Mills starts Southwestern student group to ‘influence next generation’ of pastors

Conrad Mills is a people person, through and through. When in conversation with him, there is never a doubt he is genuinely listening to every word shared and taking them into account. It is this care for people and conversation that led him and three of his peers to establish the Southwestern Society for Pastoral Ministry, a student group at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“We just decided we wanted to start something on campus that would build fellowship and encourage men who are pastoring, or who are going to pastor one day in the future after they leave here,” Mills said. The group was started a year ago “with the intention to bring people together and encourage them, which was really cool, and the Lord has blessed that since then.”

Mills is a Dallas native, but his journey has taken him to a few different places. After graduating from Texas Tech University in 2019, he worked in healthcare for a couple of years before he and his wife eventually moved to Los Angeles where Mills began attending seminary. They were there for a year before being called back to Texas, where Mills took up another job in healthcare while also attending Southwestern. Once on campus, he quickly took to creating a group of men with whom to fellowship and grow.

The group seeks to bring together current and aspiring pastors alike to meet, fellowship, review sermons, talk about life, and form connections with one another. The format is simple, yet fulfilling. Meeting once a month, participants go to dinner with an established preacher before listening to a sermon from him in Mathena Hall and discussing it.

“There wasn’t anything like this on a seminary campus in the Southern Baptist Convention for pastors to get together, not that I could find at least, and I thought that was interesting, because one of the most fulfilling parts of ministry and Gospel ministry is the relationships you have with other pastors,” Mills said, adding those pastors are able to encourage one another when they are facing tough situations within their ministry.

“And so what we wanted to do is we wanted to get out ahead of that and create a space, create an organization to where, not only could we influence the next generation through the speakers that we brought in for good and for God’s glory, but also so that we could gather a group of men who, Lord willing… will be friends for a lifetime.”

The organization has already had a wide variety of notable preachers at its monthly meeting, from Chris Osborne, professor of preaching and pastoral ministry and the society’s faculty advisor, to Blake White from Southside Baptist Church in Abilene. Spencer Plumlee, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Texas, spoke to them recently, and in February, Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, spoke to the group while serving as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Bart Barber speaks during a Southwestern Society for Pastoral Ministry meeting.

Mills has found that the amount of encouragement, kindness, and validation that he has been shown by professors and staff members alike, giving him opportunities and connections to further his pursuit of pastoral ministry, is one of the most rewarding aspects of attending Southwestern. By helping create and lead the pastoral society, Mills provides to other men on campus the chance to learn from and gain these same potential opportunities. Mills finds that fellowshipping with and listening to these established and experienced preachers and pastors speak not only gives inspiration to the aspiring or younger pastors in attendance, but also provides opportunities for more meaningful, long-term connections.

“It’s just a good way to expose guys to models of industry, right?” Mills said. “This is what you want to look like. This is what you want to be like. This is what you want to aspire to be one day.”

Topics covered by the speakers range from discussing discipleship and building a culture of ministry around it, to teaching how to lead a church in cooperation, to how to properly prepare a sermon. Speakers typically choose what they feel they are most equipped to advise and teach on, and this wide variety of lessons is invaluable to the group.

Mills, who plans to graduate in the spring with his Master of Divinity, is set on leaving behind an organization that has a positive impact on the seminary not just in his tenure, but for years to come. By making sure the society is entirely student-led, he and his peers have ensured that as older students graduate, younger ones will continue to have the ability to reach out to speakers and continue meeting for fellowship once a month. Through this, Mills hopes to have left a lasting mark on the school.

“You want to leave a good impact on the places that you’re at,” Mills said. “Not for your name, not for your glory, not for your honor, but for the name and glory of Christ. … It’ll long outlast me and any of these other guys that’ll graduate in May.”

Upon graduating, Mills hopes to stay in the area, shepherding a local church. He also wants to continue in the pursuit of training men for ministry, in whatever capacity possible.

“Being at Southwestern Seminary has been a blessing because of the academics and what the Lord’s taught me while I’ve been here,” Mill said, adding the relationships he has built on campus have made his time at Southwestern especially valuable. “I’m excited to see what the Lord does through this organization, but also through this seminary to train more men and women for Gospel ministry.”

The Southwestern Society for Pastoral Ministry meets once a month in Mathena Hall and men who wish to attend are invited, aspiring pastors or not. The next meeting will be on October 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.