity without Christ Himself,” he said. “But if I am going to be a Christian, He must be the very center of my conversation, of my worship, of my prayers. To take that out, you are left with something that is not Christian.

“The importance of wrestling with Scripture itself was also brought home to me. With many people on the trip there was some talk about Scripture but it quickly came down to their own ideas and opinions about how God is and must be...Ultimately, their own source of authority is themselves.”

Perl and others asked Cates some difficult questions regarding Christianity. Cates said believers must welcome such tough questions because a truly biblical faith can withstand the closest scrutiny. His advice for interacting with a pluralistic postmodern culture that denies the existence of absolute truth? Show them you are a Christian by your love.

“Let them see that your heart really is to love each other,” he said. “I asked myself that question a lot was ‘Do I genuinely love the people on this trip and am I expressing that to them? Is it true that they will know I‘m a Christian by my love?’ They must see that we love them.”

To remedy the pervasive biblical illiteracy in America, ministers must return to the discipline of expository preaching, Daniel Akin said in chapel Oct. 6 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forrest, N.C., delivered the E.Y. Mullins Lecture Series at Southern Oct. 4-6.

“Seduced by the silence of modernity, we have jettisoned a Word-based ministry that is expository in nature,” he said. “In attempting to become popular and relevant, we have actually become foolish and irrelevant, skied across the surface of felt needs of a fallen, sinful humanity. We have turned the pulpit into a pop psychology sideshow and a feel-good pit stop.

“We have neglected preaching the whole counsel of the Word of God, and too many of our people know neither the content of Scripture or the doctrines that are taught there. The idea of preaching the bloody cross and the implications of the death of the Son of God on that cross is now the exception rather than the norm.”

Preaching from Nehemiah 8, Akin enumerated four essential elements that should be present each time the Word of God is proclaimed.

First, preaching should draw people together to hear the man of God.

Citing the Old Testament prophet Ezra as an example, Akin urged preachers to study and apply the Bible in their own lives before teaching it to others. If a preacher lacks personal integrity, his ministry will be hindered, he said.

“Without integrity, without the people trusting you, they will not hear what you say,” he said. “God may, in His supernatural enablement, overcome the fact that they don’t trust you. But the odds are greatly, greatly against it.”

Second, preaching should help people understand the Word of God.

Observing that the Israelites listened to their leaders preach for several hours, Akin noted that effective preaching cannot be rushed or confined to an extremely brief block of time.

“This was not express worship where you zipped in and out in 30 minutes and got the whole package in half an hour,” he said. “No! They recognized that you can’t do the Word of God well, you can’t teach the Word of God correctly, you cannot teach it competently by just a drive-by-shooting approach to your time of worship.”

Instead, preachers must expound the authoritative Word of God and help the congregation understand it, he said, adding that preachers have an obligation to interpret the text of Scripture carefully and correctly.

“I would submit to you that there are a number of men out there who claim to be expositors, but they are not expositors because they are not walking through the whole counsel of God’s Word book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, phrase by phrase and word by word,” Akin said. “That’s what I want my people to do when they handle the Word of God. It would be sheer hypocrisy if I were to be handling it any other way when I stand here week after week.”

Third, preaching should move people to worship the God of the Word.

In every sermon, the preacher must impart knowledge and call for action, he said, adding that preachers should ask themselves what they want the people to know and what they want the people to do with that knowledge.

Fourth, preaching should inspire people to rejoice in the God who is holy.

Rejoicing in God involves both an intellectual component and an emotional component, Akin said, exhorting preachers to offer their listeners hope in a way that appeals to their hearts.

“When we step up to preach the Word of God, yes, we want to inform the mind,” he said. “We want to explain the text. But my dear brothers and sisters, when we’ve explained the infallible and inerrant, holy Word of God, how dare we pull back from also appealing to their hearts.”

Akin concluded, “As faithful heralds of this Word, may we never be seduced by the sirens of modernity or the latest fad. But may we faithfully, week by week by week just open it up, faithfully teach it, knowing that God has committed Himself to blessing the exposition of His Word.”

Pictures are typically worth a thousand words, but the images that the television coverage of Hurricane Katrina produced did not prepare Mary Sills for the destruction she witnessed first-hand in southern Mississippi.

Sills was one of 35 members of a team from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that spent the school’s fall break in Ocean Springs, Miss. sharing the love of Christ by helping Hurricane Katrina victims dig out from the rubble that was once their homes.

The group included Southern students, professors and staff members and is the first of a number of teams from the seminary that plan to assist cleanup and rebuilding efforts in the Gulf region in coming months.

“Pictures from the news don’t prepare you for it,” said Sills who serves as administrative secretary to the dean of the School of Theology. “The devastation was almost mind-numbing. We were astounded by what we saw. Just when we thought we were getting used to the visual reminders, we would round a corner and see something that would stop us in our tracks.

“The bridge that was out between Ocean Springs and Biloxi was the most visible evidence of the storm. The power that it took to move tons of concrete was absolutely amazing. We were told it would take at least two years to rebuild the bridge.”

The group worked through First Baptist Church of Ocean Springs, which coordinated cleanup efforts for the homes of its members and others in the community. In all, the Southern team assisted with 21 homes during its one-week trip, mostly performing “mud-outs”—scrubbing away mud and muck, sanitizing, and removing waterlogged appliances, furniture and personal belongings from the homes.

“The houses were often left with nothing but a roof (or a part of a roof) and the studded walls,” said Stephen Drake, assistant professor of Christian ministry. “After the houses were stripped, they were sprayed with a bleach/Pinesol mixture to kill mold and bacteria.

“If you can imagine refrigerators and freezers backed with perishable foods sitting there for four weeks in sweltering temperatures with no power and then having a seminary student open the door; it was nauseating. In every case I saw, the door was just taped shut and the appliance was tossed on the junk pile outside.”

Tom B., Ph.D. student and assistant to the director of Southern’s Great Commission Center, said one family was amazed when it learned that the seminary team would help clean up their home free of charge. The family was conducting its cleanup alone after one “aid” group offered its assistance for $20,000.

This incident points up the impetus for the Southern team’s work, Tom B. said: to share the love of Christ with fellow believers and to offer the eternal healing balm of the Gospel to unbelievers.

“The gentleman could not believe it when we told him we would work for free as a way of demonstrating Christ’s love to his family,” Tom B. said. “This perhaps was one of the highlights of the week.

“Despite the difficult circumstances and conditions, the team represented Christ and Southern Seminary admirably. They never lost sight of the reason we went on this trip, to demonstrate and share the love of Christ. The team sought every opportunity to engage community members in conversations to share the Gospel with them. The students kept an excellent balance between social engagement and spiritual engagement.”

Dave Theobald, a master of theology student from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, was struck by the diverse reactions of people in the area.

“The church members were just thrilled we could help,” Theobald said.

Many non-Christians also expressed gratitude as the teams from Southern cleared all possessions out of their houses and tore out molded drywall. Some houses were flooded by six feet of water after the hurricane, Theobald said.

“Everything was just covered in black mold,” he said, adding that relief crews “had to strip those houses down to the wood studs.”

At times the acts of service created opportunities for Theobald and his coworkers to share the Gospel.

“Some people were sober about it and open to the Gospel,” he said. “We had lots of opportunities to share the Gospel.”

Not everyone was receptive to the Gospel though. Theobald noted that some residents had weathered the storm but became hardened in their attitude toward spiritual matters.

“Some were hardened and not open to the Gospel at all,” he said. “They just wanted to fix things and get on with life.”

While many see only rubble when looking at what is left of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Chuck Kelley sees something decidedly different: opportunity.

Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, visited the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Tuesday to thank students for their gifts, prayers and encouragement for his flood-ravaged school.

Students, faculty and staff members at Southern gave a gift of more than $30,000 to New Orleans Seminary following the disaster which left its campus underwater and destroyed the homes of many students and faculty members.

“We know out of all of this is going to come one of the greatest opportunities for the Gospel that our seminary and Southern Baptists have ever had,” Kelley said. “Never before in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention have we been able to be present in strength at the forming of a major urban area. New Orleans as we know it is gone. Today it is empty.

“New Orleans parish [is] nothing but rubble, but out of that rubble is going to come a new city and we have an opportunity—in the building and forming of that city—to lift high the cross of Christ, to bear the message of hope, and to illustrate it with our ministry as we serve others in the name of Jesus. Pray for us in this unprecedented opportunity to make Jesus a greater part of New Orleans than He has ever been before.”

Kelley joined Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Daniel L. Akin for Southern’s Tuesday chapel service. Akin is serving as guest lecturer for Southern’s annual Mullins Lectures.

Kelley said his main purpose for visiting his school’s sister seminary was to show gratitude for the love offering, prayers and encouragement.

“It was with incredible gratitude that we received a most precious and sacrificial gift from this seminary family for us in a time of need,” he said. “I cannot begin to describe the encouragement that it was as I shared your sweet, precious gift with the members of our faculty and our students, knowing what it cost you to do that for us was a greater encouragement than we could ever express.”

Kelley showed a series of slides taken on campus after the levies that corralled Lake Pontchartrain broke and left the chapel, along with staff, faculty, and student housing submerged in more than six feet of tepid, toxic water.

“The hardest thing about it is that nearly all our administrative and academic space came through it just fine, but it really devastated our living area,” he said.

“One hundred percent of our faculty housing flooded, and our faculty which lived on campus—which was most of our faculty—lost nearly everything. Forty five percent of our student houses flooded, and those students lost nearly everything that they had. The blow was a personal blow.”

Three Bible verses have buoyed members of the New Orleans family in the waters of Katrina’s aftermath, Kelley said: Isaiah 43:1-2 and Jeremiah 29:11. The passages remind believers that God is absolutely sovereign even during “unspeakable human tragedy,” Kelley said.

“There is never a time in the midst of a crisis when God is not there, fully aware of it and walking with us in the midst of it,” he said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Though contemporary voices of ‘tolerance’ view the proclamation of Christianity as a grossly intolerant act, every believer is called to contend for the Gospel in the public square, renowned evangelist Voddie Baucham told students during the Sept. 1 chapel service at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Baucham encouraged students to graciously but steadfastly contend for the faith in the face of a culture that seeks to silence them through a redefinition of tolerance.

“We are a culture that values tolerance above all else,” he said. “Some will argue that tolerance is the only virtue we have remaining upon which we agree en masse in our culture.

“When I say tolerance, don’t be confused. I‘m not talking about the kind of tolerance that led Voltaire to write, ‘I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it’...The new tolerance argues that you can’t disagree, you must embrace. So this idea of contending for the faith does not compute. That is [seen as] intolerant. In our culture, that is the only thing that we absolutely, positively refuse to tolerate.”

Baucham, founder of Voddie Baucham Ministries, has been called an “evangelist to intellectuals.” An apologist, Bible teacher and conference speaker, he is the author of “The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Thrive in a Post-Christian Culture?” (2004 Broadman and Holman) and serves as an elder at Grace Community Church in Magnolia, Texas.

Preaching from Jude 1-4, Baucham pointed out that the call to contend extends to every Christian, not just those who are theologically trained or who possess a gift for personal evangelism. Contending for the faith is a primary and not a secondary issue, he said. In contending, however, he said Christians must not be contentious.

“Some might say, ‘Well that’s just for those who are trained in apologetics or who are trained in philosophy, that’s just not for me. My job is to just to love on people and to live my life in such a way that they will come to me and say, ‘I’ve been watching you... so what must I do to be saved?’

“This is for all of us. Every last one of us is called upon to plant our feet, to square our shoulders, to hold our heads high and to give an account to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is within us.”

If genuine believers do not contend for the faith and define its terms biblically in the marketplace of ideas, Baucham said, false prophets will.

“If we do not contend, they get to represent us unhindered,” he said. “With every fiber of your being, with every breath in your body, with every moment that God grants you, stand for, contend for, represent and proclaim the authentic, unadulterated Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and let the chips fall where they may. There are some things worse than being called intolerant by this culture in which we live.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Governments, corporations, educational institutions, businesses and churches all need leaders, and it is the church’s responsibility to train up youth to fill those positions, Jimmy Scroggins said during the Vision Conference VII at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Scroggins, dean of Boyce College and minister to students at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., was among the featured speaker at the Sept. 17 conference sponsored by the International Center four youth ministry. The conference, which examined the theme “Training the next generation of leaders, “ was attended by 237 youth workers and students.

The baton “is in your hands,” Scroggins said. “And as you run, you have a whole lot of young people who are waiting to take it. And you must deliver that baton to them, deliver it the right way, the legal way, so that when that next young leader takes the baton ... you will finish with what the Bible calls ‘the prize.’”

The first step to raising godly leaders is identifying students that can be trained in leadership and taught principles from Scripture, he said. In the process of identifying leaders, youth workers must remember that God’s often chooses unlikely leaders, Scroggins noted.

“That’s what we’re in the business of doing: training up the next generation of leaders. But those leaders are probably not who you think they are,” he said.

“God says, ‘I’m going to raise up leaders, and I‘m going to do it in a way that’s going to confound the wise people. I‘m going to do it in a way that’s going to confound the rich people. I‘m going to do it in a way that confounds the powerful people.’ God raises up leaders.”

Citing 2 Timothy 2, Scroggins reminded conference attendees that God uses the church as a hub to train God-honoring leaders. This reality should cause youth workers to make sure they are identifying and discipling students with leadership potential, he said.

“If you had to point to the people you are training right now, who are they?” Scroggins asked. “... Have you trained anybody? ... We should be looking. God’s process is that God’s faithful people identify, recruit and train faithful people and then place them in positions of leadership and then that they network to encourage one another. That’s what God’s process is in the lives of leaders.”

Sometimes youth workers attempt to develop the most popular and most talented teenagers in their churches to be leaders, but God calls them to develop as leaders the most faithful students rather than the most popular, he said.

“We need to look for the faithful ones,” he said. “... Don’t be surprised when those that are wise in the eyes of the world or strong in the eyes of the world aren’t interested in being trained by you. So find the ones who are. That’s the church’s job.”

Someone has to lead the nation and the church, Scroggins noted, adding, “It might as well be one of our kids. Let’s approach it that way.”

Throughout the process of developing leaders, youth workers must obey Jesus’ command in Matthew 9 to pray that God would send workers into His harvest, he said.

“Jesus said there’s one thing we can do, one thing we must do. ... He said that we should pray that the Lord of the harvest would send more workers into His harvest,” he said.

“If Jesus tells you to pray for something, how likely do you think it is that Jesus answers our prayer? It think it’s 100 percent guaranteed that if you will pray for workers to go to the harvest and I will pray for workers to go to the harvest, Jesus ... will call workers into the harvest.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—After visiting 20 churches in seven states this summer, Thomas Bolton has some fresh ideas for training Southern Baptist Theological Seminary students to serve effectively in local church music ministries.

Bolton, dean of the school of church music and worship at Southern, spent 11 Sundays visiting some of the Southern Baptist Convention’s most prominent churches.

Visiting congregations such as First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Fla.; First Baptist Church, Orlando, Fla.; and First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., Bolton built relationships with music ministers and learned what skills students need to serve in thriving worship ministries.

“I wanted to visit churches that eventually maybe some of our graduates would go to,” he said. “The whole idea behind it though was to make our curriculum relevant to ministry in Southern Baptist Churches.”

In preparation for each visit Bolton researched the church and sent the minister of music a five-page survey inquiring about the church’s worship. Visits included a tour of the church’s facilities, including the worship center, choir room, instrumental rehearsal room, sound and recording studios and music offices. After each visit, he met with the church’s worship leader.

Though the worship styles differed between churches, Bolton drew several conclusions regarding music ministry and the education of seminary students:

Training worship ministers in the use of worship technology is crucial for music ministry in the 21st century.

“I was in churches where the media center looked like a flight control center in an airport with all the screens,” he said. “They had so many boards and monitors. And many of these churches have recording studios and TV studios. The technology is unbelievable, and usually it’s the person who leads worship who is in charge of that.”

Southern already offers courses dealing with technology in worship, and the seminary may spend even more time training students to be conversant with the most common technologies used in churches, Bolton said.

“I feel like our students need at least a working knowledge of what’s out there—what’s found in these large churches and even some medium-sized churches,” Bolton said.

Churches can benefit greatly from Southern’s commitment to train worship leaders as ministers as well as musicians.

Southern teaches musicianship at the highest levels, but musicianship is merely a means to communicate theology and inspire devotion to Christ, Bolton said.

“Our primary mission is to produce ministers,” he said. “... What we study in applied music and in theory is not unlike a theology student taking Greek and Hebrew and tools they’re going to use. They’re not going to preach in Greek and Hebrew, but they’re going to use that in their sermon. It’s going to be a tool that they use. So we’re teaching a lot of tools, but we’re also stressing ministry more and more.”

In an effort both to acquaint music ministers with Southern’s music school and to help students learn from successful worship leaders, Bolton will attempt to bring working music ministers to campus for workshops and lectures, he said.

Most of these prominent churches have graded choir programs to teach children about worship and music.

Many of the churches also had youth choirs in which students can continue their education in worship.

All of the churches Bolton visited had an instrumental ministry.

The instrumental ministries included such features as orchestras, ensembles and some fulltime instrumental music associates on staff.

Music ministers were grateful that a seminary professor sought to learn from them.

Many times the conversation between Bolton and a church’s minister of music lasted more than two hours, he said. In those conversations the ministers shared that they desired to continue their educations and Bolton shared how Southern is in a position to help.

“At the end of several of these conversations the music minister would say something like, ‘I didn’t go to Southern, but it sounds like you’ve got a good program. And if I have a chance to recommend a seminary to someone, I‘ll certainly recommend Southern.’”