Southwestern trustees release 20 years of financials that show devastating decline began under Patterson

Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary have released 20 years of audited financial records — more than any Southern Baptist Convention entity has done — documenting a devastating pattern of overspending while enrollment plummeted.

The spending spree began with former President Paige Patterson, abated a bit after his firing, then resumed anew under his successor, Adam Greenway.

“Over the past 20 years, the financial health of Southwestern Seminary has progressively deteriorated.”

This culminated in an operating deficit of $8,165,997 for fiscal year 2022.

But that is only a small portion of the story.

A trustee report released June 7 explains: “During the period from 2002-2022, annual operating expenses increased by 35% while SBC FTE enrollment decreased by 67%. The result of this failure to reduce operating expenditures was a $140.1 million cumulative operating deficit from 2002-2022.”

The report begins: “Over the past 20 years, the financial health of Southwestern Seminary has progressively deteriorated.”

Glimpses of these financial problems have surfaced periodically — including when Greenway was pressured to resign in September 2022 — but the full scope of the problem never has been made public or reported to the SBC, which technically owns the seminary.

Greenway was hired in 2019 to stabilize the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary. However, the newly released financial reports show he also fell into a pattern of what trustees previously called “out of control spending.”

Specific revelations in the trustee report are shocking by nearly any standard:

Between 2019 and 2022, more than $1.5 million was spent on “renovations, furnishings and related expenses to the president’s home. These expenditures were made at a time when the seminary was making significant budget cuts, including the reduction of faculty personnel and positions.”
These expenses included $59,865.79 for Christmas decorations, more than $25,000 for artwork and $11,123.49 for an espresso machine and accessories.
“Despite extensive renovations completed early in his tenure, further optional work was done on the president’s home in late 2021 when more than $180,000 was spent on HVAC work.”
Much of this work was carried out by the seminary’s facilities team, “creating an unsustainable demand, and contributing to poor morale and high turnover.”
“Employees were often asked to do the same job multiple times to meet Greenway’s demanding expectations. Multiple change orders were also true with outside contractors, increasing costs of the projects.”
Between the summer of 2020 and early 2021, more than $500,000 was spent on the president’s office, including renovations and furniture.
Greenway charged $9,936.05 for first-class airfare for his family and a family friend to fly to Anaheim, Calif., for the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
The former president spent $4,850.51 to frame personal diplomas.

Greenway, who previously said he wanted the full report of his alleged misconduct to be released, has not responded to the June 7 report.

Trustees noted: “The task force concluded that Adam Greenway engaged in a pattern of spending that the task force believes did not reflect proper stewardship of seminary resources. This pattern of spending occurred without deference to financial controls and seminary financial policies.”

“We grieve the pattern of poor stewardship evident in this summary of the task force’s findings.”

Then trustees added: “We grieve the pattern of poor stewardship evident in this summary of the task force’s findings. We wish to express our gratitude to those seminary employees who sought to enforce existing policies and challenge the pattern of spending noted above, even as their efforts were met with resistance.”

Among new guardrails put in place by trustees, the chairman now examines expense reports of the president and the seminary leadership team every quarter. The trustee statement said the board and new administration “are committed to every appropriate measure that will ensure proper stewardship of seminary resources in a manner that is consistent with the mission of Southwestern Seminary.”

The trustee report says there is a way forward — cautiously — but another problem is that over the past 21 years, “the portion of the endowment managed by the seminary decreased in value by 5.45% in spite of at least $24 million in contributions to the endowment.”