Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, warned New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary students of the “unintended consequences” that can often come with theological education during his guest address at the seminary’s spring convocation.
The Jan. 28 convocation service in Leavell Chapel marked the official start of the spring semester. Convocation was originally scheduled for the previous Tuesday (Jan. 21), but a rare winter storm caused it to be postponed.
Iorg’s scheduled appearance for a regular chapel sermon on the 28th became a convocation address.
In his charge to the students, Iorg spoke from 1 Timothy 6:3-10 and explained that the wonderful decision to attend seminary can sometimes lead to some unintended consequences listed in the passage.
“Well-meaning decisions and well-intended actions can have unintended consequences,” Iorg said. “You’ve come to seminary, that was a good decision. You have well-meaning intentions; you intend for only good to come from your decision. But I must warn you today, the Bible speaks of unintended consequences of coming together for religious study.”
Before introducing Iorg, NOBTS and Leavell College President Jamie Dew spoke about the beginning of a new semester at the seminary, marking it as a time when “sacred work” will be done together as a community.
“Let’s make sure we understand the vision of what we’re doing,” Dew said. “We’re not just doing normal academics. Obviously we’re going to give ourselves with great rigor to studying well, thinking deeply and to learning to write and communicate as best as we possibly can. We’re going to earn grades along the way. Ultimately speaking, there will be degrees that this all produces. But there are quite literally hundreds if not thousands of institutions in this world that do that.
“Ours is a sacred version of this. This is not just your ordinary type of education. Together in this work we seek to prepare our lives to serve Jesus Christ our King. To go to the hard, the dark, the broken places in this world and represent Him, communicate Him and see Him redeem lives. That means there’s particular things you need to know and particular ways you need to go about that education.”
While introducing Iorg, Dew described him as a faithful minister of the Gospel and a faithful friend.
“We have the perfect guest speaker today,” Dew said.
“He is a faithful, faithful servant of the Lord. I’m thankful that you get to hear from him today. I’m thankful for his investment in me and his friendship to me. In all of these positions that exist in Southern Baptist life, Jeff Iorg is one of my closest friends and allies.”
Iorg said he felt comfortable giving the convocation address to the students since he gave many such addresses as president of Gateway Seminary for 20 years.
“I’m glad to be back in this role and this responsibility,” he said. “Thank you on behalf of Southern Baptists for your willingness to come and prepare yourself for ministry leadership.”
Iorg identified the first of two unintended consequences that can come with theological education as gaining theological information detached from character development.
“An unintended consequence of a seminary education can be gaining new information but not having the character development to sustain using that information appropriately.”
He explained the passage lists two qualifiers for what makes something a false doctrine or a true doctrine. True doctrine not only agrees with the sound teaching of Jesus Christ, but true doctrine is also teaching that promotes godliness.
So even though NOBTS students are being taught correct doctrine, it could become a false doctrine if it does not produce godly character.
“If it (a true doctrine) does not produce godliness and a growing sense of character development and devotion to Jesus Christ … no matter what you’ve have been taught, it’s also a false doctrine in your life,” Iorg said. “You must be on guard that you do not amass more theological information while at the same time failing to develop your character to use this information appropriately.
“It concerns me that we have the most educated clergy in the history of the Southern Baptist convention, and yet our baptismal rates have been plunging for two decades. I wonder sometimes if we have forgotten how to talk to regular people about the Bible.
“You’ve come to seminary to gain theological information, and I want you to do that, but your seminary education will be detrimental to you if all you do here is master theological information and forget you have to know it well enough to have the capacity to talk about it will real people who are hurting and demonstrate the love of God in those conversations in such a way that they too understand this theology that you’ve learned.”
The second unintended consequence listed in the passage is when material gain displaces missional sacrifice.
“If your seminary education causes you to think that you’re supposed to gain materially from what you’re learning, you have experienced the unintended consequence of seminary producing materialism in your life,” Iorg said.
Iorg closed the sermon with a final exhortation to the students.
“I challenge you this morning to avoid the unintended consequences of seminary education and to instead to reap the benefits of so much good that will come from this investment of your life in this period of study.”
Before the convocation address, the service also included an official welcome for two new faculty members.
Tawa Anderson, associate professor of philosophy and apologetics, and Matt James, assistant professor of historical theology, signed the NOBTS Articles of Religious Belief and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 signifying their official appointment as trustee-elected faculty members.
The articles were written by NOBTS’ founding faculty in 1917 to serve as a document outlining their theological beliefs before the penning of the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message.
The full convocation service can be viewed on YouTube and Facebook.
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