SEBTS receives $1.25M grant from Lilly Endowment
By Mary Asta Halvorsen/SEBTS
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP) – Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. in support of the Great Commission Preaching Initiative at Southeastern’s Center for Preaching and Pastoral Leadership (CPPL).
The effort is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to foster and support preaching that better inspires, encourages and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully. SEBTS is one of 142 organizations that are receiving grants through the Compelling Preaching Initiative.
“The Center for Preaching and Pastoral Leadership exists to equip and encourage pastors who have the incredible privilege of proclaiming God’s Word,” said Chuck Lawless, Southeastern’s vice president for spiritual formation and ministry centers and director of the CPPL. “Through the generosity of the Lilly Endowment, we are excited to walk beside these pastors as we look at the preacher’s character, commission, context, communication and cultivation over the next five years. For pastors in the trenches and pastors in training, we want to be a ‘go to’ resource.”
The CPPL’s Great Commission Preaching Initiative seeks to serve and equip pastors in five specific areas:
- Research seeking to learn from current preachers and study current issues
- An annual, two-day Great Commission preaching conference
- Regular on-campus workshops dedicated to training participants in Christ-centered expository preaching
- Cohorts and coaching from Southeastern professors
- Related content created for journal articles and the CPPL blog and podcast
The CPPL’s first Engaging Exposition Preaching Conference has already been set for Sept. 16-17 this year. It will focus on the first theme of the Great Commission Preaching Initiative: the preacher’s character. To learn more about the conference and its speakers, visit the website here.
SBTS adds Colin McCulloch to faculty, strengthens biblical counseling program
By Travis Hearne/SBTS
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the appointment of Colin McCulloch as Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling and Practical Theology. The biblical counseling program has continued to grow because students see it as a vital tool for applying Scripture to the complex problems people face. McCulloch joins the Southern Seminary faculty with a rich background in pastoral care, counseling, and theological education, bringing both academic excellence and practical ministry experience to his new role.
“Colin McCulloch is truly and faithfully committed to biblical counseling and is animated by the joy of seeing those convictions and skills applied in personal counsel and learned by a new generation of students,” said SBTS President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. “I am very thankful he has joined us at this strategic time.”
Jeremy Pierre, biblical counseling professor and Dean of the Billy Graham School, is excited to welcome McCulloch to the faculty.
“Dr. McCulloch is the right kind of biblical counselor—deeply committed to God’s Word and people,” Pierre said. “He is willing to face complexity in people’s troubles with an unshakeable confidence in Scripture to convey the love of God to them. Students will love the precision of his teaching and the compassion of his approach. I am confident that Dr. McCulloch will prove to be a key contributor not only at Southern Seminary but beyond in the field of biblical counseling and practical theology.”
“Southern Seminary has been proven to be a place where gospel ministers can go to receive an education that is not only theologically robust but also eminently practical,” McCulloch said. “I look forward to the opportunity to equip students to bring biblical truth to bear on every aspect of human experience. I have seen firsthand and benefited personally from the work that God is doing here to raise up a new generation of faithful men and women to labor in his church and to take the gospel to a lost and dying world. I’m thankful for the privilege to play a small part in contributing to this work.”
McCulloch earned his M.Div. (2016), ThM (2022), and PhD (2022) from Southern Seminary. He serves as Associate Pastor at Farmdale Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and as a counselor at the Center for Biblical Living. McCulloch has also served in multiple academic roles and taught as an Adjunct Professor at Boyce College since 2021.
For more information about the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and its programs, please visit sbts.edu
