Southwestern Women highlight academic programs, encourage ministers’ wives during SBC Women’s Expo, Ministers’ Wives’ Luncheon

NEW ORLEANS – Showcasing the academic offerings in the discipline of women’s ministry, while simultaneously encouraging pastors’ and ministers’ wives, Southwestern Women represented Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary through the Women’s Expo and Ministers’ Wives’ Luncheon held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans June 11-13.

Held during the SBC Ministers’ Wives’ Conference, an annual event held during the same timeframe as the SBC Pastor’s Conference, the Women’s Expo “is a place where all the SBC entities, agencies, auxiliaries, and other organizations can spotlight the resources available to women serving in a myriad of places,” said Terri H. Stovall, dean of women at Southwestern Seminary.

Stovall added that it is “just amazing to look around the expo to see so many who are here to help and support the work of reaching and discipling women.”

Stovall explained that “Southwestern has so many opportunities to prepare women theologically, practically, and spiritually to do what God is calling them to do” and that while the seminary’s women’s ministry concentration in both the Master of Arts in Christian Education and Master of Divinity degree programs “continue to be a draw,” she noted an “increase in an interest in certificate programs for women.”

“We have highlighted the Women’s Leadership Institute which provides for a Certificate in Ministry Studies, Leadership Certificate in Women’s Ministry, and the Certficado en Estudios Ministeriales, which is our ministry studies certificate taught in Spanish,” Stovall said. “These certificates are affordable, taught in an online flexible access and residential format, and are targeted to women who are looking for some next-level training.”

Laura Franklin (left) and Deborah Guzman, interns in the Women’s Center at Southwestern Seminary, educated visitors to the Southwestern Women’s Booth at the Women’s Expo of the Southern Baptist Convention about the certificate and degree programs in women’s ministry offered at the Fort Worth institution.

Laura Franklin, a Sugar Land, Texas, native who interns in the Women’s Center on Southwestern’s campus and recently graduated with a Master of Divinity, assisted with the seminary’s booth at the Women’s Expo for the third consecutive year. Franklin said it is “important” for Southwestern to be represented at the Women’s Expo “because we get to show people what we have to offer and also that we’re excited for them to come and be at our school.”

“I love Southwestern,” Franklin said. “I’m very grateful to have graduated from here and I want other people to have that same experience because I know I’ve grown in my walk with the Lord in so many ways in all the classes I’ve taken, and so it’s nice to know that there are other women that want to be a part of theological education and that they can be.”

“I think a lot of the women here are realizing how many options are available, whether they’re in Fort Worth or not,” Franklin said. “Wherever they are at in the country around the globe, they can be a Southwesterner, and then also whether they speak English or not, they can also be a Southwesterner.”

Southwestern Women were also represented at the June 13 Ministers’ Wives’ Luncheon, traditionally held on the first day of the annual meeting, with female faculty, staff, faculty wives, and trustee wives present.

Wife of Southwestern Seminary President David S. Dockery, Lanese Dockery, said the luncheon provides time for ministry wives to “gather together” in order to “rub shoulders with other women who are ministering too and to be encouraged and to learn from them and to feel seen by them and to be loved on.”

The Ministers’ Wives’ Luncheon has taken place for more than 25 years and Dockery planned the luncheon in 1999. Susie Hawkins, wife of Chancellor O.S. Hawkins, planned the luncheon in 1998.

“Southwestern has been training women for missions and ministry since 1910, and we are still training women today,” Stovall concluded. “We want women to know that Southwestern is here, ready to help women be equipped to teach, lead, disciple, and biblically counsel women in whatever context they serve.”