A contrarian institution
As my sister already mentioned, I just got back from Southern Seminary’s Preview Conference. I’ve got a few comments and photos I’ll share soon in reflection of the weekend in Louisville, but for now, here’s an recent article about Southern Seminary from their news service:
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has reached an all-time high in enrollment and is continuing to draw scores of ministers desiring to prepare for ministry in the local church, President R. Albert Mohler Jr. told trustees at the annual spring meeting Tuesday.
Seminary enrollment this semester grew to more than 4,200 students, Mohler said, the vast majority of whom are preparing to serve as pastors of local Southern Baptist churches. Enrollment has doubled since 1995.
Mohler said the increased enrollment has come by God’s grace because the school has sought to attract students during a time when theological institutions in America are turning out “professional ministers” and not pastor-theologians. Many seminaries are going away from training pastors in the classical theological disciplines and, instead, are preparing them to meet the felt needs of a therapeutic culture, he said.
“When you look where the bulk of the enrollment is right now in the theological seminaries of North America, much of it is in what you might call the ‘helping’ professions rather than in the pulpit ministry,” he said.
“We are watching before our eyes in the course of one or two generations the redefinition of theological education away from theology, away from the pulpit and away from the church.”
Mohler called Southern a “contrarian institution” whose primary focus is raising up God-centered pastors who are faithful expositors of Scripture.
