Southern Seminary and Boyce College marked the ceremonial beginning of the Spring 2026 term today with convocation, gathering faculty, students, and staff for worship and to consecrate the semester’s work to the Lord.
Paul Akin, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration, led the invocation, thanking God for the gospel that unites the community and praying for strengthened faith, sanctification in the truth, a love for Scripture, and faithfulness in the Great Commission.
During the service, President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. welcomed new Boyce College faculty member Claire Aguda Baker, Assistant Professor of Politics and Humanities.
Mohler’s convocation message, titled “The Signs of the Times: This Strange Age and Our Christian Responsibility,” focused on Matthew 16:1–4. He highlighted the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees, who came “to test him” and demanded a sign from heaven. Mohler pointed out the irony of the request. In Matthew’s Gospel, it follows repeated public signs of Christ’s power, including healings and the feeding of thousands. The issue was not a lack of evidence. It was a refusal to see what those signs meant.
Jesus’s rebuke lands at the center of the passage. “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” Mohler emphasized that, in context, the “signs of the times” first refer to the arrival of the Messiah and the dawning of the kingdom. The religious leaders were skilled at reading surface indicators, but they missed the meaning of what was right in front of them.
Mohler then pressed the church’s responsibility in what he called “gospel time,” the church age between Christ’s ascension and his return. In that in-between period, he said, the assignment is clear. “Obey Christ,” “preach the gospel,” and “teach the scriptures.” He urged students to love and serve the local church, which he described as “not just permanent, it is eternal.”
He also spoke plainly about the moment we are living in. “Our times are strange,” he said, pointing to the speed of cultural change and the way basic terms no longer carry shared meaning. “We’re living in a giant distortion field,” he said, and warned that Christians cannot assume they will be understood without careful, biblical definition.
Near the end of the message, Mohler put the question directly to the room: “Will the students here and the graduates of this institution be up to this challenge?” His answer was immediate. “I’ve come to the conclusion that you will not be,” he said, “not in yourselves.” Then, fixing the focus on Christ, he said, “He who died and was buried and was raised from the dead… is quite capable of seeing you through and me through whatever the age throws at us.”
Convocation ended with encouragement for the semester ahead: You cannot carry the moment on your own. Christ has given his Word, his Spirit, and his church, and that is enough for faithfulness.