Stories of Southwesterners’ evangelistic fervor reach beyond Seminary Hill

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students, faculty, and alumni have long been faithful in their evangelism efforts on campus and beyond. The stories of their Gospel witness have been told and celebrated on Seminary Hill, but they have also been noticed by Christians and ministry leaders across the country.

David Jeremiah, pastor and founder of the Turning Point radio broadcast ministry, recently presented one Southwesterner’s evangelism encounter to his listeners during one of his “daily devotions” segments.

“Your work for the Lord extends beyond the walls of your church,” Jeremiah said to his listeners. “The purpose of the church is to prepare followers of Christ to take the reality of the Gospel to the whole world, and all of us are called to serve and share with a lost and needy world.”

To illustrate, Jeremiah then shared the story of Jennifer, a woman living in Montana. Her pursuit of joy and fulfillment in worldly possessions led her to purchase a horse from Master of Divinity student Sam Sorenson. But Jennifer ultimately found herself unsatisfied and lonely.

Later speaking with her by phone, Sorenson shared with Jennifer how that same void in his own life had been filled by Jesus, and that Jesus was the only one who could truly do so. Sorenson’s subsequent Gospel presentation then resulted in Jennifer praying to accept Christ during that same phone call.

Sorenson’s story, published on the seminary’s website, is just one of many stories reaching beyond the borders of the institution’s Fort Worth campus, encouraging the lives of other believers and ministers.

“Throughout its history, when people hear ‘Southwestern Seminary,’ they inevitably think of evangelism,” says Matt Queen, L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism at Southwestern. “Our evangelistic reputation has come by way of church members seeing our graduates consistently practice it, professors evangelizing outside the classroom, and stories of everyday evangelism in news outlets.”

“As one of the three evangelism professors at Southwestern,” Queen says, “hearing that stories of our students’ evangelism efforts are reaching churches and believers outside the school and are being used to encourage and motivate others to evangelize affirms that what we do here contributes to the Kingdom of God’s expansion.”