SWBTS students share Gospel, learn evangelism lessons through Crossover
By Ashley Allen/SWBTS
INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – Trying to share the Gospel with a 73-year-old man who was “rude,” reminded Joo*, a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Master of Divinity student from East Asia, how God “patiently waited” for her when she came to Christ about seven years ago.
Joo recalled the man told the team to stop talking about Jesus before he walked away. She said when she faced his rejection, she thought about her personal journey and how God “used different people to reach my life.”
Joo was one of 22 Southwestern students and friends who participated in Crossover, an evangelistic outreach the week before the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Indianapolis June 3-7. The Southwestern students spent each morning in classroom instruction alongside other students from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, before they would disperse in the afternoons to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through door-to-door evangelism in groups of three to four people.
Through Thursday, the Southwestern team saw 13 salvations, shared the Gospel 126 times and engaged 342 people in conversation.
Carl J. Bradford, dean of Texas Baptist College and assistant professor of evangelism, has led Southwestern’s Crossover teams since 2018. He said Crossover “provides opportunities for further cooperation within our convention.”
“Students partner with churches and NAMB to engage the surrounding community of the SBC’s annual meeting of that particular year through door-to-door evangelism,” Bradford said. “It’s fulfilling the Great Commission together.”
Bradford said during the week of sharing the Gospel in Indianapolis, students’ hearts “broke” for the lost, which resulted in “the students embrac[ing] the uncomfortableness of evangelizing with strangers.”
June Honeycutt, wife of Roy Honeycutt, dies
By Jacob Percy/SBTS
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — June Honeycutt, wife of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s eighth president, Roy Honeycutt, died Saturday, June 8, surrounded by her family. She was 96. She served alongside her husband as SBTS president’s wife from 1982-1993.
“June Honeycutt dearly loved her husband … and she dearly loved Southern Seminary, its faculty, and its students,” said Albert Mohler, current SBTS president, in a statement. “During the years that Dr. Honeycutt was president, June was an ever-present and encouraging force on the campus. She was known for her Southern graciousness, her incredible kindness, and her ever-present smile. It was impossible to think of Dr. Roy Honeycutt as president without thinking of June at his side, and she was a great gift to Southern Seminary in terms of relationships and joy. We are thankful for her influence and for the many contributions she made to Southern Seminary during the years she served as the president’s wife. She was unfailingly kind and gracious to me and to Mary, and it was a great honor for us to know her and to honor her for her service to Southern Seminary for so many years.”
Mary Mohler said: “Mrs. June Honeycutt was one of the sweetest women I have had the privilege to know. I first met her when I was a student wife and staff wife in the ‘80s, and she was always cordial and welcoming. When I became Southern’s president’s wife in 1993, a trustee noted in his comments to the full board that I had a tough assignment to follow Mrs. Honeycutt in my new role, as her loving, sacrificial service to our school was well established. June could not have been more encouraging as I assumed a daunting role while I was the mother of two preschoolers. Fourteen years later, what a sweet gift from the Lord it was when my widowed mother developed a deep and abiding friendship with June when she, too, was widowed. They spent many happy times together over the next decade and eventually became neighbors in an assisted living facility. June’s unfailing cheerfulness was a gift to my mom and our entire family. June was the last visitor my mom had on this earth, and I will never forget her many kindnesses.”
The Southern Seminary family expresses deep sympathy to the Honeycutt family for the loss of their dearly loved mother and grandmother. We are thankful for her influence and so many students and for the many contributions she made to Southern Seminary during the years she served as the president’s wife.
