Social media testimonials and a community service project comprised the first-ever Giving Days event to raise over $300,000 for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, April 20-23. The weekend gave students, alumni, donors, and faculty the opportunity to tell their stories, support the institution financially, and serve the community of Louisville.
Students, faculty, and alumni shared their stories through social media for Tell Day on April 20. Several notable figures in the Southern Baptist Convention recorded testimonies during Tell Day, including Mark Dever, Kevin Ezell, Greg Gilbert, Eric Geiger, and Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr.
“I am thankful that there is an institution that is so committed to God’s Word and its effect on us and in God’s church,” said Dever, pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. “I’m thankful for the way God has used Southern Seminary in local churches in Louisville and beyond — here in our own congregation. We’ve had many of young men going into the ministry trained at Southern Seminary; we’ve hired back men trained at Southern Seminary. There are few places in the world that could have the resources together that have been assembled at Southern.”
During Give Day on April 21, donors began contributing financially to Southern Seminary. With more than $75,000 pledged in advance as matching donations, the seminary’s Institutional Advancement office reported after the Giving Days more than $300,000 raised through the campaign.
More than 400 volunteers from the SBTS community helped with the 1937 Project on Saturday, April 22, serving at several locations throughout the city — including Scarlet Hope, Louisville Rescue Mission, and the Keystone Learning Academy. More than 1,200 combined volunteer hours were spent reaching the city of Louisville. During Preach the Word on Sunday, 19 SBTS students filled pulpits at churches in the Kentucky Baptist Convention. Other students shared testimonies in Southern Baptist Convention churches in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, thanking them for their support of the cooperative program for Seminary Sunday.
“With any new initiative, you hope and pray that your expectations will be achieved, and our first Giving Days event exceeded expectations,” said Craig Parker, vice president of Institutional Advancement at Southern Seminary. “The entire Southern family quickly grasped the spirit of the event, and each group participated enthusiastically. Significant victories were achieved on each of the four days of Giving Days, and I am grateful to each person who participated. The generosity we saw displayed throughout Giving Days was another reminder of what a special and wonderful place Southern Seminary is.”
More information about Giving Days is available here.