Southwestern Seminary announces D6 Family Ministry Journal partnership
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is partnering with D6 Family Ministry to become the named sponsor of the D6 Family Ministry Journal, beginning with the 2023 volume, and family ministry author and practitioner Jonathan Williams has been appointed managing editor, seminary officials announced today.
The publication will now be known as the Southwestern D6 Family Ministry Journal. Randall House and D6 Family Ministry, through their Randall House Academic imprint, established the academic journal in 2016, to provide peer-reviewed academic articles, practitioner essays, and book reviews to support the thinking and practices of parenting in Christian homes, churches, and parachurch family ministries.
“The Terry School of Educational Ministries is excited to partner with D6 Family Ministry in the publication of the Southwestern D6 Family Ministry Journal,” said Michael S. Wilder, dean of the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries at Southwestern Seminary. “We believe academic and church leaders must have access to the best understandings and research related to family discipleship, which the journal will provide. This partnership demonstrates Southwestern’s strong commitment to equipping discipleship leaders for the local church.”
Ron Hunter, CEO of Randall House and D6 Family Ministry, explained that the journal provides a generational discipleship niche for pastors and scholars. He said churches from every denomination grapple with the chronic issues of both losing their teenagers and an aging congregation.
“By combining the talents and resources of two leading organizations—Southwestern Seminary, a leading seminary for family ministry, along with Randall House’s D6 Family Ministry mission of ‘helping you build believers through church and home’—we will deliver principled insights for discipleship in higher education as well as the church and home,” Hunter said. “Our team and advisory board have already benefited from the insights and leadership of Dr. Jonathan Williams, the new managing editor. By working with Southwestern Seminary, our goals for the future will be to publish volumes of the journal that contribute to solving the glaring discipleship needs within local churches.”
Williams, an adjunct professor who teaches in the area of family ministry in the Terry School who earned Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Divinity degrees from the Fort Worth-based institution, is the founder and executive director of Gospel Family Ministries, a Fort Worth-based organization that began in 2014 to help strengthen family ministries in the local church and cultivate family ministry in the home. He previously served as the pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, for a decade. Additionally, Williams has authored A Practical Theology of Family Worship: Richard Baxter’s Timeless Encouragement for Today’s Home and Gospel Family: Cultivating Family Discipleship, Family Worship & Family Missions.
“Dr. Williams embodies both academic expertise and church ministry excellence,” Wilder said. “His recent books are perfect examples of his desire to influence the church with the very best of the academe. We are confident that as Williams collaborates with the journal’s editorial board, the Southwestern D6 Family Ministry Journal will be the premier publication in this field of study.”
In addition to Williams’ leadership, Chris Shirley, associate dean of the Terry School and professor of educational ministries, will serve as the chairman of the journal editorial board. Shirley, who holds the Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in Religious Education degrees from Southwestern Seminary, will provide leadership to the board that includes professors and pastors representing a variety of seminaries and churches.
The Southwestern D6 Family Ministry Journal publishes scholarly research articles for professors and students who are committed to the development of the next generation of Christian ministers and community leaders, as well as those who are already serving in local church and parachurch settings. The journal seeks to provide rigorous and scholarly thinking through articles and essays that reflect on God’s use of generational, primarily paternal and maternal, influences in the lives of children as evidenced in Scripture while simultaneously exploring the integration and application of the relationship between the church and home. Additionally, readers will find book reviews on the latest family ministry and discipleship categories. Articles and essays reflect content that supports the teaching of generational approaches for ministry leaders to equip parents at church and home, as well as championing methodologies and cultures of Christian education at colleges and seminaries that prepare and retain children and young adults in the development of a Christian lifestyle and Christian leadership skills.
The journal’s editorial board has issued a call for papers centered around the theme of “Equipping the Next Generation with a Biblical Worldview” for the 2023 volume of the journal. Submissions should focus on addressing current issues related to family ministry and generational discipleship. Submitted peer-reviewed papers should maintain a word count between 3,000 and 5,000 words and practitioner articles should not exceed 1,000 words. Article submissions are due by June 3, 2022, to journal.editor@d6family.com.
