Southwestern welcomes back new and returning students with Welcome Week activities

New and returning Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College students were welcomed back to campus last week as faculty and student organizations met with students at a variety of orientations and other events during Welcome Week.

“It’s so good to see each and every one of you—welcome,” said President David S. Dockery as he addressed students during New Student Orientation on Friday, adding the seminary leadership had prayed for that day and were excited and energized by the students’ arrival.

Students arrived at Barnard Hall and Fort Worth Hall on Thursday to move into their dorm rooms and get comfortable on campus as they prepared for the upcoming academic year.

While moving in, McKenzie Dahl, a returning School of Church Music and Worship student, said, “I’m excited to be back and to be back with friends. This is my third year living in the dorm, it’s just been great every year.”

When asked how she felt about the upcoming academic year, she said, “I feel good and ready. I’m excited. I’m doing music. I’m looking forward to just being back with friends and the new year.”

During the School of Church Music and Worship (SCMW) orientation Thursday morning, Joe Crider, dean of SCMW, took the podium and gave a heartfelt welcome and encouragement for the upcoming semester.

“We have been praying for you since before we even knew your names, to be sent here so that we can invest in you,” Crider said. “We are not the point. You are not the point. You are the pointers.”

Crider reminded the students that he and the faculty would always be there for them throughout the year, encouraging, “When my door is open, pop your head in and say, ‘hi.’ We love you and you are part of a family.”

During the SWBTS and TBC new student orientation Friday, more than 120 new students had the opportunity to meet and eat with faculty during the Welcome & Connect Lunch, while also gathering information from Student Life and other student services available to them on campus.

Dean Sieberhagen, interim dean of the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, said he was excited to see all the new faces on campus, but added this semester is especially exciting for him as his third son is one of the new students this fall, his two older sons having already graduated from Southwestern.

Another first-time student, Emily Mason of Grand Saline, Texas, is the preschool minister at her church and said she had been considering for a while pursuing a degree to help her ministry.

“It was just something I had been praying about and interviewing different schools,” Mason said, saying the faculty of Southwestern stood out to her. “I actually came here to the Heart of a Child conference. I toured the school then, and you can just tell they really were intentional about wanting to create a relationship.”

Mason is in the 5-year program, seeking a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies and master’s degree in Christian education.

“I believe Southwestern is going to help me really equip myself in the way I do hands-on evangelism,” said Daniel Lee, who is starting his Master of Divinity degree, with the goal of being a discipleship or college pastor. Lee said that will come by his being “discipled by these amazing professors that not only care about the academics, but also care a lot about their students and how they grow to be good shepherds of Christ. Not only someone that knows head-knowledge, but someone who is a doer of the Word and loves people well.”

David Richardson, who commutes to class from Abilene, said he also had been considering attending seminary for a while, but it was after he heard Southwestern’s worship team lead music at the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis in June that he began to consider enrolling. When he saw how affordable tuition was, he was glad to begin his Master of Divinity in worship leadership degree.

“I’ve been really surprised with how friendly and accommodating the faculty has been,” Richardson said. “For me to squeeze all my classes into Mondays and commute once a week, that’s really what kind of made it possible to do this.”

Clara Wangui has lived the past 12 years in Dallas after having been born and raised in Kenya. She attended a preview day and tour on campus and said she came to love the culture on campus, how intimate it felt, and how the faculty builds relationships with their students in order to help them in their goal of following God’s calling.

She is now beginning her intercultural studies degree in the 5-year program, hoping to use that to take her back to Kenya to help in a church plant or through a foundation.

“I’m just open to whatever God calls me to do,” Wangui said, adding that she is looking forward to learning about other cultures through her degree while preparing for a potential return to Kenya.

James Cummins, a SWBTS police officer and pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Weatherford, Texas, said since the Bible teaches that pastors are held to a higher standard, it is important to him to be grounded in sound doctrine. This led him to pursue a Master of Divinity in the School of Theology, which Cummins said he believes will help him learn correct exegetical theology, improve his studies, and preach more confidently.

“Southwestern is known worldwide for its theology program and my former pastors were graduates of SWBTS,” Cummins said. “I believe that the Lord gave me this opportunity, and now it is up to me to make the most out of it, to glorify Him.”

Ryan Hennig, who moved to Texas just a year ago, already has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and spent time working in the secular world before he became a believer, when he said everything changed. He worked at Colorado Christian University for a time, but felt God was leading him into a different realm.

“Counseling kept knocking on my heart,” Hennig said, saying he started out in pursuit of becoming a licensed professional counselor at another school, but realized during his first semester that was not the right path for him.

After hearing about Southwestern for the first time and beginning to explore the institution’s options, Hennig said he knew the Master of Divinity in biblical counseling was what he needed.

Welcome Week ended with the church fair and block party in the Riley Center on Friday evening, in which approximately 500 people participated. Representatives from area churches were present, sharing information with students looking for a congregation to join or at which to serve.

During the SCMW orientation, Crider fervently encouraged the students to become involved with a local church, saying “this institution is not designed to be a church or replace a church. So, get involved in a local church.”

The fair served to close the opening week of the semester with a community-building gathering before the first day of classes began Monday, Aug. 19.