‘We will never be the church triumphant if we are a people divided,’ Greenway preaches during convocation sermon

“I cannot stress strongly enough how much I have looked forward to this day,” said President Adam W. Greenway during Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s convocation service, Jan. 27, in MacGorman Chapel on the school’s Fort Worth campus—the first chapel gathering of the seminary community in nearly a year. 

“We have not had on-campus chapel services since March 2020, which is probably the longest gap in our institutional history from having a time to come together as a worshiping community,” Greenway said. “It is good to be together.”

Due to COVID-19, Southwestern Seminary canceled on-campus gatherings from March until December when commencement was held, although in-person instruction resumed in August. With precautions such as face masks and socially distanced seating observed, the convocation service was the first of the seminary’s resumed weekly chapel services for the spring 2021 semester. 

The service featured a message from Greenway to the seminary community as well as the recognition of newly elected and appointed faculty. 

In his sermon on Acts 19, wherein the ministry of the Apostle Paul and his companions encounters opposition, resulting in a riot in Ephesus, Greenway said, “We find ourselves in a season of life where there are a variety of storms happening all around us. There are tensions that seem to be ever-increasingly pronounced in our world today.”

As tensions run high over theological, political, and sociological matters, Greenway said, Christians must not allow their loyalty to be to anything but Christ.

“If my first loyalty is as a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, or even an independent over my commitment to being a blood-bought, born-again, Spirit-filled child of God, something is desperately wrong,” Greenway said. “No political party, no political agenda, no political goal will ever usher in the Kingdom of God.

“The flag that reigns supreme over us must be the banner of Christ.”

Greenway urged Southwesterners to resist the temptation to simply react, but to instead follow the lead of Paul and his companions in Acts 19—to trust God and His will and remain committed to the pursuit of inviting people to respond to the Gospel and encounter Jesus. 

“We must not allow the enemy to distract us from the urgency of the fact that there are tens, hundreds of thousands, literally, around our world dying every day, going into a Christ-less eternity, while we continue to fixate and fight over things that ultimately do not matter in the grand scheme of eternity,” Greenway said. “We will never be the church triumphant if we are a people divided.”

Greenway concluded by calling upon the Southwestern Seminary community to “continue to labor and to work to be the kind of institution and the kind of community that is always working to bring Southern Baptists together rather than to tear Southern Baptists apart.”

“It does not mean we compromise or capitulate upon our confessional commitments,” Greenway said. “We stand without apology upon all that is contained in the Baptist Faith and Message. But we do it not with a scowl, but with a smile. We do it not out of drudgery, but out of delight. 

“We do it because our commitment and our desire is for disciples to be encouraged and for the Word and the work of God to flourish. That is my prayer.”

In addition to Greenway’s message, recently elected faculty signed the seminary’s Book of Confessional Heritage, which is the Baptist Faith and Message.

These newly elected faculty included Benjamin M. Skaug, dean of Scarborough College; Chris S. Osborne, professor of preaching and pastoral ministry; Jonathan W. Arnold, associate professor of church history and historical theology; Carl J. Bradford, assistant professor of evangelism; and Ted J. Cabal, professor of philosophy of religion.

Also recognized were 10 individuals who joined the faculty by presidential appointment—Mark Baker, assistant professor of biblical studies; Amy L. Crider, associate professor of foundations of education; Adam Dodd, assistant professor of Old Testament and biblical backgrounds; Jon Duncan, senior professor of church music and worship; George Dyson, assistant professor of Christian studies; Coleman Ford, assistant professor of Christian formation; Kenneth Magnuson, professor of Christian ethics; Lilly Park, associate professor of biblical counseling; Shane Parker, associate professor of leadership and educational ministries; and Rebekah Naylor, distinguished professor of missions and missionary in residence.