Statement of David S. Dockery

Statement of David S. Dockery
Interim President
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
October 18, 2022

Thank you, Chairman Roberts, for your wonderful statement, for your outstanding leadership of this board, for your wise and careful stewardship of this institution, and leading this board through challenging times in recent days. We’re grateful for you and grateful for every member of this board who has worked very hard during recent days, even yesterday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., non-stop marathon meeting. We are grateful for each one of you.

I had the privilege yesterday of sitting in on what is now the Business Administration Committee, formerly known as IAC1, and to work very closely with John Rayburn. It is important for us to note their support for our efforts to bring about budget restructuring for the days ahead. We’re grateful to John Rayburn for his wise counsel and leadership. 

It’s also important that we note at this meeting, for the record, that Southwestern has a campus footprint that is now quite large in light of our current circumstances. Southwestern’s blessed to sit on 200 acres. But this blessing also presents significant challenges. For this institution to have a sustainable business model, we must reduce our campus footprint and the resource commitment it takes to maintain it. Faced with mounting maintenance and renovation costs at Carroll Park, we’ve spent the past couple of years as an institution preparing to sell that property, which is not contiguous with the main campus and is more than 50 years old. While this housing complex has served our students well for many decades, it is no longer necessary or advantageous to operate and maintain housing disconnected from the Seminary’s main campus. This property is currently for sale, and we are considering several offers. Current residents will be able to continue living at Carroll Park throughout this academic year, at least, and hopefully beyond. 

In the coming months, trustees and the administration will work collaboratively to identify other pieces of land surrounding the main campus that could be sold. This strategic approach, involving trustees and the administration, will allow us to invest more resources in that which is core to our mission, providing theological education to the next generation of pastors, missionaries, and church leaders.

Let me express my gratitude to the Board of Trustees for placing your confidence in Dr. Hawkins and me to provide guidance for Southwestern Seminary during this interim period. 

I appreciate Joe Crider’s thoughtful devotion this morning. I especially appreciate us singing together, “O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.” Such a timely and fitting word for us today.

For more than 300 years ago, Isaac Watts penned these wonderful words to one of his greatest hymns. As the seminary community sang this hymn in our first campus prayer gathering on Oct. 3, we genuinely want to express once again, that this is our help. This is the source of our hope. We look only to God during these days. Since 1908, Southwesterners, for more than eleven decades, have recognized the Lord God as our help and our hope.

We are grateful to God for those who have led, those who have taught, and those who have served and shaped Southwestern through the years. For B. H. Carroll’s vision, for L. R. Scarborough’s leadership, for Roy Fish’s evangelistic zeal, for Floy Barnard’s commitment to students, for Curtis Vaughan’s commitment to the study of Scriptures, for James Leo Garrett’s scholarship, for Cal Guy’s heart for the nations, and so many others who have invested much in the Southwestern community, we are truly and immensely thankful.

Those who currently serve at Southwestern Seminary are committed to reclaiming and advancing the best of this distinctive Southwestern heritage. From this campus in Fort Worth, men and women have been prepared to serve the Lord in every portion of the world. We long to see the Lord raise up a new generation who will serve as instruments of grace to bring renewal to the churches, and extend the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Southwestern Seminary is facing serious financial challenges—challenges that have been building in recent months, but which also reflect multi-faceted matters covering a number of years. Unfortunately, there have been some confusing statements made about the state of the seminary. Southwestern is not in a crisis, but our challenges could quickly escalate to a crisis if we do not aggressively move to address them. Strategic efforts to address these matters have already begun, but there remains much work for us to do. We are starting with a budget restructuring to reduce operational and personnel expenses by at least ten percent, approximately $3.6 million. Primary reductions will come in the area of institutional support, looking at programming reductions before looking at any personnel areas, although all areas of the institution will be affected. We all need to understand that this process will take time, several phases, but we remain hopeful regarding the long-term future of Southwestern. 

We find ourselves at this moment seeking to discern and distinguish between those things that are imperative, those things that are important, and those things that are good. During this season, the seminary will work diligently to carry out those things which are imperative to advance the institutional mission, seeking to do so with excellence in a God-honoring way. The seminary will prioritize and evaluate those things which are important, seeking to make a wise decision regarding initiatives and programs that can and should be done at this time. We will, however, need to push the pause button on several matters in the months ahead.

We’re grateful today for the board’s guidance of this interim administration. We believe the board is leaving today well-informed to make wise decisions for the years ahead.

Thank you for hearing and affirming our plans for budgetary and organizational restructuring, which we have begun to implement along with the actions you have taken in this meeting. In the coming weeks, we will diligently monitor these matters and will seek to make all appropriate adjustments to steward well the resources to which this institution has been entrusted. 

The campus is giving its full attention to care for students, to the importance of prayer. Our theme verse for this season is Psalm 90:17, as you have heard: “May the kindness and the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm the work of our hands.” The grace-filled care and instruction of students remains a high priority for everyone on this campus. Multiple prayer gatherings have begun, even one yesterday while we were in our work session, gatherings that include faculty, staff, and students, recognizing our total dependence upon the Lord at this time. 

Already, we are celebrating God’s provision through the response from friends of Southwestern who are helping us at this time. The seminary community is praying not only for the Lord’s provision and favor, but for genuine renewal to come to the Southwestern campus. Our prayers include requests for wisdom for board members, administrators, and campus leaders. Indeed, we are joining together to trust that the Lord, that in His mercy, He will graciously provide for Southwestern in the days to come. 

We would ask for Southern Baptists around the country to join us in offering faithful prayers for Southwestern as well as sharing financial gifts with the seminary to ensure that the biblically faithful and gospel-centered mission of Southwestern Seminary will be advanced not only in the short term, but also in the years to come for the glory of God.

One key aspect of our future-directed efforts calls for us to look back at the best of Southwestern’s past, which has been characterized by innovation with the first evangelism professor and program in the country, the first Christian education program in the country, and the first church music program. Those pioneering strategies that shaped this seminary in the last century must again become the guiding spirit as we look to the future with a spirit of innovation, creativity, and hopefulness.

We’re excited to announce today three new administrative appointments to help guide us toward that preferred future. Michele Smith will serve as interim vice president for financial services, Matt Queen will serve as interim provost and Chris Shirley assumes the role of dean of the Terry school.

We leave here this morning trusting the Lord to unite the Southwestern family so that with one mind and one heart we can take steps together to advance the Southwestern mission. For the churches, alumni, and friends who have stood with Southwestern through the years, we are indeed thankful. We ask you to join with us one more time as we seek to “tell the generations following” of God’s faithfulness to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

And, with Isaac Watts, we pray that our loving and covenant-keeping God, who is our help and our hope, will “still be our guard while troubles last, and our hope for our eternal home.”