Anna Daub Promoted to Director of Special Projects and Partnerships

This belief in the Church and its significance in God’s mission in the world is the reason Daub has loved getting to work in Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s (SEBTS) Global Theological Initiatives (GTI) office for the past five and half years and why she’s looking forward to her promotion this fall to Director of Special Projects and Partnerships. 

“As the new Director of Special Projects and Partnerships, Anna will plan and implement several of our new creative theological innovations for majority world theological education, including the formation of educational opportunities for women leaders around the world and pathways for GTI students to participate in our doctoral programs as well as specialized certificate training opportunities,” said Dr. John Ewart, Director of Global Theological Initiatives at SEBTS. “We are very excited to see her take on this new and extremely strategic role.” 

This new role was developed out of Ewart’s desire to renew the team’s vision to include future partnerships and educational opportunities for majority world Christians. On the heels of COVID-19, the question for Ewart and his team became: Where does GTI need to go from here? 

The goal of GTI is to work with proven and positioned leaders in denomination, convention, and theological education leadership who can biblically and faithfully train the next generation. GTI also includes three initiatives that focus on strategic emphases, including Hispanic, East Asian, and Persian Leadership Initiatives as well as partnerships in Africa, Europe, and South America.  

With the implementation of Daub’s new role, opportunities for training majority world Christians will only continue to expand with hopes of including certificates for women and faculty as well as finding men and women who are called to doctoral work at SEBTS. The goal is not to compete with what entities and seminaries are already doing around the world but rather to provide opportunities where they don’t yet exist. Daub is particularly excited for the emphasis on theological education for majority world women so they can be trained to know the Bible and teach it to other women in their context.  

“Thinking through creative ways to get women theological education may not mean that they’re going to be the people who write textbooks next year,” said Daub. “But it hopefully means that they grow in their love for the Bible. I want to give them the tools to be able to know how to use God’s Word. My hope would be that some of them would say, ‘I want to go further [in my education].’” 

Daub’s heart for the global Church has been cultivated during her time in Southeastern’s PhD program and through working for GTI, but her heart for the nations began even earlier when she served as a Journeyman to South Asia.  

“I tell people all the time that my time in South Asia is what gave me a love for the global Church,” she said.   

When Daub looks back to when she first came to SEBTS in 2015, she now sees the ways in which God’s hand was in every aspect of her journey. After returning to the States after her Journeyman term with the International Mission Board (IMB), Daub was ready to commit her life to the mission field. She came back to the States and enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS), where she hoped to get her IMB credit hours to serve as a full-time missionary.  

But God had other plans. Through a series of circumstances, the Lord kept calling Daub to continue her education. First, it was simply to finish her master’s. Then, the Lord used a professor at SWBTS to encourage her to do her PhD to which she was quick to reply, “Absolutely not.” This was followed by Daub deciding to at least pursue an MDiv with the intention of doing a PhD “someday.” Someday became 2016 when Daub began her PhD in Applied Theology at SEBTS and now hopes to graduate in Fall 2021. 

The tension of pursuing education and desiring to serve overseas came to a head when a family member of a friend overseas passed away. Despite their fervent prayers for healing and the improvements they saw, this family member passed away suddenly while Daub was back in the States at school. She asked God why he chose to keep her here in theological education when she could see the overwhelming need to be back overseas. In that moment, the Lord reminded her that theological education was not an end to a degree but a process of becoming. The process of getting her MA, MDiv, or PhD was not about becoming an impressive missiologist or well-versed theologian. It was about becoming more like Christ in the learning process and encouraging others do to the same.    

“I think he’s multiplied my time in ways that I didn’t expect,” said Daub, “but I had to lay down my desire to be the savior. The only savior we have is Jesus.” 

As Daub finishes up a PhD and enters a new role in supporting and training the global Church, she is excited to continue being part of a mission much bigger than herself.  

Click here to learn more about GTI and see how SEBTS is partnering with the global Church.