The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president, R. Albert Mohler Jr., today announced his appointment of evangelism professor and denominational statesman Adam W. Greenway as dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry, effective June 1.
Greenway becomes the fourth dean of the Graham School, replacing Zane Pratt, who will continue teaching on faculty at the seminary even as he returns to overseas service.
“Adam Greenway brings a wealth of experience and a compelling vision to this newly-expanded school and its mission,” said Mohler. “He has served well as senior associate dean of the school and he has the eager confidence of his faculty colleagues. He is a proven leader, having served as president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and in a host of similar roles.
“He is a passionate evangelist who deeply loves the local church. He is a recognized leader within the Southern Baptist Convention and he brings a solid track record of denominational cooperation to this strategic new role.”
Greenway, 35, is currently associate professor of evangelism and applied apologetics at the seminary, a role he began in 2007 and plans to continue. Greenway also served, beginning in 2010, as senior associate dean under the leadership of the two previous deans of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism.
A consistent denominational leader, Greenway was president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) from 2011 to 2012. As president, he was the youngest in KBC history, assuming the role as a 33-year-old. Before that, Greenway served as the KBC’s first vice president from 2009 to 2010, as a member of its Mission Board, as the chair of the Mission Board Size Study Committee in 2009 and as the convention’s parliamentarian.
Also influential at the national level, Greenway is former president of the Southern Baptist Professors of Evangelism Fellowship and current chairman of the board of trustees for LifeWay Christian Resources.
Greenway will be the first dean of the school since it expanded as the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry, combining the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism, established in 1994, and the School of Church Ministries, 2009. The new Graham School will officially open in August 2013.
The school, the formation of which the seminary announced in April, will serve students of international and domestic missions, church planting, worship leadership and both local church and educational leadership. The new Graham School’s sole purpose is to enhance the Southern Seminary’s Great Commission reach and its faithfulness to the local church.
In hiring the dean for this new school, seminary leadership conducted a national search, according to Mohler. In the end, the best candidate — a man who combines demonstrable leadership with Great Commission zeal — was already on faculty at Southern Seminary.
“Our national search brought us right back home in this case, where the right man for the job was waiting, ready to take on this new challenge,” Mohler said. “Adam Greenway is the man God has provided for the leadership of this school at this vital time. He is a strategic thinker and a popular teacher. I am excited to welcome him as the new dean of the Billy Graham School.”
Randy Stinson, the seminary’s senior vice president for academic administration, said of Greenway’s selection as dean: “I am confident that Adam Greenway will demonstrate enormous commitment to missions, evangelism and local church ministry. He understands the need to wed theological training with local church practice and possesses the ability to reach out to various constituencies in the SBC. I look forward to working with him to train ministers of the gospel to reach the nations.”
A native Floridian, Greenway arrived in Kentucky in 2002 as pastor of The Baptist Church at Andover in Lexington, Ky. After joining the faculty of Southern Seminary, Greenway continued his pastoral ministry through interim roles in six churches across Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Prior to that, he served as a pastoral assistant in Alabama and in interim positions in Florida and Texas.
Greenway, co-editor of two books: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent and The Great Commission Resurgence, holds an undergraduate degree from Samford University, a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of philosophy degree from Southern Seminary.