Dockery identifies ‘hopeful markers’ following election as president

In remarks to the Board of Trustees following his unanimous election as the tenth president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on April 19, David S. Dockery said he was “thankful for the many hopeful markers that we have seen in recent days.”

The election of Dockery, who was named interim president of the 115-year-old Fort Worth-based institution on Sept. 27, 2022, following the resignation of Adam W. Greenway, was met with a standing ovation by the Board of Trustees and guests during the plenary session of its spring meeting.

Later in the day, in a regularly scheduled faculty meeting, Malcolm B. Yarnell III, research professor of theology, offered a motion affirming Dockery’s election as president, and O.S. Hawkins’s election as chancellor. With unanimous affirmation, accompanied by a standing ovation and applause, the faculty confirmed that “The Faculty of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary affirm wholeheartedly the Trustee elections of David S. Dockery as President and O.S. Hawkins as Chancellor.”

Following the faculty meeting, a campus-wide all-staff meeting also greeted the new president with a standing ovation.

Dockery told trustees, “I’m honored to accept the election of this board to serve as the 10th president of this institution, and with God’s help, or however long He gives us to serve, I pledge to serve faithfully. I pledge to serve with all my heart, wholeheartedly, for the good of this place that has been so good to so many, that has benefited the church and the Southern Baptist Convention for 115 years and with God’s help will prepare the way for it to last another 115 years or until our Lord Jesus Christ returns.”

Southwestern Seminary trustees pray for David S. Dockery the evening before he was elected 10th president on April 19.

Identifying the first of the “hopeful markers,” Dockery said the faculty of Southwestern Seminary and Texas Baptist College “has recommitted itself not only to our work but recommitted themselves one to another.” Dockery said the recommitment of faculty is “largely because” of the academic leadership of Matt Queen, interim provost and vice president for academic administration, and the five deans of the seminary’s four graduate schools and undergraduate college. Dockery added the academic leadership service has been “exemplary” while simultaneously “rekindl[ing] the faculty and their calling to this place.”

Dockery said he was also “grateful for the dedication of many staff across the campus who give of themselves tirelessly with little fanfare, often without any recognition, but they do so for the glory of God and for the good of others here.”

Saying “we’re encouraged” by the increase in spring enrollment numbers and by the number of credit hours that have been taught, Dockery said the combination of the two “represents lives that are being transformed and prepared for ministry.”

Dockery added that he gives “thanks” for “unrestricted giving that has increased significantly over the past seven months compared to the same seven-month period over the past two years.”

A “strong” Preview Day, held March 31, was another marker Dockery noted, commending the work of Chandler Snyder, interim vice president for enrollment and student services and acting dean of students, and Armando Hernandez, director of admissions. Dockery said the Preview Day participants are “prospects for the summer and a hopeful fall enrollment.”

The opening of Mary’s House, a two-apartment home for missionaries serving on stateside assignment with the International Mission Board (IMB) that opened in January, and the “new, improved relationship with the IMB through that work,” was the sixth marker cited by Dockery. In addition to crediting Woman’s Mission Union of Texas that provided the funding for the restoration of the campus building that houses Mary’s House, Dockery credited Joey Cruse, director of facilities, and his team that “worked so hard to bring that house together.” Dockery also said he was “thankful for the vision” of John Massey, dean of the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, Ian Buntain, director of the World Missions Center, and Queen. Dockery added that Mary’s House “will be a wonderful service to missionaries on this campus for decades to come.”

Dockery said the “wonderful spring chapels have modeled and mirrored … congregational preaching grounded in holy Scripture.” The bi-weekly sermons preached during the institution’s spring chapels have focused on the New Testament epistle of Philippians. Dockery said the sermons have been “challenging us as a community to live joyfully, to live in unity, to live with humility, and to work together toward our shared calling.”

Another marker, the commitment to prayer, has “been the most important marker of renewal,” Dockery said. He noted that each Monday morning, and before chapel on Tuesdays and Thursdays, “for over six months we have gathered on this campus asking God to visit this place once again.” Dockery, who claimed Psalm 90:17 as the institution’s verse for the academic year following his appointment to the interim leadership role in September, said the campus is not only continuing to pray the verse, but is also “praying for different facets of our work” while also “recognizing our total dependence on God and without prayer, without a prayerful dependence, we don’t have an opportunity with the significant challenges that we face, the difficulties of this moment.”

Dockery called for the Southwestern community to be characterized by the bowed head and the bowed knee for the years to come.

Dockery said, “We rejoice that God has given us talented people to create a new website to tell our story,” as well as a “new marketing plan that is coordinated carefully with the new institutional plan” that calls for Southwestern Seminary “to be a Great Commandment, Great Commission institution that equips men and women to carry out our mission.”

While noting “challenges” facing the institution are “great,” including finances, space utilization, and other matters, Dockery said the board and administration “together” address the “important questions for us going forward … hand-in-hand, standing shoulder-to-shoulder” noting the example of Paul in Philippians 1:27-30.

Dockery said this is done “with great confidence, not just in the wonderful Southwestern heritage, not just in the wonderful people that are here at this time, not just in the Southwestern family that spreads across generations. We do so ultimately with confidence in our great God, who is a source of all that is good and the source of every blessing, and the one in whom we have hope for the days to come.”