Students exhorted to be ‘living sacrifices’
President of Southwestern Seminary Paige Patterson welcomed new and returning students and faculty to the fall semester by reminding them of the implications of their decision to serve the Lord. “To serve the Lord means that you’re going to give yourself [to Him],” he explained.
“You are not going to pursue income; that’s going to become relatively unimportant to you. You are not going to pursue a degree; I hope you get one, but it’s really not about that, is it? It’s not about a career; you don’t have a career. If you’ve chosen to come here, you’ve given up on a career, and instead, you have a ministry. You become a slave unto God, to serve Him and Him alone in a very special and unique way.”
Patterson derived this message from Romans 12:1-2, which he preached during Southwestern’s fall convocation service, Aug. 25. Exhorting those assembled in MacGorman Chapel to offer themselves as “living sacrifices,” Patterson noted that two specific commands accompany this directive in Scripture.
First, believers are commanded to no longer be conformed to this world, and second, they are commanded to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. Crucially, Patterson said, these two commands leave believers with a choice.
“You cannot be half of one and half of the other,” he explained. “You are either going to be schematized (conformed) according to the spirit of this age, or else you’re going to be metamorphosed (transformed) by the Spirit of God. There is no halfway.
“I want you on this first day in chapel to get it in your mind and heart that you cannot be part of both. … You may deceive a number of people into thinking you’re one when you’re actually the other, but be sure your sins will find you out. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. And so you must be one or the other.”
Patterson concluded with an invitation, and five students came forward in response to a call to salvation, recommitment or missions. Several faculty members were stationed at the front of the chapel to receive them, and they kneeled at the altar with them in prayer. As Patterson noted, “Every one of our faculty is an evangelist.”
In addition to Patterson’s sermon, the convocation service featured two other significant events. First, Southwestern’s Global Theological Innovation (GTI) formalized its partnership with Word of Life Argentina.
GTI partners with international seminaries and Champion Churches in order to enrich the seminaries’ theological programs. Launched in 2012, GTI has nearly 100 partnerships with seminaries around the world, and the signing of the agreement with Word of Life Argentina added one more to the list.
“Word of Life Argentina is one of the most amazing single subjects that I know anything about,” Patterson said during the signing. “It is a work of the blessing of God and of the commitment of some very godly men and women that is beyond anything I can talk about successfully. When you go there to the campus—some hour and 15 minutes south of Buenos Aires—just the minute you drive on it, you are cognizant of the fact that you have come to holy ground.”
Representing the Argentine seminary were Joe Jordan, executive director of Word of Life International, and Dan Nuesch, director of Word of Life Argentina. Following the signing, Jordan thanked Southwestern for the partnership. “We count this as an honor,” he said, “and we seek to hold forth the Word of Life around the world.”
The service’s final event was the welcoming of newly appointed and elected faculty. These included Brandon Kiesling, instructor in evangelism; Hongyi Yang, assistant professor of systematic theology and director of the Mandarin Translation Project for the Master of Theological Studies program; Mark A. Taylor, professor of conducting; Timothy Deahl, dean of the Southwestern Center for Extension Education and professor of Old Testament; Justin Buchanan, assistant professor of student ministry; Robert Lopez, professor of humanities; and D. Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the School of Theology and professor of theology.
