Last week, Gateway Seminary honored us with a Celebration of Service event. It was a humbling moment for us, commemorating twenty years of meaningful service with the Gateway family. The kind words, personal tributes, and unexpected gifts created precious memories to cherish as we move into our next demanding ministry role. Thank you to everyone who helped organize this event. One employee on the planning team, who recently resigned to move to another state, stayed through the day of the event to help make it happen. Her sacrificial service typifies what makes Gateway so remarkable. We walked ..read more

Gateway Seminary has selected Dr. Adam Groza as our eighth president. He will take office next month and lead us into the future. His selection now coincides, still to my surprise, with me leaving Gateway to become the president of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. One of my regrets is not being able to stay as closely connected to Gateway as we pursue the adventure of moving forward together. My anticipation of such a positive future rest on my confidence in God, but also in my delight with Dr. Groza’s selection. Other media reports and news releases will explain ..read more

In a recent article, “The True Cost of the Churchgoing Bust,” Derek Thompson wrote, “As an agnostic, I have spent most of my life thinking about the decline of faith in America in mostly positive terms…. Only in the past few years have I come around to a different view. Maybe religion, for all of its faults, works a bit like a retaining wall to hold back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism.” Thompson later added, “Organized religion provided many things at once: not only a connection to the divine, but also a historical narrative of identity, a set of rituals to organize ..read more

Ten years ago this week, our seminary experienced the monumental announcement of the sale of its property in the San Francisco Bay Area, its move to Southern California, and plans to change its name to Gateway Seminary. The announcement thrust our seminary into a season of transition, which shaped us personally and professionally. All of us who lived through the experience can identify remarkable ways our faith was stretched, our relationships deepened, and our commitment to our mission was sharpened. That last result, clarifying our mission and enhancing our commitment to it, is the longest l ..read more

Being kind is not my strength. In forty years of public ministry, it’s hard to remember anyone ever complimenting me for being kind. My wife normally gets those accolades! However, kindness is a Christian virtue – a part of God’s character we are mandated to emulate. It’s definitely a trait for me to work on. The Bible calls on us to “consider God’s kindness” (Rom. 11:22), describes Jesus’s incarnational presence as “the kindness of God” (Tit. 3:4), and reminds us “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” (Rom. 2:4). Kindness is listed as a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) and an a ..read more

Gateway Seminary is experiencing significant transition. We are preparing for a new president, implementing a hand-off model of leadership change, and saying goodbye to a long-time leader. My unexpected candidacy to be the president of the SBC Executive Committee has further complicated the process. Many organizations equate transition with turmoil. Not Gateway. During this transition, our spring 2024 enrollment went up compared to spring 2023. During this time frame, new faculty and senior staff have joined our team – without knowing who their new president will be. We are also in the process ..read more

Many years ago, when I stepped out of pastoral ministry into executive leadership, I was overwhelmed and knew I would not survive without spiritual support. I decided to write a column in the Northwest Baptist Witness asking for people who were already praying for me to form a prayer team. Note the careful qualifier – people who were already praying for me. To my surprise and delight, about 30 people responded – including one touching letter from Cal Poncho, Sr. He was an octogenarian who lived on the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon. In his hand-written letter, in the shaky script o ..read more

Hearing Dr. Brian Kennedy, declaring truth with a Bible in his hand, is an exquisite pleasure. He consistently and seriously communicates biblical truth, with a street-wise demeaner and practical sense that connects with listeners from every background. For me, his pastoral preaching has been life-giving and spiritually sustaining. Dr. Kennedy is the senior pastor of Mt. Zion Church of Ontario, California. When we moved to Ontario, I was running on fumes – burned to a crisp by the multi-year demands of moving and rebranding the seminary. The stressors were significant – from the protesters in ..read more

Our friend and colleague, Dr. Rhonda Kelley, passed away recently after battling cancer for the past few years. Rhonda was the wife of Dr. Chuck Kelley, former President of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. She was an iconic leader, impacting millions of women through her work editing The Women’s Study Bible and other published material that will carry her influence forward through another generation. But for Ann and me, her impact was more personal. Rhonda was the same person every time, in every circumstance, every time we connected for more than twenty years. She was a Christian—a ..read more

Every once in a while you stumble across something that is simultaneously simple and extremely impactful; something that alters the way you do things beyond what you would ever expect.  Several years ago I had just such an occurrence. I had recently started a new Bible reading plan which had me reading through each book of the New Testament 5 times in a row while also reading 5 chapters each day. This provided me with an excellent opportunity to dive deep into the New Testament and grasp the structure of each book. However, it also meant that I was reading each book for several days, or w ..read more