Office of the President

Welcome to the Office of the President

As the eighth president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Paige Patterson brings to the position three decades of experience in the education of pastors and missionaries. After 17 years as president of The Criswell College in Dallas, he served for 11 years as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. The focus of Dr. Patterson's leadership is an intense commitment to evangelism and the task of global missions, based on a foundational component of demanding research and rigorous academic preparation.

After graduating from Hardin-Simmons University, Patterson completed Master of Theology (Th.M.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Southern Baptists elected him to two terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1998-2000. During those years he appointed a committee to revise the Baptist Faith & Message, the confession most widely employed by Southern Baptists, and also presided over the historic session of the convention in which this revised confession was adopted.

While studying at New Orleans Seminary, Patterson was pastor of a church and at the same time operated a coffee-house ministry with street evangelist Leo Humphrey in the famous French Quarter. There he worked sharing the good news of salvation in Christ with biker gangs, underworld figures, homosexuals, prostitutes, and runaway teenagers from all 50 states.

Dr. and Mrs. Patterson have traveled to and ministered in more than 125 countries of the world. The president has shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with six heads of state in various countries, including Yasser Arafat and Menachem Begin. He has led church planting movements in New Hampshire and other states in America and served as pastor of churches in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.

For the past few years, Dr. Patterson has spoken at many Christian sportsman banquets throughout the United States. Using PowerPoint presentations about hunting dangerous game, and emphasizing the critical importance of fathers in the task of making responsible men from “the mischievous raw material of boys,” he rejoices that more than 2,000 men have come to Christ through these banquets. These sportsman events develop naturally out of Dr. Patterson’s love for the "outback." He is an avid hunter — he has taken lion, leopards, and buffalo: three of the African "big five" — and a SCUBA diver. Despite their busy schedules, Dr. and Mrs. Patterson have both found time to pen numerous books and articles.

The beginning of his tenure as president in August 2003 marked Dr. Patterson's return to Fort Worth and Southwestern Seminary. He was born in Fort Worth in 1942 when his father, T.A. Patterson, was completing his Th.D. degree at Southwestern Seminary under the tutelage of W.T. Conner. President Patterson’s wife, Dorothy, is professor of theology in women's studies at Southwestern, but she sees her most critically important role as that of wife, mother, and now grandmother. Their son, Armour, together with his wife Rachel, lives in Arizona's Sonora Desert, where he is a writer. Their daughter, Carmen, is married to Dr. Mark Howell, pastor of the Houston Northwest Baptist Church. The Howells have presented the Pattersons with two granddaughters, Abigail and Rebekah. Noche, the president’s ever-present black Labrador Retriever, completes the family circle.

To learn more about Dr. Paige Patterson, visit www.paigepatterson.info.