Akin Celebrates Great Commission Stories in Presidential Report

Quoting Psalm 126:3, Akin shared with messengers how grateful he is for God’s ongoing favor and blessing on Southeastern. Akin noted that God’s presence and work in their midst has continued to make the Southeastern community a place marked by joy, gladness, and Great Commission passion.

Narrating stories of Southeastern’s Great Commission efforts, Akin reported that Southeastern commissioned 41 students and families this spring to serve internationally as missionaries, joining the 94 current Southeastern students already serving with the International Mission Board. These 41 units were accompanied by 18 students and families who were also commissioned to serve in church planting and revitalization ministries through the North American Mission Board. These 18 units join thousands of Southeastern alumni already serving across North America, who are nurturing Great Commission churches to have a heart for the nations.

“Southeastern Seminary continues to send in large numbers men and women to the hard places, and we could not do that without your assistance,” Akin told messengers during his report. “Most of those students are on some level of scholarship — many of them are fully being scholarshiped.”

Southeastern Seminary continues to send in large numbers men and women to the hard places, and we could not do that without your assistance.

Thanks to several generous donors, many residential MDiv students at Southeastern can receive full tuition scholarships as they study on campus. However, MDiv students are not the only ones who have access to unprecedented scholarship funding at Southeastern. Akin noted two uniquely encouraging examples of Southeastern’s programs that receive full scholarship funding to train students in hard-to-reach places.

Akin reported that Southeastern recently celebrated its third graduation in its North Carolina Field Minister Program, commissioning 14 incarcerated men to be ambassadors of the gospel by biblically counseling and mentoring the incarcerated population of North Carolina. These 14 graduates join Southeastern’s 35 already deployed field ministers to now serve 11 different facilities across North Carolina.

Recounting a story published by the Biblical Recorder on May 31, Akin narrated how Southeastern’s field ministers are making a Great Commission difference in the North Carolina prison system — in particular, at the Foothills Correctional Institution in Morganton (whose population includes many juveniles).

“The Biblical Recorder reported that on April 27, twenty-one of these teenagers and young men had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and had been baptized into our Lord’s name,” recounted Akin. “Southeastern has four field ministers who are there, ministering among that prison population. That is just a token of what is now happening across the North Carolina prison system.”

Akin also narrated his recent experience in Istanbul, Turkey, where he attended the historic commencement ceremony for Southeastern’s first graduating class of 23 students in its Persian Leadership Development (PLD) program. Offering the world’s first fully accredited biblical and theological bachelor’s and master’s degree completely in Farsi, Southeastern’s PLD program now includes more than 3,500 Farsi-speaking students from around the world.

Akin noted that Southeastern’s PLD program beautifully embodies its Great Commission mission by training Persian Christians to make disciples in the hardest-to-reach places in the world, including Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The PLD program is an important part of Southeastern’s Global Theological Initiatives (GTI) — a strategic effort to equip strategically position leaders of the global church to make disciples and strengthen local churches around the world. Southeastern seeks to not only send its students to the nations but also train Christian leaders from around the world to serve the Church and fulfill the Great Commission in their contexts.

These efforts are only made possible through the generosity of Southern Baptist and of donors who share Southeastern’s Great Commission heartbeat. Southeastern is delighted to report that after two consecutive years of raising more than $5 million in charitable giving, Southeastern raised in excess of $6 million for the first time in its history.

That is why there has never been a better time to pursue training at Southeastern with the availability of unprecedented scholarships and opportunities for flexible training on campus. Southeastern is grateful for God’s provision as many Southern Baptists renew their interest in theological education at Southeastern after declining post-pandemic enrollment numbers.

This year, Southeastern not only welcomed its largest college and seminary preview day groups in the history of the institution but also expects one of its largest ever incoming college and seminary classes. These numbers are particularly exciting to the Southeastern community because God is simultaneously blessing the institution with a rise in student participation on institutional mission trips — with over 115 students serving the nations this past year on 9 different trips.

This year, Southeastern not only welcomed its largest college and seminary preview day groups in the history of the institution but also expects one of its largest ever incoming college and seminary classes.

Undergirding these efforts, Southeastern’s unwavering commitment to the inerrancy, infallibility, authority, and sufficiency of the Bible continues to fuel its mission. Through the generosity of donors who share this commitment to Scripture, Southeastern will be launching its Caskey Center for Biblical Text and Translation this fall. The center will work to improve the quality and accuracy of Bible translations worldwide, research and translate manuscripts, and provide resources for global translators.

In all its efforts to expand its programs, initiatives, and centers, Southeastern remains centered on its mission to serve the Church and fulfill the Great Commission. To learn more about that mission and how Southeastern can equip you to make disciples, visit sebts.edu.

This article includes information that Dr. Akin was unable to include in his verbal report due to time constraints. The information is presented in full here.