The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary hosted its annual Alumni & Friends Luncheon in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, welcoming nearly 1,000 alumni, guests, and leaders from partner institutions across Southern Baptist life for a time of joyful fellowship and gratitude for the Lord’s faithfulness. President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. used his remarks to trace the long line of faithfulness that has run through Southern Seminary since its founding and to celebrate the global ministry of its graduates.
Mohler presented the 2026 Alumnus of the Year Award to Aubrey Sequeira, senior pastor of Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi and a two-time graduate of Southern Seminary. Sequeira joined the luncheon by video from Abu Dhabi, where it was already evening, to share something of his ministry leading a congregation drawn from across the world. He gave thanks for the way Southern Seminary prepared him for faithful ministry, even amid regional conflict. Some might assume his training could not have readied him for such a moment, he said, but he believed it had prepared him for exactly this: to gather with his congregation and preach the Word.
Mohler returned to a theme he had raised a day earlier in his report to the convention: the story of how Southern Baptists came to own their theological education. From a handful of founding faculty and students in 1859, he said, something grand and glorious was begun for the entire Southern Baptist Convention. Set against that long line of faithfulness, the present landscape looks very different. Many historic institutions have closed or are closing, Mohler noted, warning that theological education has proven both costly and difficult to sustain. “Dead denominations have dead seminaries,” he said, “and dead seminaries produce dead denominations.” Against that backdrop, he said, the convention’s six thriving seminaries are a stewardship Southern Baptists must never take lightly.
Southern, Mohler reported, is strong by every measure. Enrollment is strong, and incoming enrollment is strong. The seminary is making one of the strongest Ph.D. programs in the country more accessible for the years ahead, and its Master of Divinity has proven, in his words, “wildly successful under its current design,” with Southern remaining the one SBC seminary that still defines itself by the M.Div. He also pointed to continued investment in a campus built for the future and filled with students and their families.
Mohler also marked a significant transition in the life of the seminary, recognizing Hershael York, who is retiring as dean of the School of Theology while continuing to serve as professor of Christian preaching, calling York one of the most cherished colleagues of his presidency. He also mentioned that Andrew Walker will serve as the new dean of the School of Theology, describing the handoff as a transition from strength to strength.
That long line of faithfulness, Mohler said, now runs through Boyce College as well, whose graduates are being deployed in ministry around the world. He gave thanks for the college’s abundant growth, noting how often parents tell him their son or daughter is studying at Boyce.
Mohler closed by giving thanks for the grand and glorious story Southern Baptists share, pointing alumni and friends toward the new things still to come, before the luncheon ended as it always does, with the singing of the seminary hymn.