KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MBTS) — Midwestern Seminary inaugurated a new academic year during Fall Convocation on August 26 with a sermon from President Jason Allen. In addition to Allen’s message, the school welcomed three newly elected faculty members and recognized six new members of the Board of Trustees.
Reading from Ephesians 4:1-3, the seminary’s theme verses for this academic year, Allen encouraged all students, faculty, and staff “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility, gentleness and patience, showing tolerance for one another, in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.”
In his opening prayer, Allen acknowledged “a tremendous sense of anticipation” at the start of the new school year. He said, “From the newest and youngest student at Spurgeon College to the most senior and advanced student in our Ph.D. program, across the faculty and throughout the administration and staff here, we consider ourselves sincerely blessed to be in this institution, to serve and study in this season of ministry.”
Allen’s sermon, entitled “No Other Name,” was from Acts 4:1-12, the story of Peter and John’s powerful gospel proclamation after the Jewish religious leaders arrested and interrogated the apostles following a miraculous healing. The highlight of the passage, Allen pointed out, is verse 12, where Peter proclaims of Jesus, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
“Such powerful verses we consider together,” Allen said, “and we do so this morning to begin the new academic year, to focus ourselves on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the simple, clear, unmistakable argument from Scripture that there is salvation in no other name.”
To begin his sermon, Allen recalled a college basketball recruiting trip to a secular university that he took as a 17-year-old. At one point, the man giving Allen a tour of the basketball facilities turned the conversation to religion. Knowing that Allen came from a Christian family and not wanting him to be scared off by the school’s secular nature, the man told him that the world’s religions “are all winding up the same mountain, and those roads all get to the top of that mountain. At the top of that mountain, they all conclude at the same God.”
“Now, I was a lost, untrained, 17-year-old kid, but I knew that was junk,” Allen told the convocation audience. “But that thinking is the prevalent thinking in our society, in our culture, and that thinking often seeps its way into our churches.”
Allen went on to say, “They can’t believe that we believe that one must believe in Jesus to be saved. Ours is an exclusive Christ in an inclusive age. Ours is a singular Christ in a pluralistic age. Ours is a Christ that doesn’t offer himself as one of many options but offers himself as the option. That is our Christ.”
Highlighting Peter’s bold declaration in Acts 4:12, Allen exhorted his listeners that Jesus “is worthy of all that you are, and every life lived for him is a life lived gloriously. Let’s do so faithfully this year, as we pursue the Lord, as we seek to serve this institution and to train another generation of gospel servants.”
In addition to Allen’s convocation address, three newly elected seminary faculty members signed the institution’s Articles of Faith during the service: Professor of Old Testament John Meade, Associate Professor of New Testament Peter Gurry, and Assistant Professor of Christian Studies Arnaldo Achucarro.
The seminary’s Articles of Faith encompass the confession of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention, The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and three other guiding doctrinal statements: the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and the Nashville Statement on Biblical Sexuality.
Six new trustees to Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College were also recognized by Allen during the Convocation service and welcomed to the community by faculty, staff, and students. New trustees included Mark Penick (Florida), Leland Strange (Georgia), Jun Young Park (Ohio), Elicia Walker (Tennessee), Sang Shin (Virginia), and Cleve Persinger (West Virginia).
The convocation service concluded with a benediction given by Patrick Schreiner, associate professor of New Testament and biblical theology.
To watch the convocation service online, click here.