NEW ORLEANS, La—Midwestern Seminary’s Alumni & Friends Luncheon at the SBC annual meeting featured a conversation with President Jason Allen and IMB President Paul Chitwood, presentations of the Presidential Merit Award and Alumnus of the Year, and an array of institutional updates and upcoming initiatives.
Following musical worship led by The Worship Initiative, Allen welcomed guests and provided updates on Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College.
He said, “For the 11th straight year, we’re celebrating another record enrollment. God has grown Midwestern Seminary from a total headcount of around 1,100 total students 11 years ago, to this year finishing at over 5,100 students enrolled in one of our degree programs. It is all of grace.”
Allen went on to mention key highlights for Southern Baptists to praise God for over the past year. Among these points, Allen spoke to the growth of Spurgeon College, which relaunched just five years ago.
“God is growing us numerically and blessing us programmatically,” he said, stating how the institution now has students in all 50 states and 64 countries. “We are honored to serve the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention and thank each of you for being a part of the story in Kansas City.”
Following the institutional updates, Allen presented two special awards to partners of the seminary.
First, he announced the recipient of the 2023 Presidential Merit Award, John Yeats.
John Yeats has served as the Executive Director of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) for 12 years and served for 25 years as the recording secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention. During his time at the MBC, Yeats led Missouri Baptists in paying off convention debt, organized staff and processes around the mission and vision of the MBC, established strategic missions partnerships, and more.
Having served alongside Yeats for many years, Allen said, “When I first started at Midwestern Seminary, I was told John Yeats would be a great partner. What I was told by way of expectation I quickly began to experience at the most personal level. I’m so grateful for the partnership with Dr. Yeats.”
Allen mentioned three ways he gives thanks for Dr. Yeats: 1) for encouraging his son Dr. John Mark Yeats to serve in Kansas City, 2) for bringing health to the Missouri Baptist Convention through his leadership, and 3) for being a faithful partner with Midwestern Seminary, including having an endowed chair in Baptist studies in their honor.
Allen said, “It’s my personal joy to present to you the Midwestern Seminary Presidential Merit Award for your many achievements and accomplishments in leadership of the MBC for many Southern Baptists.”
Additionally, Allen recognized the 2023 Alumnus of the Year, Pastor Scott Patty.
Scott Patty is the founding pastor of Grace Community Church in Brentwood, Tennessee. Before he began Grace in 1993, Patty served as a youth pastor for ten years. He was raised in Nashville and came to faith in Christ as a high school student. After graduating from Belmont College in 1985, he attended Midwestern Seminary and graduated with his Master of Divinity in 1989. Scott is married to Beth and they have two married daughters and three granddaughters.
Reflecting on Patty’s ministry, Allen said, “It is so important today to celebrate ministers who have achieved not only pragmatic success, but faithfulness in ministry over decades. I’m so delighted to recognize you today, Pastor Patty. We rejoice for you and pray that God would give you many more years of faithful service, so you can continue to be a model of faithful longevity that we can point our students to in ministry.”
After the presentation of awards, Allen invited IMB President Paul Chitwood to the stage for a conversation on missions.
In their discussion, they spoke to the magnitude of lostness in the world and the opportunity for global missions for Southern Baptists.
Chitwood shared, “The sober reality is that in human history global lostness has never been as great as it is today. Over half the world’s population lives among unreached peoples. When the challenge is as great as it’s ever been, the opportunity is as great as it’s ever been.”
Allen shared a recent initiative at Midwestern Seminary to continue to partner with the IMB and seek to reach the lost, “Our missions moonshot is to institutionally produce 100 missionaries a year. To be able to track and measure our progress of producing this many missionaries each year.”
Chitwood encouraged attendees of the unique value of Southern Baptist partnerships. He said, “Every church in the Southern Baptist Convention is planting churches by Cooperative Program giving.”
“As global lostness continues to grow,” Chitwood said, “we must have more strategic partnerships to address it. We want to continually position the IMB as an extension of the local church, and that’s why we are thankful for Midwestern Seminary’s part in partnership with the IMB to spread the gospel to the nations.”
