Southwestern celebrates 20-year partnership with Bibelseminar Bonn
Photo: Provost Madison Grace accepts an award from Bibelseminar Bonn Rector Heinrich Derksen on behalf of Southwestern during a recent preacher’s conference in Germany.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is celebrating 20 years of partnership with the Bibelseminar Bonn (BSB) this year as part of its core value of being globally engaged while working with the partner seminary to provide a master’s program to their students in Germany.
Provost and Dean of the School of Theology W. Madison Grace II visited Germany in mid-June during a preacher’s conference, where he accepted an award on behalf of Southwestern. A word was also shared from President David S. Dockery in recognition of the 20 years of partnership.
“We thank God for the partnership that we enjoy with the Bibelseminar Bonn,” Dockery said in his video address. “We are grateful for the opportunity for Southwestern Seminary to be involved in the vital witness to the Gospel as well as to strengthen the churches in Germany and across Europe. … On this anniversary day, we want to join you and celebrate with you, offering thanks to God, and praying for ongoing opportunities of service in the days ahead, doing so for the glory of God and the advancement of the Gospel.”
Grace had the opportunity to visit with Southwestern alumni, BSB alumni, and International Mission Board (IMB) personnel during his visit and said he continues to be grateful for “20 years of great partnership and how we’re able to continually engage in our mission throughout the world, especially through our Bonn partnership, and see an impact for the Gospel in Germany.”
Grace said the partnership has brought about “Kingdom advance and Gospel fruit,” as the institutions work together to equip students.
The German seminary opened in 1993 with a three-year undergraduate program that provided a Christian education to students wanting to enter the ministry in the early years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. Twelve years later, Southwestern came alongside BSB to start a two-year master’s program that opened in September 2005 and graduated its 100th student in 2024.
“It is for us, here at the Bibelseminar, really a privilege to work together with this wonderful institution of Southwestern,” said Friedhelm Jung, a BSB faculty member and professor of systematic theology with Southwestern, expressing gratitude on behalf of the seminary of about 300 students, 45 of them currently in the master’s program.
Jung, previously a pastor in Germany, joined the BSB faculty in 1996 with the goal of helping create a master’s program and recalls having conversations with different seminaries about creating this partnership.
In May of 2005, he met then Southwestern President Paige Patterson and Craig Blaising, then-provost, inviting them to visit the Bonn campus. The partnership was formed and that September BSB began offering a Master of Arts in Theology, providing concentrations in pastoral ministries and missions.
Jung would serve as the director of that program until he retired in May of 2024, though he continues to teach courses and serve on faculty at Southwestern. Dietmar Schulze, who serves as a faculty member at Southwestern, currently serves as the coordinator of the master’s program.
Schulze said key elements of the partnership is that their accreditation as a seminary is through Southwestern, and Southwestern faculty participate in teaching certain courses online and in person in Bonn about once a year. Five of the BSB faculty are also current Southwestern faculty members and Southwestern has worked to connect donors with the Bonn campus to offer further support.
For about 20 years, since becoming the associate dean, Mark Taylor has coordinated those visits by faculty, saying about 15 faculty members have participated in traveling to Bonn to teach. Now, with new technology and since Covid encouraged remote learning, Southwestern faculty also teach courses online, which Jung said has allowed them to train students from other countries such as current missionaries in Thailand and Israel.
“It’s really a privilege to work together, and it’s really an enrichment to have the Southwestern professor here on campus,” Jung said of the visits from Southwestern faculty. “It’s wonderful for our students and it’s also wonderful for the faculty. So, we meet with the Southwestern professors, we have conversations about theological topics, and we always do a little bit sight-seeing.”
Taylor said the program, which is a two-year cohort of thesis students, is comparable to the advanced Master of Divinity offered at Southwestern since it includes the pastoral ministry and missions concentrations. Taylor said some of the BSB students have completed or continued their studies by coming to Fort Worth to attend Southwestern, including some PhD students who then returned to teach at Bonn.
Jung said the Bibelseminar, one of the largest seminaries in Germany, is conservative compared to other universities in Europe. It has an equivalence of the Baptist Faith and Message that expresses those conservative beliefs.
“The inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures is, for us, very important,” Jung said. “In Germany, you will not find many seminaries who are theologically conservative. The universities, the theological faculties of the universities, are very liberal, and also a lot of seminaries from the free churches have become liberal in the last decades. So, our task—we understand this for ourselves—our task is for Germany to implement here, again, a conservative theology.”
Schulze said they had a time of concern when they saw other Southwestern extension sites close, but he is grateful the partnership continues and expressed hope that it will expand in the future.
“We look forward to seeing how God is going to continually use this partnership,” Grace said, saying in recent years he has worked to rekindle that relationship.
“We hope and we pray that we may continue this partnership for the next 20 years, perhaps longer,” Jung agreed.
