Southwestern community gathers for prayer during board of trustees meeting

Members of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s board of trustees gathered with faculty, students, and staff around the fountain in the MacGorman Chapel on Oct. 22 to worship and pray before moving outdoors to continue participating in a campus prayer walk.

Participants walked down a row of tables, representing the various schools, departments, and programs of the institution, including areas such as Admissions, Facilities, the World Missions Center, and many others. Representatives from those areas manned the tables as students, trustees, and faculty alike spoke with them, heard their prayer requests for their work, and joined together in prayer.

The 2024 Campus Prayer Walk begins inside the MacGorman Chapel.

Trustees expressed gratitude for the opportunity to be involved in the event and stressed the importance of corporate prayer.

“It’s amazing to walk in, to sit and to see a list of things that people, that the students have been praying for us, that the faculty has been praying for us, that Dr. Dockery has had us upon his heart,” trustee Nancy Rivera said. “So, we know that we have a job to do, more work to do here, but to know that it’s much more than just a job, to know that we’ve been prayed for and to know that that’s what it means here. It’s given me so much joy to be a part of it.”

Angela Duncan, trustee secretary, said praying with and for the faculty and students served as a reminder of the individuals on campus their work on the board impacts, but also that prayer is an even more crucial service.

“The most important thing we can do as trustees is pray for this place and to pray for the decisions being made, and to pray for our leadership,” Duncan said. “It was just not even a question that we would participate in this and encourage the students, and to have the chance to interact with and pray for the students.”

Trustees, faculty, and students gather to pray during the 2024 Prayer Walk.

Board Chairman Jonathan Richard was delighted to be at the prayer walk, fellowshipping with and praying for the students they as the board of trustees are striving to support.

“That’s the exciting part being out here, is just being able to connect with them and find out how we can support them and better engage with them and hear their concerns and to know that they’re praying for us,” Richard said of the event that connected the trustees with the students in a different way. “Even though they may not quite understand what we do or why we do it, or how it all comes about, just that they’re praying for us is a huge benefit to us, because we need all the prayer we can get.”

Joshua Grega, one of the newest board members, said the prayer walk served to redirect his focus, from the budgets and other board items they frequently make decisions on, to their reliance on God

“It’s very encouraging to center ourselves, not around man’s ideas, first and foremost, but around God’s and leaning into him,” Grega said. “… Ultimately, the prayer walk is a thing that embodies the sole source of our sustainability, and that’s in God.”

Trustees, faculty, and students gather to pray during the 2024 Prayer Walk.

Traditionally, this event has been a day of prayer held in the chapel, but this year Director of Prayer Initiatives Melana Monroe and Vice President for Institutional Relations Chandler Snyder decided to combine it with a prayer walk event. Snyder said this gave the trustees an opportunity to be more purposefully involved and to see the community.

Following the prayer walk, Richard Ross, senior professor of student ministry, led a prayer workshop in the Naylor Student Center, where two books on prayer were gifted to those who attended.

For the article on the trustee meeting, visit here.