Dr. David Dockery gave his Convocation Address<\/a>, having been inducted as the 10th president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) in Ft. Worth, Texas.<\/p>\nDr. Dockery\u2019s address is of pivotal significance for two reasons. First, SWBTS is an institution of critical importance to the future of the largest Protestant denomination in America, the Southern Baptist Convention. Founded in 1908, SWBTS has over the past 115 years become one of the two flagship theological seminaries among Southern Baptists, along with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville, Kentucky, founded in 1858.<\/p>\n
In addition to SWBTS and SBTS, Southern Baptists operate four additional official seminaries: New Orleans Baptist Seminary, Southeastern Baptist Seminary (Wake Forest, North Carolina), Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Kansas City) and Gateway Baptist Seminary (Ontario, California). And while all six seminaries have played, and do play, a significant role in Southern Baptist life, historically, SWBTS and SBTS have been the flagpole institutions, with SBTS being the lead institution east of the Mississippi River and SWBTS fulfilling that role west of that great river.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, I am a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Seminary, but being a native Texan who grew up in Southern Baptist churches in the Lone Star state, I, like most Texas Baptists, consider myself a \u201cSouthwesterner\u201d and SWBTS as \u201cmy seminary\u201d in a very proprietary sense. Until I was a college senior I never even considered going somewhere besides SWBTS for my theological training (I believe God sent me to New Orleans seminary so I could meet my wife of 52 years who I met on my 23rd birthday in the seminary cafeteria \u2014 best birthday I ever had.)<\/p>\n
It is doubtful that the Southern Baptist Convention can continue to be the driving engine that it has been historically in Evangelical American Christianity unless SWBTS is thriving, pledging deep allegiance to core biblical values, and committing to serving the local New Testament church.<\/p>\n
In other words, what happens in Ft. Worth reverberates throughout North America and beyond. Where<\/em> Dr. Dockery made his declaration of commitment to first Gospel principles is truly strategically important.<\/p>\nThe second reason Dr. Dockery\u2019s address is a truly significant moment in American Evangelical Christianity is provided by the content of his address \u2014 namely what he said.<\/p>\n
So, what did he say? He began by revealing that this academic year commences his 40th year of service in theological higher education (in the interest of full disclosure, 40 years ago I offered Dr. Dockery his first full-time professorial appointment at Criswell College and he has been making me look good ever since).<\/p>\n
Dr. Dockery declared at the outset of his message that he was leading SWBTS to a basic reaffirmation of the foundations of the historic Christian faith, \u201conce delivered to the saints.\u201d\u00a0 As SWBTS\u2019 president, he declared, \u201ceach day, each week, each month, each semester, and each year\u201d SWBTS will be seeking to fulfill its \u201cprimary mission of providing theological education which encourages the priority of the Great Commandment and the fulfillment Great Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dockery acknowledges that \u201ctheology\u201d can be threatening or suspicious to some because in church history it \u201chas been the path down which some have traveled to open the door to liberalism, heterodoxy, or wrongheaded thinking or practice.\u201d He acknowledged that Christians \u201cmust never allow theology to devolve into some kind of intellectual aloofness or uncommitted intellectual curiosity, which, as Francis Schaeffer warned in The God Who is There<\/em>, can wrongly become some kind of game or mere intellectual exercise.\u201d<\/p>\nSuch past abuses must not turn us away from \u201ctheology,\u201d which derives from two Greek words, logos<\/em> (words) and Theos<\/em> (God), i.e. words about God. Dockery contends that \u201ctheology done correctly is essential for the transmission of the Christian faith and is foundational, fundamental, and basic for theological education.\u201d At its most elemental level theology in essence is \u201cthinking rightly about God.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nIn this foundational role, all Christians are \u201ctheologians.\u201d Dockery correctly emphasizes:<\/p>\n
\n[T]he Christian faith is much more than a personal and subjective experience.\u00a0 While Christian faith is an active and dynamic dependence on God for our daily walk with Him, a full understanding of the Christian faith recognizes that it is also \u2018the body of truth\u2019 delivered to the saints once and for all (Jude 3).<\/p>\n
Thus, our understanding of the Christian faith certainly includes \u2018belief in,\u2019 but it is also imperative to recognize that it includes \u2018belief that.\u2019<\/p>\n
By this we mean that our relationship with Jesus Christ comes about by believing and trusting in Him, but we must not fail to recognize that this Jesus is . . .the Jesus recognized by the apostles as \u2018the Christ, the Son of the living God; as the one who is the radiance of God\u2019s glory and the exact representation of God\u2019s being (Matt 16; Heb 1). \u00a0\u00a0Thus, both the personal and the propositional understandings of Christian faith are necessary.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
While acknowledging that \u201cacademic and public theology\u201d have \u201ca rightful place\u201d in seminary education, \u201ctheology\u2019s primary focus at Southwestern remains the church, and should be carried out primarily by ecclesial theologians, helping others reflect biblically and historically on the Triune God, His Word, His Work, His Will, and His world in order to prepare for a life of walking with God, worshiping and serving God, as well as serving others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dockery references an important new study The Great Dechurching<\/em>. Who\u2019s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back<\/em> by Jim Davis, Michel Graham and Ryan P. Burge, which details how Evangelical Christianity in America has experienced unprecedented decline since the early 1990s and has actually returned to the same percentage of adherents Evangelicals had in the 1970s prior to their surge of growth during the \u201970s, \u201980s and \u201990s.<\/p>\nDockery quite correctly identifies that \u201cour failure to emphasize serious discipleship, worldview formation, and the importance of theology … as the culture has become more secularized, polarized and confused\u201d has played a major role in Evangelical decline.<\/p>\n
Consequently, President Dockery proclaimed and pledged:<\/p>\n
\nWe take seriously our responsibility at Southwestern to set before the church and the world the pattern of Christian truth, which is grounded in the inspired and inerrant Word of God, which depends on the regenerated mind, and which exposes the radical difference between Christianity and the insufficient worldviews and philosophies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I cannot speak for others, but for myself and my house, as a seven-decade Southern Baptist and a professing Evangelical, as I heard Dr. Dockery\u2019s convocation address, I smiled and even \u201camened\u201d a few times. Speaking as one devoted Southern Baptist, Dr. Dockery\u2019s address exemplified and embodied what I envisioned when I first participated in the \u201cConservative Resurgence\u201d starting in 1979 and I could not be more pleased that SWBTS is under such dedicated and capable leadership. I can also assure you that none of the six Southern Baptist seminary presidents in office in 1979 either could have or alternatively would have, delivered the address given by Dr. Dockery on August 22nd.<\/p>\n
Never have Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, Americans, and the world more needed such dedication and piety. May Dockery\u2019s and SWBTS\u2019s tribe increase, and may God bless their efforts to serve Christ and His Church.<\/p>\n
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Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.<\/p>\n
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, \u201cBringing Every Thought Captive,\u201d and in his weekly column for CP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n