Southwestern community unites in prayer during trustee meeting

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary community, including faculty, staff, students, and Board of Trustees members on campus for their fall meeting, gathered to pray for the seminary on Oct. 21 during the fall Day of Prayer.

The event began in MacGorman Chapel, where participants first gathered to fellowship, pray, and worship corporately. They then dispersed to the field in front of the Naylor Student Center, where tables representing schools and departments of the seminary, from the Campus Police to the Chinese Language Programs, provided information on how to pray more specifically for those areas of Southwestern.

Sylvana Airan, the trustee from Kansas-Nebraska, expressed her joy at the sight of all the students participating in the Day of Prayer.

“To me, it’s interesting to see how many students are coming around and praying,” Airan said. “They’re not saying, ‘Let’s spend the day inside or just sleep in’… . They’re here, they’re praying. That’s very, very encouraging just to walk around and watch.”

Sarah Jo Wright is a current student pursuing her Master of Divinity with a concentration in chaplaincy ministry. Though she attends classes remotely from her home in Ohio as she works full-time and cares for her family, a little over a year ago she felt compelled to get involved with a women’s Bible study taking place on campus.

“I really, as an online student, craved connection with the seminary, and I thought it would be great, but I’m online,” Wright explained. “I said, ‘I would love to participate, but I live in Ohio. Would you be able to do a Zoom connection so that I could participate somehow?’”

The members of the group were happy to oblige, and that’s how she came to know Michelle Albert, a master’s student pursuing her degree in biblical counseling, Kristen Priddy, a master’s student in missions, and Melena Monroe, director of prayer ministries at Southwestern and daughter of former faculty member and prayer warrior T. W. Hunt.

“We got to be really good friends,” Wright recounted. “If too many people couldn’t come to do the actual Bible study part, we just sat there and prayed with each other, which is a really sweet thing.”

Wright was pleased with the opportunity to finally be on campus participating in the Day of Prayer over Southwestern, taking special delight in being with her virtual peers in the real world and relishing in the personal growth she found in her own prayer life having seen the effects of it on the campus.

“One of the things that is changing in me is the practice of prayer, just praying in a different way, seeing the significance of the spiritual warfare,” Wright said. “… I love the idea of being able to walk across the campus and pray for the faculty and have the faculty pray for me. Just that connection between faculty and staff and students is really heartening.”

Trustee members said the Day of Prayer was a reminder of their goal during the week’s Board meetings.

“I’m really pleased that while we’re having the Board of Trustees meeting that we’re having this meeting on prayer,” said Steve Charles (‘85), a trustee from New York. “I think it was just perfect timing for us to be able to the focus on the heartbeat of what we’re doing.”

Airan said she is excited to be on campus, noting its importance to her as being its own mission field, something she realized shortly after becoming a board member in 2024.

“The students here are the mission field,” Airan said. Noting the significant number of international students, she noted they are a direct connection to the rest of the world that needs to be reached with the Gospel.

James Choi (’08), the trustee representing the Maryland-Delaware-DC area, was encouraged by the wide mix of students, professors, and Board members participating in the day together. He spoke of his enthusiasm for the forward-facing work to come when the Board met.

“I think the main thing is just laboring together for the positive trajectory that the Lord has put this school on,” Choi said. “I’m just encouraged, thankful to serve and continue to help that process.”

Following the time of prayer, a Q&A prayer panel was held in the Naylor Student Center led by Coleman Ford, assistant professor of humanities, Richard Ross, senior professor of student ministry, and Dean Sieberhagen, dean of the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions.

At the conclusion of the trustee meeting held Oct. 22, Chairman Bob Brown, trustee from Tennessee, remarked that the Day of Prayer with the seminary community was a “glorious time” and that God’s blessings to Southwestern in recent years is attributable to the renewed focus of prayer at the institution as led by President David S. Dockery. After inviting several trustees to pray for the institution as they felt led, Brown offered a final prayer of thanksgiving for God’s work at Southwestern.