[The Baptist Blogger] The following email just went out to the Southwestern Community.
Dear Friends of Southwestern,
Thank you for your continued prayers and support of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). Because of the grace and purposes of God, the prayers and support of so many like you, and the hard work of our seminary leadership, the seminary is moving forward to continue fulfilling the core mission of training men and women for ministry service and leadership. Thankfully, God has provided our seminary with superb and timely leadership in our Interim President, Dr. Bingham. God has also enabled our board of trustees to come together in unity for the sake of supporting the continued fulfillment of SWBTS’s core mission.
As you likely know, the full board of trustees recently ratified the actions of the executive committee taken since the May 22, 2018 full board meeting. Thirty of the thirty-four trustees voted for this ratification, and every trustee stands unified in a desire to move forward in support of the seminary and the fulfillment of its core mission. We hope and pray that you will be able to join us in that decision to continue our united support of our seminary.
Some of you may have additional questions regarding the full board’s ratification of the actions of the executive committee. Those are important matters, particularly as it relates to Dr. Patterson’s transition from SWBTS. As much as we strive to provide the highest possible level of clarity in all of our board decisions, the challenges of recent circumstances required some degree of confidentiality. Even with the necessary confidentiality, we hope that the following general information related to the decision to ratify the actions of the executive committee might offer a better understanding of some of the steps our board has taken.
Foremost, despite our present differences, the board of trustees is grateful for both Dr. and Mrs. Patterson’s service to SWBTS over the last fifteen years. We, as have all Southern Baptists, benefited from the Pattersons’ ministry over these many years. We are grateful for his longstanding dedication and commitment to serve the Southern Baptist Convention in its mission to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations by leading the way for the conservative resurgence. We have no doubt that Dr. and Mrs. Patterson will move forward and find opportunities to faithfully serve the Lord and continue to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Further, we are grateful that Dr. Patterson and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary agreed to resolve their dispute over certain documents from Dr. Patterson’s tenure at that seminary.
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[Editor’s Note: This article was written by and posted first at The Baptist Blogger.]
