A visiting team representing the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges will recommend lifting sanctions against Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Seminary President David Dockery announced the recommendation in a letter to the seminary community April 8. Sanctions…
Baxley says CBF is adapting as churches face financial crunch
Recent staff reductions at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are the result of a downturn in unrestricted income, according to Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley. The change is a somewhat rapid response to real-time conditions, Baxley told BNG in a Feb. 3…
How Southwestern Seminary is bouncing back from financial catastrophe
Over the past six years, we have spilt buckets of digital ink here bringing you the saga of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. I’m writing today not in the format of a news story but in the…
‘Think of your entire financial picture as a giant love letter to God’
The church is bursting at the seams with a fresh vigor for aligning our faith with how we use money — especially how we invest money. New organizations are springing up and thriving, many books are being written, podcasts are…
A cautionary tale of celebrity pastors and family empires
Late last month, Liberty University and its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr., settled for an undisclosed amount to end a multi-year, sprawling set of multi-million dollar lawsuits brought by Falwell against the Lynchburg, Va.-based school. For the world’s “largest evangelical university,” the…
Terrorism, money and the threat to world peace
In the last couple of weeks, terrorists in Nigeria invaded and kidnapped about 300 people, including nursing mothers and children as young as 2 and 5 from schools, a highway and internally displaced peoples camp in Kaduna, Katsina, and other…
SBC Executive Committee financials missing from online report for third year, while 2022 audit shows trajectory that is ‘not sustainable’
For the third year running, financial reports from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee are missing from the annual SBC Ministry Reports website. An introductory paragraph to the website says: “The 2024 Ministry Report is the compilation of SBC entity…
Southwestern appears to have stopped the bleeding
As a new academic year dawns at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the new administration reported a slight increase in enrollment during the previous academic year just ended. That indicates a hopeful correction to two decades of decline in what once…
As seminary enrollment dropped and expenses rose, trustees gave Patterson a $25,000 ‘vacation fund’
In 2008, as enrollment was declining and expenses were skyrocketing, trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary gave Paige Patterson a gift for his fifth anniversary as president. That gift was a $25,000 “vacation fund” to be used at the discretion…
Here’s a guide to understanding the latest report from Southwestern’s trustees
What’s most interesting about the “Response to Sligar-Bunnell Allegations” document released by Southwestern Seminary trustee officers Friday afternoon, June 2, is the additional bits of insight into what’s been happening at the Fort Worth, Texas, school in the past year….
Southwestern Seminary trustees called to special meeting next Tuesday
Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary have been summoned to a special meeting next Tuesday triggered by a bylaw provision that allows a simple majority of trustees to demand such a meeting. The online meeting will occur just six weeks…
Why we must be cautious about understanding what’s going on at Southwestern Seminary
Other news outlets are likely to publish accounts today about dissension among trustees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and allegations of impropriety related to real estate deals. We’re not publishing such a story today for two simple reasons: We don’t…