Richard Land serves as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

1. What public policy issues are most important for seminary students to care about?

Richard Land: There are a whole host of issues that relate to worldview that cluster together: sanctity of human life versus the pro-choice approach, traditional marriage as opposed to the anything goes approach, the issue of pornography - the pornification of our culture.

We have literally just been engulfed in a sea of relativism, a tidal wave of relativism. And that impacts all the issues that we deal with. Everything is either relative or there are some absolutes. I think that seminary students are going to be ministering in a culture that they almost have to approach like a mission culture. They have to understand the presuppositions of that culture, and they're not the presuppositions that have guided our culture in the past, and they're not Judeo-Christian.

2. When should a minister of the Gospel think about running for office?

Land: That's a personal decision and it has to do with calling. I have been privileged to counsel probably a couple of dozen young men who have come to me with that kind of a question. And what I have said to them is, "You have to determine what your calling is." I believe there is a ministry calling with a public service component, and I believe there is a public service calling with a ministry component. You have to decide which one you have.

I was asked to run for public office on a couple of occasions. I've had committees come to me and ask me to run for public office, Congress. And I had to confront that issue. And in my own life, I discerned that my calling was a ministry calling with a public policy component, not a public policy calling with a ministry component. But I know others that have come to a different conclusion. So if they feel some leading in that direction, then they need to pray about it. They need to seek God's will. The Bible tells us that God wants us to know His will. So if we are earnestly seeking His will and God wants us to know His will, then we will know His will. If we misconstrue it and head off in the wrong direction, God will blockade us and move us in the path He wants us to go.

3. Where did you develop your great love for baseball?

Land: I got that from my dad. My dad was a big baseball fan, and I just can never remember not listening to games with him and going to games with him and watching games with him and playing ball with him. I still can't watch "Field of Dreams" without crying. It's a dad-son thing. I started playing in Little League. My dad was my coach. I was an All-Star and I played in college. I was a pro prospect for a while until I hurt my arm. I had about a 98 mile-per-hour, left-handed fastball. But I hurt my arm. The Lord knew that was more temptation than I could stand. But I just love the game. I'm an Astros fan first, Red Sox fan second and whoever's playing the Yankees third.

For one personal evangelism class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Crossover Louisville was an opportunity to make more than 450 evangelistic visits, lead three people to Christ and help three more rededicate their lives to the Lord.

William Henard, assistant professor of evangelism and church growth, taught the class and led 55 of his students along with 10 from another class to participate in Crossover, an annual evangelistic blitz by Southern Baptists in the host city of their annual meeting. Most of the students conducted door-to-door surveys in conjunction with Bethany Baptist Church near the seminary.

"The numbers were low, but the pastor was excited because of the nature of the neighborhood," said Henard, who also serves as pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky.

Several students in the class participated in other Crossover ministries. Melissa Cutrera did door-to-door evangelism with teenagers from her church in southern Indiana.

"It was a really good experience for our youth, as many of them got the opportunity to share the Gospel for the first time," she said. "We found that a huge majority of the people were not home or not willing to answer the door, but that those who were willing to do the survey were almost always willing to hear the Gospel. My 12-year-old partner and I got to share the Gospel give times and saw one lady make a decision for Christ."

For Adrianne Archie, a master of artsstudent from Louisville, Crossover ignited a passion for evangelism.

"I must say that the experience set my heart on fire for spreading the Gospel," Archie said. "... I want to do this at least one to two times a month. I honestly didn't want to leave to go to Saturday night worship but had to because of my duties at the church. I prayed that God would give me the right attitude about sharing His Word and He reminded me that He would be with me, and the nervousness went away."

Overall, Crossover involved 95 evangelistic events and 3,000 volunteers.

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary honored its seventh president, Duke McCall, June 24 by naming its newest building on campus the Duke K. McCall Sesquicentennial Pavilion.

"I wish all those present here to know that the board of trustees of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recognizing the contribution of Duke K. McCall as the president of this institution for three decades, hereby designates the Duke K. McCall Sesquicentennial Pavilion in honor of Dr. Duke McCall and on the occasion of the seminary's 150^th anniversary," seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. said during a dedication ceremony in Alumni Memorial Chapel.

Mohler presented McCall, 95, with a certificate to commemorate the occasion and his wife, Winona, with a replica of the oil painting of her husband that hangs in the pavilion.

McCall served as Southern's president from 1951 to 1982 after serving as president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and executive secretary of the Executive Committee.

"I am both surprised and grateful for this high honor," McCall said. "... I am delighted that this occasion is linked into and seen as a part of the sesquicentennial year of Southern Seminary. A hundred and fifty years of service is a cause for some pride and wonder."

McCall credited the seminary's longevity to God's grace and wise leadership.

"Southern Seminary has navigated the shifting tides of social, economic (and) political affairs because of divine favor and dedicated leadership all guided by the inspired Word of God," he said.

Even though leaders and graduates from different eras in the seminary's history have differed on points of theology, McCall asked for all Southern alumni and friends to rally around the seminary for its 150^th birthday.

"I ask that," he said, "because there have been diverse currents running through our community and fellowship. We do not always agree with each other on everything, but what I call upon us to recognize is that the hand of God is upon this institution and those with responsibility for her and that we acknowledge that and say, ‘We will continue our own convictions as they diverge from one another. But we will stand together in one common commitment in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.'"

EDITOR’S NOTE: Greg Wills is the author of a recently released history of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary titled, “Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009” (Oxford). Wills is professor of church history and director of the Center for the Study of the Southern Baptist Convention at Southern.

Question: What did you learn that surprised you while writing this book?

Greg Wills: I was surprised at just how critically important James P. Boyce’s leadership role was in establishing the seminary and saving it from imminent demise over and over again. I knew that he had a central role. I just didn’t know how remarkable his leadership was. Without his vision and determination, the seminary would not have existed and would not have survived if it had been established. I was also surprised by just how important the seminary has been to the Southern Baptist Convention. I knew that it was important, but I came away convinced that it had a deeper, more wide-reaching influence than I expected to find. I am convinced that one of the basic reasons that our denomination remained as conservative as it did was that Boyce and the other SBC leaders who established the school established it for the preservation of orthodoxy and erected a standard of sound biblical teaching which became a cornerstone against which subsequent theological developments were measured. And then when Boyce led the faculty and Southern Baptists generally to reject the emerging liberalism, he established a precedent for preserving orthodoxy whose influence endures to this day. Third, I was surprised by how quickly this faculty moved in a liberal direction beginning during World War II. The post-World War II era was one of dramatic change and I didn’t expect just how dramatic and rapid that change would be.

Q: How long did it take you to research and write this book? And how did the project impact your life?

GW: The trustees asked me to write this book in April 2005. I was able to begin working on it in October 2005, and I submitted the manuscripts in December 2008. The research phase required me to be away a lot. I was probably away at research libraries for three to four months during that first year. Gathering the materials was quite difficult. I went through approximately a million pages of relevant record. I tried to be in the office between 6 and 6:30 each morning when I was in the writing phase. I would work until 5 then try to spend time with my family until 8 or 9 o’clock. Then I did additional reading on nights and weekends.

Q: What have been the biggest failures of the seminary?

GW: The seminary failed to maintain orthodoxy. It failed to maintain the soundness of the faculty in the 20th century. It began slowly, but once liberalism was introduced, given the cultural factors in America, it was going to spread unless vigilance was applied in a new and effective way. And that was not done until 1990.

Q: What are the greatest successes in the seminary’s history?

GW: The conservative takeover is just as profoundly important as the establishment of the school in the first generation. Both were magnificent achievements of God’s mercy upon Southern Baptists.

Q: Who are Southern Seminary’s most significant heroes?

GW: Boyce has to be at the top of the list. Quite possibly, R. Albert Mohler Jr. needs to be second if we’re going to rank them. The founding faculty are all heroes. They struggled and suffered heroically for the survival of the seminary. I say in the book that was a heroic age, and I don’t mean it metaphorically. John R. Sampey led the seminary through the Great Depression in heroic ways. Ellis A. Fuller struggled heroically against the emerging liberalism but tragically failed. Duke K. McCall heroically opposed a faculty rebellion.

Q: What do you want your readers to gain from this book?

GW: One thing I hope they’ll appreciate is the critical importance of theological education to a denomination and conjointly the critical importance of the soundness of theological seminaries. I certainly hope they will recognize the heroic character of the founding faculty’s labors and sacrifices and identify with them in such a way that they will be similarly ambitious for Kingdom work and Kingdom institutions.

Q: What does the book offer for the evangelical world outside of Southern Seminary? Is its audience primarily Southern Baptists or does it have broader significance?

GW: It does have primary significance for Southern Baptists. But it has clear broader significance. For as long as evangelical Christianity exists in modern conditions—especially the prevailing acceptance of Darwinism—liberalism will be parasitic on evangelicalism. A good bit of Southern’s history is the history of the advance of liberalism and the battle against that advance by the orthodox. There are a hundred lessons to learn from Southern’s history with regard to how liberalism advances.
Of course, the story has relevance also just for understanding both Southern Baptists and American religion throughout the past 150 years.

Southern Seminary students are gearing up to share the Gospel with hundreds of their non-Christian neighbors as a part of Crossover Louisville this weekend.

Crossover is the evangelistic blitz Southern Baptists conduct each year in the host city of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. This year’s Crossover will occur June 20 and include door-to-door evangelism, block parties, ethnic ministries, kindness evangelism and a host of other outreach opportunities.

More than 80 students are expected to participate through courses in Southern’s Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism, and many others will participate individually or through their local churches.

Charles Barnes, Crossover coordinator, said it is impossible to know how many Southern students will be involved because volunteers do not identify themselves as students when they sign up. However, he speculated that students are contributing to the overall high registration numbers.

“There must be a significant amount of enthusiasm among the students for ministries in Crossover simply as a result of the numbers that we appear to be getting,” Barnes said.

Terry Delaney, a master of divinity student from O’Fallon, Ill., plans to participate in door-to-door evangelism and a block party.

“We think it will be an excellent opportunity in a very non-threatening way to reach people that otherwise would never darken the doors of a church,” Delaney said.

“I’m excited about it because we get to share the Gospel and allow the power of the Word to change the hearts and souls of residents of Louisville.”

Chuck Lawless, dean of the Graham School, said he looks forward to students sharing the Gospel together throughout the city. He said Southern students are especially involved in door-to-door teams and Intentional Community Evangelism teams that work the entire week preceding the SBC.

“Our goal is to get students doing evangelism throughout the city,” Lawless said. “And my prayer is that even in just a few days of intentional evangelism they would grow in their passion and desire to reach people.”

Barnes, the Crossover coordinator, noted that there is still time for students to sign up for Crossover and still a need for volunteers. The greatest need is for additional door-to-door workers.

“We’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “But we could use another 50 people to lift us from good to very good.”

Anyone wishing to participate in Crossover should call the Crossover office at 502-635-2601 or Barnes at 502-523-1675.

With Louisville hosting the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 23-24, some Southern Seminary students will see for the first time the structure and operation of the world’s largest Protestant denomination. For the uninitiated—or those needing a refresher course—here are some questions and answers on how the annual meeting and the denomination operate.

WHAT IS THE SBC?

The term “Southern Baptist Convention” refers to both the denomination and its annual meeting. As a denomination, the SBC is an alliance of more than 42,000 churches that pool their funds for joint ministry endeavors and own 11 ministry organizations known as entities. The churches of the SBC also share a common core of beliefs about and from the Bible articulated in a confession of faith called the “Baptist Faith and Message.” The SBC was established in 1845 in Augusta, Ga., and is now America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 16 million members.

Each summer the churches send messengers to an annual meeting. At that meeting the convention transacts its business for two days. The SBC exists legally only during those two days. During the days between annual meetings, the Executive Committee (see below for description) acts on behalf of the messengers in business and financial matters.

WHAT ARE THE ENTITIES OF THE SBC?

SBC entities are organizations owned by the convention that carry out its ministry functions. There are 11 entities plus the Executive Committee. Each entity, as well as the Executive Committee, is governed by a board of trustees elected by the convention.

Here are the entities and their functions:

-- Executive Committee: Composed of 81 members, the Executive Committee acts on behalf of the convention between annual meetings. It reviews the financial statements of the other entities and recommends an operating budget to the convention annually. In addition, the Executive Committee receives and distributes the money Southern Baptists give in support of denominational ministries, acts as the recipient and trust agency for all convention properties and provides public relations and news services. During each annual meeting, it makes recommendations to the messengers regarding convention business.

-- GuideStone Financial Resources: GuideStone provides retirement, medical, life and disability coverage, investment management and executive planning services to Southern Baptist ministers, church and institutional employees and seminary students.

-- Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission: The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission helps Christians live out their beliefs in their homes, their communities, their jobs and the public square. It informs Southern Baptists of important moral issues and articulates the SBC’s stances to government officials.

-- International Mission Board (IMB): The International Mission Board sends more than 5,000 missionaries to proclaim the Gospel worldwide. Additionally, it helps coordinate thousands of short-term mission volunteers annually.

-- LifeWay Christian Resources: LifeWay provides ministry resources to Southern Baptist churches through a chain of bookstores, a publishing house and a number of experts to advise churches on various aspects of ministry.

-- North American Mission Board (NAMB): The North American Mission Board proclaims the Gospel in the United States and Canada by starting and assisting churches. Approximately 5,000 missionaries are associated with NAMB.

-- Seminaries: Six Southern Baptist seminaries train ministers to fulfill the Great Commission and make disciples worldwide. The six seminaries are The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.; Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif.; Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans, La.; Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.; and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

HOW DOES THE SBC ANNUAL MEETING WORK?

All business at the annual meeting is conducted by a vote of the messengers and operates according to Robert’s Rules of Order. Southern Baptists believe a democratic governing procedure best reflects the congregational polity Scripture prescribes for churches.

Among the things that occur at each annual meeting:

-- Each entity reports to the convention on its ministries, and messengers have opportunities to ask questions.

-- The Executive Committee recommends actions for the convention to take, and messengers vote on each recommendation.

-- Messengers make motions from the convention floor on any subject they care to address. Normally, the motions are referred to entities for consideration during the year to come.

-- Messengers adopt resolutions stating the convention’s position on theological, political and social issues. Unlike motions, resolutions do not call for any action. They simply state a position. A Resolutions Committee appointed by the convention president recommends the resolutions on which messengers vote. However, the messengers can vote to consider resolutions not recommended by the committee.

-- Preachers and musicians lead in worship through sermons, congregational singing and special music.

-- Messengers elect trustees for each entity and the Executive Committee. The Committee on Nominations recommends the potential trustees. Then messengers have the authority to accept the proposed trustees, reject them or amend the committee’s recommendations one trustee at a time. The Committee on Nominations is nominated by the Committee on Committees, which is appointed by the president. Each year, messengers also approve nominees for the following year’s Committee on Committees.

-- Messengers elect convention officers including president, first vice president and second vice president, among others.

WHO ARE THE CONVENTION OFFICERS AND WHAT DO THEY DO?

The convention officers are a president, first and second vice presidents, recording secretary, registration secretary and treasurer. The messengers elect all officers, except the treasurer. According to convention bylaws, the president of the Executive Committee always serves as treasurer.

The president’s greatest power lies in his ability to appoint the Committee on Committees and thus indirectly influence the appointment of trustees. The president also appoints several other standing committees, acts as a leader and ambassador for the convention and presides at the annual meeting.

The first and second vice presidents provide leadership in consultation with the president. The recording secretary keeps the official records of the convention, and the registration secretary coordinates messenger registration for the annual meeting.

The Great Commission Resurgence, whether a Texas church is in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention and the use of beverage alcohol are all topics likely to be considered at the SBC annual meeting June 23-24 in Louisville at the Kentucky Exposition Center.

Sojourn Community Church and Baptist 21, a website that discusses SBC news and issues, will host a panel discussion June 23 from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on the convention’s present and future. Among the panelists will be Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr., Southern Seminary trustee chairman Mark Dever and Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

The SBC annual meeting is “part revival meeting, part church business meeting, part carnival,” said Gregory A. Wills, professor of church history at Southern and director of the Center for the Study of the Southern Baptist Convention. “And we go first from a duty of stewardship. We, as the messengers of the churches, govern indirectly how our entities operate, under what policies they operate and how the money is given. We need to take that responsibility seriously.”

Likely to highlight the meeting is discussion of SBC President Johnny Hunt’s declaration calling for a Great Commission Resurgence, a proposal to focus the world’s largest Protestant denomination on making disciples more efficiently and effectively.

Hunt’s 10-point declaration calls for 1) A Commitment to Christ’s Lordship; 2) A Commitment to Gospel-Centeredness; 3) A Commitment to the Great Commandments; 4) A Commitment to Biblical Inerrancy and Sufficiency; 5) A Commitment to a Healthy Confessional Center; 6) A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches; 7) A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching; 8) A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed; 9) A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure; and 10) A Commitment to Distinctively Christian Families.

The declaration is based on the 12 “axioms for a Great Commission Resurgence” set forth in an April 16 chapel address by Akin at Southeastern.

Among the points of debate stemming from the declaration are whether state Baptist conventions retain too high a percentage of Cooperative Program funds, the level of transparency in Southern Baptist work and whether to combine the SBC’s two mission boards—the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board.

“There is a great deal of concern on the part of many pastors that we are not allocating our missions money and personnel in the most efficient manner for accomplishing the Great Commission,” Wills said.

Hunt likely will ask messengers to form a task force to study the declaration and recommend ways the convention can implement its ideas.

The convention may also hear a recommendation from the SBC Executive Committee regarding whether to allow historic Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, to remain affiliated with the denomination. The Executive Committee began studying the church in response to a motion at last year’s SBC annual meeting that the convention declare Broadway Baptist not to be “in friendly cooperation” with the denomination because of concerns about the church’s view of homosexuality.

Broadway Baptist has about five members who are homosexual, with two of them serving on committees. A controversy erupted within the church last year over whether homosexual couples should be pictured in a church directory.

“This year I believe it is probable that the Executive Committee will make a recommendation one way or the other regarding a motion made last year requesting that Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, be deemed not to be in friendly cooperation with the Convention,” D. August Boto, the Executive Committee’s executive vice president and general counsel, said in an email.

“I say ‘probable’ because it is possible, (though I believe not likely) the Executive Committee could decide, in its upcoming June meeting, to report to the Convention that it is not ready to make a recommendation and will continue to study this matter.”

The convention may also consider a resolution or motion on the consumption of beverage alcohol, Wills said.

“The question of the legitimacy of consuming beverage alcohol has been mooted by some Southern Baptists in recent years, and some have spoken of introducing a resolution or a motion addressing this issue in 2009,” he said.

In other business, the convention will:

-- vote on a recommendation from the Executive Committee that SBC Bylaw 1 be amended to say that during an annual meeting session “a messenger may speak in debate for longer than three minutes only with the permission of the convention granted by a two-thirds vote” and “a messenger may introduce a second motion during a business session only if no other messenger is seeking the floor who has not made a motion during that session.”

-- vote on a proposed 2009-10 Cooperative Program Allocation budget of $204,385,592. The proposed budget maintains current allocations to the convention’s ministries, including 50 percent of receipts to the IMB, 22.79 percent to NAMB and 21.92 percent to the six seminaries.

Boto emphasized that it is impossible to predict all the matters that will come to the floor of an annual meeting.

“Predicting motions which might be made at any SBC annual meeting is a difficult proposition,” he said. “This is due to the fact that the annual meeting has sometimes been described in general terms as the largest openly deliberative and unscripted parliamentary meeting in the world. ... Any messenger at the SBC may approach a microphone without any notice to anyone and move anything. That unpredictability is one aspect that makes every annual meeting interesting.”

Wills and Boto agreed that, in addition to the business transacted, establishing friendships with fellow Southern Baptists is an important part of the annual meeting experience.

“I believe the chief reason to attend, particularly as a seminary student who intends to minister in Southern Baptist churches, would be to begin a relationship with members of the family you will be serving,” Boto said. “In many ways, the annual meeting is like a family reunion where joys and trials are shared, ideas are discussed, challenges are met and counseled about, and God is glorified through it all.”
Wills noted, “The relationships that we form and renew are the delightful part of SBC meetings.”

By God’s grace The Southern Baptist Theology has maintained both orthodox theology and missionary passion for 150 years, according to essayists in the latest edition of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.

Six writers, all on faculty at Southern, unpack the seminary’s history and cast a vision for its future in a special commemorative issue celebrating the school’s
sesquicentennial.

Journal editor Stephen J. Wellum, who serves as professor of Christian theology at Southern, argues in his editorial that Southern Seminary is a demonstration of God’s faithfulness as He pulled it back from the brink of theological compromise.

“Specifically, God’s faithfulness may be uniquely witnessed in how the Lord has preserved Southern Seminary over the years both in terms of her commitment to historic Christianity and to fulfilling her calling in training God-called individuals for gospel ministry,” he writes.

Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. argues in his essay that successful theological education requires a confession of faith and a willingness to hold professors accountable to the confession. Seminary founder James P. Boyce knew this reality.

“Boyce’s point was elegant and simple: Theological institutions that do not hold themselves and their professors accountable to a confession of faith will eventually compromise or abandon the faith,” he writes.

“Over the course of the past 150 years, the history of Southern Seminary reveals that a regulative confession, though essential, is not sufficient in itself to prevent theological defection. The other essential element is the determination of the seminary’s leadership and governing board to enforce the regulative nature of the confession of faith.”

Only by heeding Boyce’s advice will Southern successfully train ministers of the Gospel, Mohler argues.

“The mission of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the preparation of ministers and missionaries by means of the transmission of Christian learning from one generation to the next,” he writes. “And that mission, we now know, is anchored in a commitment to confessional theological education.”

The journal also features articles by Southern professors Thomas J. Nettles (“James Petigru Boyce: For Christ and His Church”), Michael A.G. Haykin (“‘Soldiers of Christ, in Truth Arrayed’: The Ministry and Piety of Basil Manly Jr.”), Joshua W. Powell (“‘We Cannot Sit in Judgment’: William Whitsitt and the Future of the Seminary”), Gregory A. Wills (“A Review of James H. Slatton’s W.H. Whitsitt: The Man and the Controversy” and “Southern Seminary and Progressive Religion 1870-1940”) and Russell D. Moore (“Southern Seminary and the Reshaping of American Culture: Retrospect and Prospect”).

A forum featuring several Southern Baptist leaders discusses Southern’s past, present and future. Forum participants include Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.; Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention; and David S. Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn.

For more information or to subscribe to the journal, please call 502-897-4413 or e-mail journaloffice@sbts.edu.

Larry Poyntz, a Louisville pastor and doctor of ministry student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, died April 24 of a heart attack. He was 59.

Over a 30-year pastoral ministry, Poyntz pastored only two churches—First Baptist Church of Nicholasville, Ky., from 1978 to 1985 and Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Louisville from 1985 to the present.

He likely would have graduated in December 2010 with a doctor of ministry degree in black church leadership from Southern’s Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism.

“On behalf of the Graham School and the entire Southern Seminary community, I offer my prayers to the Poyntz family,” Chuck Lawless, dean of the Graham School, said. “For over 30 years, Larry served as pastor of local Baptist churches. His faithfulness to the Lord’s work was an example to all of us.”

A native of Lexington, Ky., Poyntz earned his master of divinity from Southern in 1990.

He also held several degrees from other institutions, including a bachelor of arts from Kentucky State University, a bachelor of theology and bachelor of religious education from Lexington Baptist College, a master of arts from Lexington Theological Seminary and an honorary doctor of divinity from Simmons Bible College.

Poyntz is survived by his wife of 37 years, Georgetta; two sons, Larry Jr. and Marcus; and three grandchildren, Larry III, Tiondra and Mariah.

Funeral services were held April 30 at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Louisville and May 1 at Shiloh Baptist Church in Lexington.

With a ribbon cutting ceremony April 21, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary officially opened its new Sesquicentennial Pavilion.

A marker of Southern’s 150th anniversary, the pavilion serves as a welcome center for the entire campus and houses the admissions and security offices. The new building took approximately eight months to complete.

“With this building we are making a statement that 150 years after Southern Seminary was established we have more to do, not less,” Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said. “We have a greater challenge, not a lesser challenge. We have a glorious challenge and the Lord has given us more than we’ve ever dreamed.

“This is a statement about the seriousness with which Southern Seminary takes this task and about the permanence that we believe the Lord has invested in us—not in an institution, but in the unchanging, eternal truths upon which this institution is established.”

As part of the ceremony, Mohler placed a time capsule behind a stone encasement. The capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2059 on the seminary’s 200th birthday. Among the items in the capsule are seminary publications, a campus directory, an academic catalog and a letter from Mohler to the seminary president 50 years from now.

Finished product: the Sesquicentennial Pavilion was completed in eight months and opened Tuesday.

Mohler said his letter contains an admonition to keep the seminary faithfully in line with biblical truth.

“What I basically did was write in such a way that if this institution isn’t theologically where it needs to be whenever that thing is opened, they’re going to know it,” he said. “It’s going to be the most embarrassing letter ever read if indeed this institution is not preserved in that way. That is our prayer—that it will be.”

The new building is ultimately a reminder of God’s blessings on the seminary and His faithfulness to provide for the training of ministers, Mohler said.

“We are here today on a very happy day as a very happy institution to be a part of a very happy observance to see the Lord’s faithfulness manifested here,” he said.

“In a day in which many people say that an institution that stands for what this institution stands for would not survive, look how the Lord has blessed us beyond anything we could imagine.”

Following Mohler’s remarks Mark Dever, chairman of the seminary’s board of trustees and pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., led in a dedicatory prayer and Mohler cut a ribbon across the pavilion’s entrance. Students and faculty then enjoyed a 500-pound cake to celebrate the occasion.