Seminario Teológico Bautista del Suroeste en Ft. Worth, Texas, confirmó el jueves que la entidad ha iniciado despidos, una semana después de anunciar medidas para rectificar un entorno financiero que podría “escalar rápidamente a una crisis”.
“Como parte de la intención previamente anunciada de implementar la reestructuración organizacional, incluidas las reducciones presupuestarias, bajo la dirección de la junta directiva, la administración interina ha informado a cierto personal que su empleo ha terminado”, se lee en un comunicado. “Estas han sido decisiones extremadamente difíciles a medida que buscamos abordar nuestros desafíos actuales”.
Cuando se le preguntó si se podía divulgar información sobre la cantidad de personal afectado, un portavoz del seminario respondió: "No en este momento". Los medios no pudieron confirmar si se producirán más despidos.
“Reconocemos la interrupción que esto causa para estos miembros del personal y sus familias”, continuó el comunicado. “Ciertamente no hay alegría en tener que tomar estas decisiones en este momento. Se ofrece una indemnización adecuada a los empleados afectados”.
Presidente interino David S. Dockery presentado la mencionada "reestructuración de la organización" a los fideicomisarios en el segundo día de su reunión del 17 al 18 de octubre en Seminary Hill. Fue la primera reunión del grupo desde la resignación del ex presidente Adam W. Greenway.
Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Hurt and Healed by the Church” by Ryan George. To donate, haga clic aquí.
“La comunidad [SWBTS] está orando no solo por la provisión y el favor del Señor, sino también por una renovación genuina que llegue al campus de Southwestern”, dijo Dockery a los fideicomisarios el 18 de octubre.
La reestructuración incluye una reducción del presupuesto operativo y de personal en al menos un 10 por ciento, lo que representa aproximadamente $3,6 millones. Esos recortes provendrán principalmente del área de apoyo institucional, comenzando con la programación sobre el personal, dijo Dockery.
Una evaluación de años de la "huella del campus de 200 acres del seminario y su uso óptimo" ha llevado a comercialización de BH Carroll Park Apartments. Otras parcelas que rodean el campus principal pueden hacer lo mismo, dijo Dockery.
Los fideicomisarios pasaron el 17 de octubre en una sesión cerrada revisando las finanzas del seminario y, dijo el presidente Danny Roberts, “tuvieron acceso a toda la información que solicitaron”.
“Como resultado, estamos solicitando a los auditores que hagan un trabajo adicional para examinar cuidadosamente todos los gastos, especialmente aquellos que generaron inquietudes”, dijo en la sesión abierta del grupo el 18 de octubre.
OS Hawkins, que se desempeña como asesor principal y embajador general desde que se jubiló como presidente de Guidestone, elogió a los fideicomisarios como "el grupo de hombres y mujeres más comprometidos que jamás haya visto".
El 24 de octubre, Baptist Press envió una lista de preguntas de seguimiento a SWBTS que solicitaba claridad sobre las nuevas barreras financieras y los "asuntos multifacéticos" mencionados por Dockery que condujeron a la posición financiera actual, así como si los detalles de las auditorías se proporcionaría.
Los medios recibieron el siguiente comunicado:
“Los fideicomisarios de Southwestern Seminary continúan trabajando con la administración interina en la ejecución de las acciones tomadas por la junta durante su reunión. Como es apropiado compartir nuevos desarrollos, proporcionaremos esa información. Estuvimos encantados de organizar el Día de vista previa de otoño más grande en algunos años el 21 de octubre, dando la bienvenida a más de 300 estudiantes potenciales y sus familias, y culminando con más de 650 participantes en nuestro festival de otoño. Nuestro equipo de admisiones está reclutando agresivamente a estudiantes para que estudien con nuestra facultad de ministros eruditos de primera clase que no solo enseñan sus materias con excelencia, sino que también ayudan a nuestros estudiantes a vivir su llamado como ministros del Evangelio durante sus estudios. Nuestra comunidad del campus se ha infundido con múltiples reuniones de oración mientras los estudiantes, profesores y personal buscan humildemente las bendiciones de Dios bajo el tema del versículo del Salmo 90:17”.
Este artículo apareció originalmente en prensa bautista.
Scott Barkley es corresponsal nacional de Baptist Press.
Spanish 
English
17 Respuestas
Speaking as a CFO with 12 years experience in Higher Education, the entire industry is facing some of the most challenging circumstances of our lifetime. This is more prominent at smaller, faith based institutions. Dwindling enrollments are impacting 99% of schools that cannot respond quickly enough to the loss of revenue. In the past year, 4 schools within 100 miles around my institution have closed. Many more will follow. Schools such as SWBTS with an ultra conservative theology are experiencing a double negative because they no longer appear relevant to society, yet they are trying to attract graduate students to carry the torch for the denomination. Not to mention the impact of the SBC’s current and ongoing scandals, I am not surprised by this.
What do you mean by ultra conservative?
SWBTS may have a legacy veneer of “ultra-conservatism,” but the reality is quite different. The school has liberalized dramatically over the past decade or two, presumably to make themselves more “marketable” and “relevant” to society. We see how that usually goes, such as church denominations which have embraced the entire sexual perversion agenda now seeing double-digit declines, and major splits as megachurch congregations leave (UMC.)
Better to see contractions as you adhere to the core doctrines of your ancient faith than to kowtow to the culture, which is sure death.
Keith: These are difficult and serious days, but your comment made me laugh. SWBTS becoming liberal. As compared to what?
How about, as compared to what it once was.
I’ve spoken to professors there who are die-hard evolutionists, who completely discount the Old Testament accounts of Noah and the Flood, Adam, the Garden, and most other accounts once deemed indisputable in Baptist circles. They have also softened considerably on the issues surrounding homosexuality. Just look at the words of the past two SBC presidents, which are mostly embraced by their affiliated seminaries.
If you can’t see these things happening, I don’t know what to tell a blind man.
Keith: There is no way that there are or have been at SWBTS that are die-hard evolutionists or soft on homosexuality. They would be fired immediately. Unless you want SBC professors to be hard core FUNDAMENTALIST the professors at SWBTS would be considered by most to be ultra conservative.
I read at
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/september/adam-greenway-resign-southwestern-seminary-president-swbts.html
that after Greenway took over, he removed stained glass windows that had images of Paige Patterson (the previous president) and others of the “Conservative Resurgence” from the chapel at the school. Are these windows a common feature of Baptist school chapels?
If you visit my Eastern Orthodox Church, you will see many icons of our Lord, saints and martyrs in the nave. The only living people are in photographs elsewhere in the the church.
I graduated from Southwestern in 1996, and there were, at that time, no stained glass windows of any kind in the chapel. In the rotunda of the main building, there was (and perhaps still is) a portrait of the school’s founder. A portrait of the school’s president or founder is a common thing, even in state schools, but practically unheard of as a stained glass window.
Well, isn’t that something? After being a very faithful member of a Baptist church for three years, tithing and volunteering, I attended a string of very hurtful, bully type sermons. First off, Lordship Salvation is heresy……..Free Grace is truth. Don’t dare try to control me with threats from pulpit. During a sermon concerning shunning and ex-communication, “Pastor” stated to all members in church verbatim: “If you are visiting today’s service and not a member, we have more patience for your behavior, than we do for members.” That was in middle of COVID. Not exactly good news. I never returned. I have been saying this for a long time………..Theology schools are doing a horrendous job of screening their students before conferring degrees. Spiritual medicine is just as vital as physical. Vet your students!!!!!!! If you don’t, you will allow bullies into substantive positions in culture, and there is absolutely no excuse for unloving, disrespectful pastors.
Mr. Knight: What do you think the Church Fathers who attended the councils in Nicea and Constantinople would think of the Baptist churches that you have attended? Do you think they would also disapprove of today’s screening of theology students?
Richard………I apologize, but you spoke over my head. Sounds as if you have a fair amount of knowledge. Can you bring question down to my level? Thank you for your thoughts.
No connection with a falloff in donations after they fired Dr. Patterson in the middle of the night back in 2018. Not at all.
Assuming you mean what you wrote and aren’t being sarcastic, then you are correct that Dr. Paige Patterson’s firing had nothing to do with this. But Dr. Patterson’s Conservative Resurgence might have. If you look at enrollment figures SWBTS reported to SBC messengers every year, they show that SWBTS enrollment was on a steady decline throughout Dr. Patterson’s tenure. They were in decline during the preceding administration under Dr. Kenneth Hemphill, too. In fact, Dr. Patterson himself executed a couple of these layoffs & expense-reduction measures during his time at SWBTS. If you want to trace the decline of SWBTS as a major force for US seminary education, go back to when the Conservative Resurgents changed the locks on the doors of former President Dr. Russell Dilday’s office in the middle of the night in 1994. Chart the enrollment numbers from then until now and you will see for yourself that where SWBTS had become the largest seminary in the world under Dr. Dilday, from an enrollment and funding point of view SWBTS has never recovered from the skullduggery of the Conservative Resurgents.
Maybe, maybe not. I think most people familiar with the story would agree that Dr. Patterson had a substantial number of supporters and that some of those supporters donated large sums of money to Southwestern. The questions that emerge are, a) when the trustees sent him on his way, in the manner that they did it, how many of those people were sufficiently annoyed to withhold their financial support, b) how dependent was SWBTS on those contributions, and c) how much did the answer to a) and b) enter in to the trustee’s calculations?
I don’t think that there is any way for an outsider to tell.
Oh, and I’ve found that sarcasm as a literary device is poorly understood and generally ineffective in the comments sections.
Sam you seemed to have hit the mail on the head, these younger guys are all about control. I really believe that they don’t trust the church members and it’s killing the SBC. If I moved to a new community I probably wouldn’t even consider going to a SBC church. They are quick to pass a resolution to ban women from thr pulpits but slow to deal with predatory pastors
I have family that graduated from SWBTS. They are in a tough market. Fewer young people going to seminary overall. On top of that, there is a battle inside the SBC over reformed versus arminian theology. The former is preferred by a majority of the young seminary students. As a result Southern in Louisville is gathering most of the new students. Kind of like running the 4th place horse drawn carriage company about the time the Model T comes on the market.. Tough spot. Increased enrollment is only real long-term solution.