President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. told Southern Baptists of his joy serving Southern Baptist churches during his address at the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting. Mohler commended the Southern Baptist Convention both for their commitment to theological education and for holding their six seminaries to biblical faithfulness.
“Thank you, Southern Baptists, for believing in theological education so much that you have held your seminaries to the faith once and for all delivered to the saints even as all around us as there is evidence of what happens when denominations and families of churches no longer do that.” Mohler said.
“And the problem is twofold. Number one, it’s not believing in theological education or it’s in allowing theological education to become an ideology of secularization and theological liberalism that eats away at the very heart of biblical Christianity and eventually denies the gospel,” he said.
The commitment to theological education from Southern Baptists allows schools like SBTS, Mohler said.
“I can just tell you the number of schools we see as peers, they’re decreasing rather than increasing, and in some denominations, is because they don’t believe and, in some communities, or churches, they don’t believe enough in supporting the schools financially,” he said.
“So, thank you, Southern Baptists, for believing in the training of those who will teach and preach the word of God.”
President Mohler reminded messengers that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Billy Graham School for Missions, Evangelism, and Ministry.
Billy Graham’s support of Southern Seminary and the direction to return the institution to biblical faithfulness and confessional integrity by giving his name to a newly established school was critical to Mohler’s plan. “I just want to tell you that Dr. Billy Graham made a huge difference 30 years ago in a way that still reshapes the life of Southern Seminary even now,” he said.
Mohler said his great passion is to see more and more young men in the pulpits preaching the God’s Word “without reservation on the full authority of God’s inherent infallible” leading to more churches planted and more mission fields reached.
“Thanks be to God. We’ve got them. Let’s thank God for them. Let’s train them well, educate them rightly, and send ’em out into the world to His glory,” he said.