President Adam W. Greenway preaches during inaugural Texas Baptist College chapel

During the inaugural Texas Baptist College (TBC) chapel service, September 29, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and TBC President Adam W. Greenway challenged students to be people of integrity before a watching world.

Although TBC students and faculty participate in the twice-weekly, seminary-wide chapel services, the first-ever chapel service for the college allowed for a special time of worship and was held in the historic Truett Auditorium in the B.H. Carroll Memorial Building on campus. Plans are to hold several such services each semester.

During the chapel service, Greenway remarked on the significance of gathering in Truett Auditorium, where the Southwestern Seminary community has previously gathered for many years during the seminary’s history.

Greenway, who is a 2002 Master of Divinity graduate from Southwestern Seminary, recalled his first days on campus and experiencing chapel where he was first “pronounced a Southwesterner.”

“I think it is significant that the first TBC chapel is being held here and I pray that this semester and in years to come, this space will be a sacred space for you, that you will encounter the presence of God here, that the Lord will speak to you here,” Greenway said. “Seminary Hill is a marvelous gift. The opportunity to do theological education in the context of community is very significant.”

Prior to the chapel message, Benjamin M. Skaug, TBC dean, noted the significance of the special chapel service.

“I want to welcome you to our inaugural TBC chapel address, not just in 2021, but the first ever,” Skaug said. “Those of you from Texas Baptist College and also from our seminary, thank you for supporting us. We are very proud to be the undergraduate institution of Southwestern Seminary.”

Greenway preached from John 5, the story of Jesus’s healing of a disabled man during the Sabbath by saying, “get up, pick up your mat and walk.”

“The word of Christ … changes everything,” said Greenway.

“All of Scripture is the Word of Christ,” Greenway added. “The inspiration of Scripture is a work of the Spirit, executed by the Father and the Son, and our understanding of the doctrine of Scripture must be a trinitarian understanding.”

In the ensuing verses, Greenway asserted that the response of the Jews to the healed man was “haunting” to read. “If anybody should have known what was up, it should’ve been the Jews,” said Greenway.

Rather, Greenway said, “in that moment, they missed it and missed it horrendously.”

“The Jews focused upon the mat, the rule, the Sabbath,” Greenway said, regarding the breaking of the Sabbath. “The man focused upon the healing, the life change, the deliverance.”

The failure of the Jews to recognize Jesus for who He was should be a warning to Christians, Greenway said. The current moment in the culture and the church, he added, demands one careful consideration: “we had better decide if we’re going to end up looking like the Jews or like Jesus.”

In a final word of encouragement, Greenway reminded students that TBC is an institution committed to training them to be people who are “mighty” in the Scriptures, theology, and doctrine.

“To you, the students at Texas Baptist College, you are being given a gift that so much of the majority of the world only wishes they could have, and that is an opportunity to have an undergraduate education at an institution that is unapologetically committed to a high view of Scripture, to confessional fidelity, to the Great Commission, and to cooperation,” Greenway said.

Greenway cautioned students not to miss the work and teachings of Christ, like those in the passage, but to “do the right thing,” no matter the cost.

“Doing what’s right may not always be the easy thing, but Christ never called us to always do the easy thing,” Greenway said. “He called us to do the right thing. There is never a wrong time to do the right thing. There is never a right time to do the wrong thing.”

The next TBC chapel will be held October 27 in Truett Auditorium in the Memorial Building at 10 a.m., with speaker Justin Wainscott, assistant professor of Christian ministry and director of discipleship and campus ministries.