PITTSBURGH (RNS)—It’s 9 p.m. on Oct. 13, a Monday, on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus. There are two NFL games on TV and fall midterms are this week. But roughly 300 students are packed into a room in the student union building, clapping or raising their hands in worship.

“No treasure of this life could ever satisfy,” the students sing, some standing, others kneeling in the back. “God, you are my everything.”

Moments later, the group’s founder, 34-year-old Jordan Kolarik, grabs a mic and heads to the front of the room to deliver a message on devotion. He’s nearly buzzing with energy as he reads aloud a passage from Matthew 26 about a woman anointing Jesus with expensive perfume.

“You can believe the right things, you can say the right things, you can kind of go to church, but never have real devotion to Jesus,” he says.

In fall 2022, Kolarik, a Pittsburgh native and former high school teacher, launched this chapter of Chi Alpha with just eight volunteers. This year, the student chapter, affiliated with the Assemblies of God, has 77 student small group leaders leading hundreds of students.

“It’s sort of like a pyramid scheme for Jesus,” Kolarik joked.

Evidence of spiritual renewal on other campuses

Though the chapter’s growth is striking, students say it’s part of a broader stirring on campus. The Pittsburgh Oratory, a Catholic campus ministry serving several Pittsburgh universities, recently began hosting Sunday Mass in a larger chapel due to surging student attendance.

In September, the University of Pittsburgh football team made national headlines for spearheading what some called a campuswide “revival.” About 65 students reportedly professed faith in Christ and 80 were baptized.

And the displays of devotion aren’t exclusive to Pittsburgh. The Ohio State football team has drawn national attention for baptizing dozens of students at public “Invitation to Jesus” events.

The campus movement UniteUS, which brings large-scale evangelical worship and baptism events to colleges, reports 13,000 college students have made faith commitments to Christ since 2023.

Now, in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, claims of nationwide revival are escalating.

“Charlie started a political movement but unleashed a spiritual revival,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared at Kirk’s memorial service.

Political commentators, Turning Point USA spokespeople and Christian worship leaders also linked Kirk’s passing with revival, especially among young people.

Looking for ‘sustained, significant, substantive revival’

But while Fox News has claimed that members of Generation Z are returning to church in astounding numbers, religious trends researcher Ryan Burge said assertions of revival are largely overblown

“We’re not seeing anything at the scale that would even begin to point me in the direction of a sustained, significant, substantive revival in America right now,” he told RNS. “It’s not a return to religion among Gen Z. It’s just they’re not leaving as fast as millennials did when they were in their late teens and early 20s.”

Recent data from the evangelical Christian polling firm Barna Group has been widely cited to support revival claims.

While most data about religion and young people shows Gen Zers are the least likely to attend services, Barna’s model found among those already attending church, Gen Zers attend more regularly than other generations of churchgoers—1.9 times per month, just slightly more frequently than millennial churchgoers (1.8 times).

Barna CEO David Kinnaman also told RNS there’s “a higher percentage of Gen Zers today than five years ago who are saying they have made a commitment to Christ.”

Still, while Kinnaman said he’s personally praying for revival, as a researcher he’s using the language of “renewal” to describe what he’s seeing so far. And Barna has also reported counter trends, with Gen Z women being increasingly likely to identify as religiously unaffiliated.

How is ‘revival’ defined?

Conflicting claims of revival could be due in part to different definitions of the term. Some use “revival” to describe a high-octane religious event. Adam Miller, a pastor of Pittsburgh’s Life Church and mentor to several Pitt football players, said revival is, “at a base level,” a movement “from death to life” that also “goes beyond a moment.”

From a research standpoint, it would require overwhelming evidence from multiple sources to demonstrate revival, Burge said.

“If we talk about the First Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening … the entire trajectory of religion in America changed in those moments,” Burge said.

“My definition of revival is a whole lot more people going to a house of worship this weekend than a year ago. And by a whole lot, I don’t mean 100,000 nationwide or 500,000 nationwide. I mean 5 million, 10 million, 15 million. That’s what a revival is like.”

Gen Z engages religion differently

Still, on the ground, there seems to be a shift in how Gen Z is engaging with religion. Liz Bucar, a professor of religion at Northeastern University in Boston, said that from where she sits, it’s clear the syncretic, ad hoc, New Age approach to spirituality by some older generations “has not been satisfying” to Gen Z.

In response to the instability of today’s world—global wars, climate change, COVID-19—she’s seeing a desire for more structured community, and for moral frameworks that can help Gen Z navigate a suffering world.

Some Gen Zers are seeking that outside the institutional church, she said, while others may be attracted to the unambiguous answers offered by more traditional faith communities.

Jake Overman, a 6-foot-4-inch senior tight end on the University of Pittsburgh football team, told RNS the gospel of Jesus has been a source of purpose and fulfillment among his teammates. Overman grew up in a nondenominational Christian church and said that while praying in his room earlier this year, he clearly heard God tell him, “It’s time.”

In response, he started a Bible study with his teammates. Called “The Pitt Men of God,” the group meets weekly, typically in the football facilities after practice.

“It was so clear that there was a hunger on this team for God,” said Overman, who also launched the Pitt for Jesus campus event that made national headlines last month. “They’ve tried girls, they’ve tried drugs, they’ve tried alcohol, they’ve tried parties, they’ve tried going to see therapists. … They’ve tried all of these things, yet they still were coming up empty.”

‘There has to be something more’

Joshua Raj, a 20-year-old junior and Chi Alpha small group leader at the University of Pittsburgh, said he thinks faith has appealed to many of his Gen Z peers amid the “chaos” of global events.

“There has to be something more,” he said.

Raj was among several Chi Alpha students RNS spoke with who said they’d developed a transformational relationship with God, saying they felt deeply known and loved.

They also said that transformation has had outward manifestations, too. Chi Alpha small group leaders pledge to refrain from alcohol, and, according to senior small group leader Katie McLean, the group sends out evangelism teams on Friday nights and hosts tailgates and Halloween parties free from alcohol.

Though Pitt’s Chi Alpha chapter has been home to a handful of new Christian converts, most participants were once “culturally Christian,” according to group founder Kolarik. The group is known for its high-energy events such as glow-in-the-dark parties and flag football tournaments and for its intentional discipleship of student leaders.

“We are excellent at reaching kids from a Christian home, but they themselves are not really following Jesus,” he said.

‘Gen Z is hungry’

The renewed Christian devotion among some Pittsburgh college students could be a microcosm of what Burge calls a “concentration of commitment.” He compared the phenomenon to a reduction on the stove.

“The amount of liquid goes down, but the concentration of flavors goes up,” he said. “That’s what’s happening with young Christianity in America. It’s fewer people, but they’re much more committed to what they believe, much more engaged in the behavior of being religious.”

Miller, the pastor who mentors Overman and several other Pitt football players, said the team’s devotion also was reflective of broader demographic trends among Gen Z.

While historically, women have been more religiously devout than their peers, researchers are pointing to a closing of that gender gap, with Gen Z women now leaving the church at faster rates, while men are staying.

As researchers continue to map out where these religious shifts are happening and to what degree, it remains to be seen whether they are tied to political changes and which pockets of Christianity are stabilizing or seeing growth.

Though the data doesn’t support narratives of a nationwide, youth-led surge in church attendance, the plateauing of religious decline in America is noteworthy. And while local stories of renewal may not be linked currently to quantifiable revival, they provide a glimpse of the desires and motivations shaping the spiritual lives of Gen Z.

“Gen Z is hungry. And I think when people show up with passion and purpose, Gen Z responds loudly,” Kolarik said. “Gen Z really does want to make their life count.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—Morris H. Chapman, former pastor, former Southern Baptist Convention president, former SBC Executive Committee president and champion of the Cooperative Program, died Oct. 20, at age 84.

The last SBC president during the so-called conservative resurgence to be opposed by a moderate candidate, Chapman led the SBC to remain focused on the Great Commission as moderates broke away.

Under his leadership as Executive Committee president, Cooperative Program giving reached a record high yet to be matched.

Chapman was given the honorary title of president emeritus of the Executive Committee upon his retirement in 2010.

“In a world where so many have fallen, he was faithful to the end,” current SBC President Clint Pressley posted on social media in tribute to Chapman. “Southern Baptists like me owe men like him a debt of gratitude. Praying the Lord is close to his family and especially his widow Jodi in the days ahead.”

“Morris Chapman led with passion and integrity,” said current SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg. “He was a champion for cooperation and our global mission. He was also a friend who encouraged me for many years—including after my election as president of the EC. We honor him and pray for his family in their loss.”

Born in Kosciusko, Miss., on Thanksgiving Day, 1940, Chapman professed faith in Christ at age 7 at First Baptist Church in Laurel, Miss., was called to ministry at age 12 and recognized a call to preach at age 21.

After graduating from Mississippi College, Chapman earned master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the ministry at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., when Ramsey Pollard was pastor.

Chapman served as pastor of four churches in Texas and New Mexico during a span of 25 years: First Baptist Church in Rogers from 1967 to 1969; First Baptist Church in Woodway from 1969 to 1974; First Baptist Church in Albuquerque, N.M., from 1974 to 1979; and First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls from 1979 to 1992.

Along the way, Chapman was active in denominational life, serving two terms as president of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico and as a member of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

In 1984, Chapman felt a growing burden for revival among Southern Baptists and led First Baptist in Wichita Falls to pray by name for each of the 36,000 Southern Baptist churches as well as SBC entities.

During that five-month period and beyond, the church received hundreds of responses from across the nation testifying to the impact of the effort.

During Chapman’s pastorate in Wichita Falls, First Baptist was consistently in the top 1 percent of Southern Baptist churches for giving through the Cooperative Program as well as for baptisms. Under his leadership there, Cooperative Program gifts reached 16 percent of total undesignated receipts and baptisms each year averaged more than 160.

SBC presidency

After serving as president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 1986 and preaching the convention sermon at the SBC annual meeting in 1989, Chapman’s peers looked to him as the conservative nominee for SBC president in 1990.

While Adrian Rogers in 1979 was the first in a string of conservatives elected over moderate candidates during the so-called conservative resurgence, Chapman was the last. His election marked the end of moderates’ attempts to win the presidency, and the following year he ran unopposed.

When he was elected in 1992, Morris said he saw his role as rallying Southern Baptists together.

“I see myself as carrying out the will of the majority and carrying out genuine healing among Southern Baptists,” Chapman said after his election was announced during a February 1992 meeting of the Executive Committee, according to Baptist Press archives.

As president of the SBC, he also emphasized the need for the SBC to focus on evangelism and prayer and called churches around the country to pray while he was SBC president.

“The desperate need for spiritual awakening in this nation has been ever present in my thoughts,” he said at the time.

Chapman appointed two task forces as president: one on spiritual awakening and the other on family ministry. He warned that the “moral fiber of our nation will soon be shredded beyond repair” if the erosion of the family was not reversed.

James Merritt, another former SBC president, said Chapman helped the denomination get back on track after the end of that battle by focusing on the Cooperative Program, the SBC’s long-running program for funding missions and national ministries.

He referred to Chapman as a “Christian gentleman” devoted to the SBC.

“Morris came out at a very strategic time,” said Merritt. “Healing needed to take place. He struck a good chord, trying to bring people together.”

When moderate Southern Baptists began to explore options for redirecting their Cooperative Program gifts to bypass the SBC Executive Committee, Chapman opposed “any deviation from this proven practice of cooperation.”

Moderates officially formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship while Chapman was SBC president in 1991. At that year’s meeting in Atlanta, Chapman pushed for extending Southern Baptist outreach in the host city for the annual meeting each year. It became a week-long effort and was renamed “Crossover” at Chapman’s suggestion.

Executive Committee leadership

With Chapman championing cooperative giving, the Cooperative Program allocation budget receipts distributed to SBC entities grew by 44 percent during Chapman’s 18 years as Executive Committee president.

Receipts exceeded the annual Cooperative Program allocation budget 15 years in a row from 1994 through 2008, falling off slightly during a global economic crisis.

Total giving through the Cooperative Program to state Baptist conventions reached a record high of $548,205,099 in 2007-08. Even without an adjustment for inflation, that is 23 percent higher than the most recent year.

In his role at the Executive Committee, Chapman led the implementation of the conservative resurgence vision, preaching throughout the convention and emphasizing the full authority, inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible.

To prepare Southern Baptists for the 21st century, Chapman initiated a study committee that led to the Covenant for a New Century in 1995, a plan that streamlined convention entities for improved effectiveness.

Ben Cole, a longtime friend of the Chapman family, referred to Chapman as a denominational statesman.

“Dr. Chapman never saw himself as the commanding officer nor the Executive Committee as the flagship of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Cole said in a text message. “Neither did he serve as captain of a denominational battleship forever stirring waters of strife among his brethren.

“He will be fondly remembered by honest churchmen as a trustworthy ballast during seasons of theological retrieval and institutional realignment.”

Unlike other leaders of the so-called conservative resurgence whose ministries ended in scandal, Chapman was known for his personal integrity.

He was not above controversy, though, especially when clashing with those he thought might undermine the SBC or the Cooperative Program.

In 2009, during his speech at the Southern Baptist Convention, he criticized then-popular megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll as someone whose behavior was unfit for pastors.

He also criticized a move to cut funding to the Executive Committee.

Chapman, while he denounced abusers, opposed starting a database to track abusive church leaders.

Chapman is survived by his wife Jodi, his son and daughter-in-law Chris and Renee Chapman, his daughter and son-in-law Stephanie and Scott Evans, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

With additional reporting by Bob Smietana of Religion News Service.

DALLAS—The craft of writing and the ethics of writing, just as with spiritual growth and maturity, offer no shortcuts, author Karen Swallow Prior said during her Oct. 16 lecture sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University.

Using AI never can replace the skills or purpose of writing and reading, and there are risks such as plagiarism and stolen sources, Prior said.

“You have to know enough of the craft to recognize whether or not a tool’s effects are correct or good,” said Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination, On Reading Well and You Have a Calling.

The purpose of reading and writing

To refresh her mind, Prior said, she often goes for runs around her neighborhood, fulfilling her purpose to keep her mind and heart clear.

To Prior, to read and write are ways to connect spiritually with God and others and to fulfill the purpose God has given.

 “You don’t get writing assignments because your professor needs more work to do. It all goes back to purpose. And shortcuts to fulfilling our purpose only can defeat the purpose,” Prior said.

Both reading and writing are important, Prior said, because we are made in the image of God, and he spoke the sky, land, sea and all of creation into existence with words.

“We, too, are made to use language to steward, to create with our words, and not just poems and stories and songs and final papers. We were made to create with words to offer love to one another, to ourselves, to our neighbors … to bring light and clarity,” Prior said.

“AI is just stolen words jumbled together and spit back out by a machine,” she continued.

“[AI] may be artificial, but it is not intelligent,” Prior noted.

“People were right about the printing press, too. I am hoping that AI becomes something better. But it is not there yet,” she added.

During the Q&A following the lecture, Prior agreed reading multiple works of literature help build empathy toward others.

Soulless versus meaningful

Prior told a story about one of her students who turned in a paper written with the help of ChatGPT, a program she was unfamiliar with at the time.

Familiar with searching for plagiarism and citation errors, Prior searched throughout the perfectly written paper and was astonished by how accurate and perfect it was. But the paper lacked a soul, a point Prior made to the audience while comparing writing with and without AI.

“We are meaning-making creatures. This is what we are made to do, and this is what we do,” Prior said.

“We are constantly searching for and trying to make meaning. And that’s what reading is literally and metaphorically. It is the effort to make meaning, whether you’re a 5-year-old … or whether you’re reading dense works of philosophy or reading the Bible to interpret it or reading each other’s faces,” Prior continued.

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say,” Prior said, quoting author Flannery O’Connor.

Prior told the audience to practice reading a lot of different things, from children’s material to classic fiction to written works encouraging intellectual thought.

Reading and writing are part of the larger journey of our own story and purpose in life, Prior said, and over time, a person can learn to read and write better if one doesn’t use AI.

Christians are commanded, commissioned and called to combat all religious persecution, international human rights attorney Knox Thames told a gathering at Dallas Baptist University.

Two-thirds of the global population live in countries that restrict the free practice of faith, Thames informed the Global Religious Freedom Gathering, sponsored by Christians Against All Persecution and DBU’s Center for Global Religious Freedom.

Thames, author of Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, distinguished genuine persecution from the loss of privileged status enjoyed by a specific group.

“Persecution is violence or severe punishment on account of victims’ belief or non-beliefs or membership—real or perceived—in a religious community, combined with a lack of accountability,” he said.

Thames identified four forms of persecution:

• Authoritarian persecution occurs when the state exercises power against religious activity or religious groups, such as in China.
• Extremist persecution takes place when non-state actors and individuals are allowed to commit acts of violence against those who practice a particular religion or fail to adhere to the state-sanctioned religion, such as in Pakistan.
• Terrorist persecution occurs when extremist groups commit acts of extreme violence against particular religious groups, such as ISIS targeting Yazidis and Christians in Iraq.
• Democratic persecution happens when the dominant religious community uses majority rule to trample the rights of adherents of minority religions, such as in India.

The global “pandemic of persecution” does not affect followers of only one religion, said Thames, senior fellow at Pepperdine University.

Rather, it “goes after everyone” and endangers freedom of thought and practice of all wherever it occurs, he stressed.

‘Be light in the darkness’

Christians have the responsibility to pray for all persecuted people and advocate for the religious freedom of every person, Thames emphasized.

“Advocacy demonstrates God’s love in a tangible way,” he said.

Jesus commanded his followers to love their neighbors and commissioned them to make disciples of all people groups everywhere—not just those who are like them, Thames said.

Citing both the Hebrew prophets and the New Testament, he pointed to ways God calls his people to stand up for the rights of the oppressed and vulnerable.

“One small light can pierce the darkness,” Thames said. “We are called to be light in darkness.”

During the gathering at DBU, participants not only prayed for a Christian pastor from Turkey and a Nigerian pastor, but also a representative of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community and a Shia Muslim from the Hazara people of Afghanistan.

Lead with love, start with service

Non-Christians find the gospel more compelling when Christians lead with love and start with service, rather than seek power and exercise privilege, former Houston pastor Steve Bezner said.

Bezner, now associate professor at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, spoke in the DBU chapel service during the Global Religious Freedom Gathering.

History, diplomacy and theology should lead Baptists in the United States to care about religious persecution and advocate for the religious freedom of all people, he said.

Baptists in colonial America learned early what it meant to be “on the receiving end of persecution,” said Bezner, citing pastors Roger Williams, Obadiah Holmes and Isaac Backus as examples.

On a practical level today, when Christians in the United States insist on religious freedom for all people domestically, appeals by U.S. diplomats for international human rights carry greater weight, he added.

Theologically, true faith demands the freedom to choose freely, not coerced conformity to mandated religion, said Bezner, author of Your Jesus is Too American: Calling the Church to Reclaim Kingdom Values Over the American Dream.

“Jesus wants all to freely come to him,” he said.

Establish relationships

Bezner recalled the backlash against Muslims when an Islamist extremist killed 49 people and wounded 58 others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016—the deadliest mass shooting in American history up to that point.

At the time, Bezner had been pastor of Houston Northwest Church about three years. He felt God leading him to stop at a Houston mosque in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting and seek to befriend the imam there.

A frank and honest exchange—in which the pastor and the imam each affirmed their distinctive beliefs—provided the foundation for mutual respect and resulted in Bezner receiving invitations to speak at three local mosques.

“The gospel runs on the rail of relationships,” he said.

He also described how members of Houston Northwest Church spent two months in “mud-out” work after Hurricane Harvey hit their city in August 2017.

Church volunteers worked in the flooded homes of their neighbors—many of them non-Christians—clearing out mud, discarding debris, removing damaged drywall and disinfecting surfaces to eliminate mold.

Christians make a lasting impact not by “taking over the White House” but by “going house to house” serving their neighbors, Bezner said.

Peacemaking group receives award

The Global Religious Freedom Gathering at DBU also featured panel discussions involving pastors, international students and advocates from human rights groups focused on religious freedom.

At a dinner held in conjunction with the gathering, the 21Wilberforce human rights organization presented its annual Frank Wolf International Freedom Award to Churches for Middle East Peace. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of CMEP, accepted the award.

The coalition—representing more than 30 national communions and organizations—mobilizes Christians in the United States to advocate holistically for equality, human rights, security and justice for Israelis, Palestinians and all people of the Middle East.

Previous award recipients include Bob Roberts, co-founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network; Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid; Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom; Archbishop Ben Kwashi and Gloria Kwashi of Nigeria; and the city of Midland.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The third paragraph from the end was edited after the article initially was published.

(RNS)—Samuel Rodriguez, a Hispanic evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump, is urging government leaders to recognize the “innocent people” who are being swept up in detention quotas.

Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and pastor of New Season Church in Sacramento, Calif., cited significant drops in church attendance in the face of immigration raids and mass deportations.

In an Oct. 16 interview, he noted some churches in the NHCLC network are seeing Sunday attendance drop by 25 percent to 35 percent due to fear of immigration raids.

Other leaders of Latino and immigrant congregations throughout the United States have reported drops in Sunday attendance, especially in Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles, where the Trump administration has launched major federal operations.

“In my conversations with the White House, with members of Congress and so forth, there is a constant affirmation that the priority is deporting the criminal element,” Rodriguez said.

 But, in his view, “the 25 percent to 30 percent that are being deported that are not the criminal element are a direct result of a daily quota of 3,000 deportations,” referring to goals set by the Department of Homeland Security.

Urging support for the Dignity Act

Rodriguez said he has been mobilizing Latino evangelical Christians to support the bipartisan immigration reform known as the Dignity Act, urging them to gather at church to pray for Congress to pass the bill, led by U.S. Reps. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., and Veronica Escobar, D-Texas.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in late September, 70 percent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are “criminal illegal aliens who have been convicted or have pending charges in the US,” but data at the time of her statement shows 36 percent of those arrested have no criminal record.

Rodriguez supports the deportation of criminals but claimed ICE is forced into making arrests of criminals and non-criminals alike, because leaders in blue states won’t grant ICE access to their incarcerated populations.

“Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, they reach 2,500 a day that are complete criminals, gang bangers, pedophiles, rapists, drug dealers, et cetera,” Rodriguez said.

“If the blue states primarily don’t cooperate and give ICE access to their prisons and jails, then they have to find the other 500 because they have a quota of 3,000. … Not that I’m affirming that. I’m not celebrating that.”

Hold asylum seekers in ‘humanitarian campuses’

At the NHCLC’s annual summit on Oct. 14, the organization heard from Salazar, whose bill would increase enforcement resources at the U.S. borders while allowing unauthorized immigrants without criminal records who have been in the country more than five years to earn legal status if they pay taxes and $7,000 in restitution.

The bill would expedite the asylum process but would hold asylum seekers in “humanitarian campuses,” rather than releasing them into the United States while they wait for a court decision, as has been the practice for decades.

It would pay for U.S. citizens to receive workforce training, funded by the immigrants’ restitution payments. It would also make changes to immigration visas.

“There’s never been a more conservative proposal. None ever, ever, ever,” Rodriguez said. “This does not grant citizenship. This is the opposite of amnesty.”

‘Don’t have to live in fear’

Instead, he said, it offers the chance for immigrants who have entered illegally to work legally.

“You don’t have to live in fear,” he said. “It gives people dignity, and that dignity status to me is beautiful. It’s because we’re all created in the image of God.”

Rodriguez did not express confidence in the bill’s swift passage.

“Right now, I think I have faith, and hopefully that faith will convert to hope, because faith is the conviction of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen.”

He asserted “the same administration that brought an end to a war in Gaza” was capable of immigration reform, calling it “a layup in comparison.”

Focus on antisemitism

The Dignity Act is just one priority of the NHCLC’s newly launched Center for Public Policy, which will focus on antisemitism through a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League.

“Latino evangelicals must be at the forefront of protecting our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world, speaking up on behalf of the nation of Israel,” Rodriguez said.

“It doesn’t mean that we are in perfect alignment with everything (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu says or does. That’s silly. No politician is perfect. No administration is above criticism, but we are in favor of the state of Israel.”

Another partner will be the Faith & Freedom Coalition, an evangelical voter-turnout organization long aligned with the GOP.

“We don’t lean right. We don’t lean left,” Rodriguez said. “We stand on the finished work of Christ.”

The center’s other priorities will include “issues that impact life from womb to tomb,” family tax credits, early childhood education and parental rights, a priority often intertwined with anti-LGBTQ+ positions.

Last year the organization launched the Center for Ministerial Health, which hosted 15 mental health symposiums in the past year.

“The response has been more than amazing, literally saving families, marriages, ministries and lives,” Rodriguez said.

The NHCLC celebrated its recent expansion internationally, an effort to establish chapters in Latin America, Spain and Latino diasporas in other Western countries, led by Colombian pastor Iván Delgado Glenn.

Build a ‘firewall’ against encroaching Marxism

“We’re going to build a firewall against ideologies that take away our rights, our freedom of speech, our freedom of religious liberty, and so if the church rises up, light wins and darkness loses because we believe in the image of God,” Rodriguez told RNS.

“The majority of countries already have the national evangelical alliances. We’re not there to replace them at all. We’re there to resource them.”

The new initiative will assist in “building a firewall against the encroachment of Marxism” in foreign policy, including in Venezuela, said Rodriguez.

On this score, Rodriguez blamed the leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the seizure of prominent Brazilian pastor Silas Malafaia’s passport, calling it a religious liberty issue.

Malafaia, who has been linked to dominion theology—the idea that Christians should control all aspects of society—is an ally of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for planning a coup.

While fighting on these fronts abroad, Rodriguez advised his organization’s constituents to brave the pressures of immigration enforcement at home, telling them to go to church.

“Church is the safer space. There is no safer space than the church,” Rodriguez said. “We need to come together and believe that the God of the impossible who changed the hearts and minds of leaders in the Old and New Testament will do it again for us.

“He doesn’t change. So, we believe the Holy Spirit is still moving. He can change hearts and minds. So, go to church.”

WASHINGTON (BP)—Chinese Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri—one of 22 pastors jailed in China on erroneous charges—lived in the United States with his wife Chunli Liu and their children before returning to China in 2007 to plant Zion Church.

His wife, who has remained in the United States to raise their children, who are U.S. citizens, is appealing for prayer as the United States advocates for her husband’s release.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted Chunli’s comments Oct. 16 among testimony of the Chinese Community Party’s religious persecution, including transnational aggressions, during the virtual hearing it hosted on the atrocities.

Commission Chair Vicky Hartzler, joined by Vice Chair Asif Mahmood, is among those condemning the persecution of Jin and others.

“I condemn these arrests and I call for the release of Ezra Jin and of all those who have been detained by the CCP for exercising their right to practice their faith,” Hartzler said in opening the hearing. “China’s treatment of religious groups blatantly contradicts international human rights standards.

“No government has the right to dictate the beliefs of its citizens. No government has the right to choose which religious leaders are legitimate.

“No government has the right …  to impose its political interest onto its citizens’ conscience and its citizens’ faith. And no government has the right to imprison religious leaders for leading their religious communities.”

Christians branded as ‘disruptors’

Among those appearing before the commission was Jin’s friend Corey Jackson, founder and president of The Luke Alliance, advocating for the religious freedom of persecuted Christians in China.

“The CCP intends to control every area of your life including your heart, your mind, your soul and your emotions. They want to control your gathering in public, in private, online, even gathering with your own children to teach them about your faith,” Jackson told USCIRF.

“So how should we respond? Our concern should go beyond prisoners of conscience to the 99 percent of other Christians who do not make the headlines. There are between 80 (million) and 100 million Protestants in China, maybe 10 million Catholics, potentially more. Xi (Chinese President Xi Jinping) brands Christians as disruptors, and in reality, they are a cohesive force for good in society.”

Jackson, a former North Carolina Presbyterian pastor who served several years in China in ministry, documents on the Luke Alliance website the arrest of Jin and 21 others held at Beihai No. 2 Detention Center in Guangxi Province.

The Luke Alliance also posts an open letter from Chunli, describing Jin’s commitment to the ministry. Before his arrest and since 2018, Jin had been forbidden to leave China under a CCP-issued exit ban, and he had been subjected to constant surveillance.

“I feel a mixture of shock, sadness, worry, anxiety and anger,” Chunli wrote. “I firmly believe that Pastor Jin simply did what any good pastor would do. In whatever circumstance, online or in-person, he did what every pastor in the universal church does: preach the gospel to everyone and proclaim his faith in Jesus Christ. He is innocent!”

‘Dissent is occurring … every single day’

In the hearing, “State-Controlled Religion in China,” Commissioner Stephen Schneck posed the question of whether USCIRF’s advocacy under the International Religious Freedom Act, as well as sanctions imposed by the U.S. State Department, has exacted any improvements for persecuted Christians and other religious adherents in China.

Schneck, who is in his fourth year at the commission, said: “I have to say that in the course of those four years, I’ve seen things only get worse and worse in regards to China. Sinicization is continuing apace. The genocide of the Uyghurs and the cultural genocide of the Tibetans is continuing apace.

“And I’m really wondering if, over these four years, USCIRF has had any effect at all. If any of the recommendations that we’ve made to Congress, if any of the recommendations that we’ve made now to two different administrations, have had any success at all in changing the situation of religious freedom in China.”

Annie Wilcox Boyajian, president of Freedom House and a speaker at the hearing, assured commissioners of their positive impact.

“I would jump in and say ‘yes, and.’ There are a whole bunch of recommendations that the religious community has made for decades that haven’t ever been fully implemented,” Boyajian said.

“The other thing to remember is dissent is occurring, and just because we don’t necessarily see it from where we sit here in the United States, it happens every single day.”

Advocacy makes a difference

Boyajian noted Freedom House’s China Dissent Monitor, sourced from on-the-ground contacts and others, to document dissent from religious communities.

“We have seen more than 400 instances over the last three years where people see religious restrictions and choose to worship anyway, or where they’re even actually protesting,” Boyajian said. “This comes back to, from our perspective, the deep and utter importance of raising individual cases because we do hear that it makes a difference.

“And when USCIRF encourages the State Department to designate China as a Country of Particular Concern, it matters. The Chinese government cares about that. They raise it in meetings.”

The commission’s hearing followed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Oct. 12 statement urging China to release Jin and others.

At its hearing, USCIRF also heard from additional advocates and Congressional leaders including U.S. Sen. James Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; U.S. Rep. James McGovern, a member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission; Rushan Abbas, founder and executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, and chairwoman of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress; and Norgay Tenzin, a research analyst with the International Campaign for Tibet.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (BP)—About a quarter of surveyed U.S. adults think the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by people,” the American Bible Society said in its latest release from the 2025 State of the Bible.

More people are skeptical of the Bible’s teachings than those who think the Bible is “totally accurate in all the principles it presents,” the American Bible Society said Oct. 14 in releasing the study’s chapter focused on trust.

“A half-century ago, Americans generally trusted the Bible. Attitudes are more complex these days,” John Plake, ABS chief innovation officer and State of the Bible editor-in-chief, said of the findings. “Our latest survey finds a mixture of belief and questioning in the American public.”

Research revealed:

• 24 percent think the Bible is just another book of instruction.
• 18 percent think the Bible was written to control and manipulate people.
• 36 percent agree the Bible is totally accurate.
• 39 percent disagree that the Bible is totally accurate.

“It’s true that nearly one in five Americans think the Bible was written to control and manipulate, but twice that many trust the Bible as ‘totally accurate in all the principles it presents,’” Plake said. “The numbers show a nation grappling with Scripture—and its meaning for our lives.”

The non-religious—or the 25 percent of U.S. adults considered Nones—are more distrustful of Scripture, with 60 percent believing the Bible is just another book of advice and stories written by others, and half of Nones saying the Bible was written to control and manipulate others.

Majority say Bible has transformed their lives

Despite the numbers, most Americans—58 percent—say the Bible has transformed their lives. The percentage statistically represents 148 million adults, researchers said.

“They might define those terms in various ways, they may understand the message differently, the transformation might be big or small,” researchers wrote of the 148 million, “but these people … are willing to say on a survey that they’ve been changed by the Bible’s message.”

In the chapter focused on interpersonal and institutional trust, researchers not only queried levels of trust in Scripture, but also asked how much respondents trust institutions to do what they’re intended to do, including medicine, education, the government, religion, arts and entertainment, banking and business, and the media.

Researchers gauged interpersonal trust in family and other individuals, and how variables such as Scripture engagement, age, political beliefs and trauma impact institutional and interpersonal trust.

Scripture-engaged individuals are more trusting of others, researchers said, with 35 percent of Scripture-engaged adults have a high level of interpersonal trust, compared to 23 percent of Scripture-disengaged, and 24 percent of those in the movable middle, a category of people whose Bible use falls between Scripture-engaged and Scripture-disengaged.

“It appears that many of those who read and apply the Scriptures are trying to practice Christian love by thinking the best of people, by giving them the benefit of the doubt, by trusting them,” researchers wrote.

Regarding trust in institutions, the Scripture-engaged register higher levels of trust in families, religion, and banking and business, lower levels of trust in arts and entertainment, and slightly lower or about the same levels of trust as Scripture-disengaged and the movable middle in medicine, education, government and media.

Trust is ‘often a casualty of trauma’

Trust—in Scripture, in institutions such as the church and in interpersonal relationships—“is often a casualty of trauma,” the report states.

Nearly half of Americans (46 percent) have “experienced or witnessed physical, psychological or emotional trauma,” and trauma continues to impact individuals “far into the future,” researchers wrote.

Assault, abuse and unwanted sexual contact damage interpersonal trust, researchers found.

“These traumatic events all happen at the hands of other people, often people whom the sufferer knows and perhaps has trusted,” researchers wrote. “For people who rate the continuing effects of these traumatic events ‘moderate’ to ‘overwhelming,’ there’s a significant drop in interpersonal trust.”

But suffering the violent or sudden death of a friend impacts interpersonal trust only minimally, researchers said, and suffering a life-threatening illness or injury actually improves interpersonal trust, “suggesting that perhaps they have learned to depend on other helpful people.”

Researchers also explored the link between forgiveness and trust. Two-thirds of all respondents (66 percent) agreed—at least somewhat— with the statement, “I am able to sincerely forgive whatever someone else has done to me, regardless of whether they ever ask for forgiveness or not.”

“Trauma survivors often need to travel a long, hard road toward forgiveness,” researchers wrote. “Volumes have been written on what forgiveness is and isn’t; it’s a worthy study.

“Yet we find that the ability to forgive is connected to higher levels of interpersonal trust. Just as trauma damages trust, forgiveness may restore it.”

The State of the Bible is based on a nationally representative online survey of 2,656 adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, conducted Jan. 2 -21 for ABS by NORC at the University of Chicago, using its AmeriSpeak panel.

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.

Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary announced Oct. 13 the formation of an Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.

In making its announcement, the seminary stated the graduate-level program “will cultivate theologically grounded, liturgically formed and missionally engaged clergy and lay leaders for service in Anglican and Episcopal contexts.”

“Since its inception, Baylor’s Truett Seminary has welcomed and trained ministers both within and beyond Baptist life. In recent years, especially through Truett’s Wesley House of Studies, our seminary has enjoyed an influx of students from other Christian denominations,” Dean Todd Still said.

“Indeed, there are currently no less than 26 different denominations represented in our school’s student body.”

Currently, 15 Truett Seminary students are enrolled from various dioceses within the Anglican Church in North America, The Episcopal Church and from other provinces internationally.

“The launching of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Truett is due primarily to our commitment and desire to equip more fully the Anglican and Episcopalian students who are already studying with us and have been entrusted to us,” Still said.

“Our present and future hope is that we would prepare them and other such seminarians well so that they might thoughtfully, faithfully and skillfully serve as ministers of the gospel across this vast and vibrant communion of believers around the world.”

Truett aims to strengthen support for current students while deepening relationships with the ecclesial bodies already represented at the seminary. The seminary also will seek to build new connections with other like-minded bishops, rectors and prospective students, the announcement stated.

On Oct. 28-29, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, will deliver the annual Parchman Lectures at Truett Seminary.

Once the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies is firmly in place at Truett Seminary’s Waco campus, the seminary will expand its course offerings to its Houston and San Antonio campuses.

Matthew Aughtry named acting director

Truett Seminary has appointed Matthew Aughtry as acting director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies. A priest in the Anglican Church in North America and resident within the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others, Aughtry’s time as an Anglican has primarily been defined by assisting various church plants in both Los Angeles and Waco.

He also serves Baylor University as an associate chaplain, working as the assistant director for chapel and ministry in the arts in Baylor Spiritual Life.

Aughtry, who grew up in a small-town Baptist church, was drawn to the Anglican tradition through the writings of C.S. Lewis.

He particularly cited Mere Christianity, “with vision of the Church as a mansion—its broad hallways full of lively conversation, yet its rooms alone reserved for offering food, fire and rest.”

“Seminary ushered me into the Anglican room of this great estate,” Aughtry said. “The Prayer Book’s sustaining patterns have become a safe harbor for me through years of church-planting and ministry in Baylor Chapel.

“I am honored by Dean Still’s invitation to join the launch of this initiative at Truett Seminary, a place I have experienced as akin to Mere Christianity’s magnificent mansion. It is my joy to serve this room, and I anticipate the ways doing so will further the mission of the entire home.”

Charles Ramsey, university chaplain and dean of Spiritual Life at Baylor, expressed “joy” at the launch of Truett Seminary’s Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.

“Faithful proclamation of the gospel in word and deed is at the heart of Baylor University and Truett Seminary. God has blessed this faithfulness and is drawing people from across denominational lines to become formed and equipped for kingdom service,” Ramsey said.

“It is a joy to celebrate the opening of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Truett Seminary and to welcome these brothers and sisters as we seek to glorify and serve God together in the church and the world.”

‘Serve the broader body of Christ’

The announcement from Baylor University quoted Stephen Stookey, director of theological education and institutional engagement with Texas Baptists, who voiced support for Truett Seminary’s decision to launch the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.

“This initiative is a thoughtful and faithful effort to serve the broader body of Christ through ecumenical engagement and academic excellence, rooted in the historic Christian faith,” Stookey said.

“As a Baptist community, we value our distinctives while also embracing opportunities to collaborate with Christian sisters and brothers who seek to proclaim the gospel, foster spiritual formation, and equip leaders for Great Commandment/Great Commission ministry.”

By establishing the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies, Truett Seminary is demonstrating its “ongoing commitment to forming ministers from a variety of traditions within the one body of Christ,” Stookey said.

“I am confident that this new initiative will enrich the seminary community, broaden theological dialogue, and enhance the preparation of students called to serve in their respective ecclesial contexts,” he said.

“It is my prayer that this partnership will bear lasting fruit for the kingdom of God.”

‘A prophetic vision’

Chris Backert, senior director of Ascent Movement, an emerging mission network, praised Truett Seminary for its willingness to collaborate outside of Baptist circles.

“Truett Seminary has uplifted a prophetic vision to offer space for distinction in polity and Christian heritage within a broader commitment to a globally engaged, evangelically orthodox theological witness,” Backert said.

By launching the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies alongside its Wesley House of Studies, Truett Seminary is demonstrating “for theological education what the wider church must attend to in other arenas,” he said.

“If the broader, joyfully confessional evangelical community can find its way together to prepare future church leaders, then perhaps our congregations, denominational structures, mission agencies and the like will follow suit,” Backert said.

Elizabeth Newman, vice chair of the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Christian Unity, praised Truett Seminary for continuing to “expand its vision of theological education by establishing an Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.”

“This initiative opens up rich possibilities for ecumenical formation while also enhancing the mission of the church,” said Newman, adjunct professor of theology at Duke Divinity School.

“I am delighted to see this kind of seminary response to Jesus’ prayer that all may be one so that the world may know.”

A Truett Seminary spokesperson said the “next area of focus” will be the Baptist World Alliance program approved this summer. The seminary is now preparing to search for a candidate to fill the newly created Lampsato Endowed Chair of Baptist World Missional Engagement.

Howard Payne University recently digitized the sermons, lectures and personal letters of the late José Rivas, former HPU professor. Rivas was born in 1915 in Mexico City. He came to faith in Christ at Primera Iglesia Bautista de la Ciudad de México in 1930 and was baptized there a year later. Sensing a call to ministry, he enrolled in the Baptist seminary in Saltillo, Mexico, in 1933. When the seminary relocated to Texas during the Mexican Revolution, Rivas continued his studies and graduated in 1937. Rivas’ digitally archived papers are available at the Walker Memorial Library upon request.

Five Wayland Baptist University chemistry students in the Welch Undergraduate Research Program were invited recently to present their summer projects at Texas Tech University’s in-house chemistry graduate poster session. Students Noah Dyson, Haley Fossett, Dylan Dodd, Anna Perez and Emma Scott were part of a larger group of 12 Wayland students who attended the Sept. 29 event, gaining valuable exposure to graduate-level research and networking opportunities.

East Texas Baptist University’s Learning and Leading classes recently organized and hosted the 14th annual fall festivals for all five Marshall Independent School District elementary schools, including David Crockett Elementary, Sam Houston Elementary, William B. Travis Elementary, Price T. Young Elementary and the Marshall Early Childhood Center, on Oct. 6. Since the event’s inception in 2011, the Fall Festivals have become a tradition for both ETBU and Marshall ISD, fostering a connection between the university’s students and the local community.

The grand opening of the Buckner Family Hope Center in San Antonio was commemorated Monday with a ceremony, ribbon cutting and reception. The Family Hope Center is a program offered by nonprofit Buckner Children and Family Services. The Family Hope Center offers classes and services to strengthen Bexar County families. The event drew San Antonio leaders from government, local churches, schools, organizations and businesses.

BEIJING (BP)—China falsely claimed Oct. 13 to protect religious freedoms after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged the country’s government to release several pastors arrested in house church raids.

“The Chinese government governs religious affairs in accordance with law, protects the religious freedom of the citizens and the normal religious activities,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Monday at a regular briefing, MSN reported. “We firmly oppose the U.S. interfering in China’s internal affairs with the so-called religious issues.”

China persecutes Christians and other religious groups through an intensive campaign to control religious activities and communication, claiming churches oppose the government, several religious liberty watchdog groups have reported with extensive evidence.

Rubio called for the release of an estimated 20 house church pastors and leaders arrested in at least seven cities since Oct. 10, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported, as the Chinese Communist Party raided several locations of Zion Church, an unregistered Protestant congregation.

“We call on the CCP to immediately release the detained church leaders and to allow all people of faith, including members of house churches, to engage in religious activities without fear of retribution,” Rubio said, naming Senior Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri among those arrested.

“This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches.”

China and U.S. in trade policy dispute

The exchange comes as U.S. President Donald Trump spars with China over trade policy, threatening a 100 percent tariff on China in addition to a 55 percent tariff already in place. Trump threatened the increase after China announced export controls on rare earths, effective in November. China holds 49 percent of the world’s rare earths, including 17 metallic elements considered crucial for modern technology and energy, NBC News reported.

Rubio called for the release of leaders after China initially arrested 30 leaders, with about 20 remaining in custody as recently as early Oct. 14, CSW reported.

“CSW sources suggest these arrests form part of the largest nationwide crackdown on house churches in decades, and many Chinese house church leaders have openly expressed support for Zion Church despite facing significant pressures themselves,” CSW stated.

“One church member also pointed out that repression targeting house churches typically intensifies whenever relations deteriorate between China and the West.”

Sean Long, a Chinese Zion Church pastor studying in the U.S., told the Associated Press the leaders may face charges of “illegal dissemination of religious content via the internet,” although it’s not currently known whether the pastors are charged with any infraction.

“This is a very disturbing and distressing moment,” the AP quoted Long. “This is a brutal violation of freedom of religion, which is written into the Chinese constitution. We want our pastors to be released immediately.”

‘Cease harassment of unregistered churches’

Zion Church has perhaps 5,000 members who worship at 100 sites across 40 cities, Long told AP, with services held in apartments, restaurants and even karaoke bars. Jin was handcuffed and arrested the morning of Oct. 11 after officers raided his home in Behai, Guangxi Province the previous evening and searched the home throughout the night, CSW reported.

CSW’s CEO Scot Bower also urged China to release the pastors and leaders.

“CSW echoes calls for the immediate release of Pastor Jin and the other leaders and members of Zion Church who were detained in this latest crackdown,” Bower said.

“We call on the Chinese Communist Party to cease its harassment of unregistered churches and religious groups, and to guarantee to all religious and belief communities, in law and in practice, the right to publicly manifest their religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching without interference.”

Commission cites China as among worst violators

China’s religious freedom policies are among the worst in the world, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its 2025 Annual Report.

Through its “sinicization of religion” policy, China requires the “complete loyalty and subordination of recognized religious groups to the CCP, its political ideology, and its policy agenda,” USCIRF wrote in its report.

China is widely condemned for its stringent restrictions and persecution including unwarranted arrests, forced disappearances, high-tech surveillance of churches, suppressed speech, removal of crosses, confiscation of religious materials and the criminalization of Bibles and evangelism.

The U.S. State Department as recently as 2023 named China a Country of Particular Concern for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act.

Eleanor Frances White Davis, a missions advocate, musician and former officer of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, died Oct. 8 in Granbury. She was 92. She was born Sept. 30, 1933, in Waco. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. She taught public schools several years, before devoting herself to raising her children. However, throughout her life, she continued to teach piano and to teach English classes for international students. She had a career as a professional singer, performing in musicals and many other choral settings. She held leading roles in productions including “Madame Butterfly” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” She also became a prolific composer, writing many songs featured in her church work. She served alongside her husband Leslie in his ministry in Spring Branch, Baytown, Stephenville, Brownwood, Wichita Falls and Arlington, as well as in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Nassau, Bahamas. Usually in each church, she would play the piano, sing in choirs, teach Bible studies and lead women’s groups. She also was involved in WMU at the local church, associational and state levels. She served on the WMU of Texas Executive Board and was vice president of Texas WMU from 1994 to 1998. She was preceded in death by her husband Leslie Wayne Davis, sister Margaret Eisenbeck and brother James Robert White. She is survived by son Robert Leslie and wife Susan, of Longmont, Colo.; son David Wayne and wife Marci of Granbury; son Paul Arthur and wife Lindsay, of Denton; six grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. A visitation will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 on Oct.16 in the chapel at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home in Waco. Services will be at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Oct.17, also in the funeral home chapel.

(RNS)—Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, announced to students gathered for a chapel service on Oct. 14 his plans to retire next summer.

Reading from a short letter—the same one he sent to the school’s trustees a day earlier—Akin said he planned to step down effective July 31, 2026.

Speaking on behalf of his wife, Charlotte, too, he said: “We love this school. … We are filled with incredible gratitude and thanksgiving for God’s grace in bringing us here almost 22 years ago. It is time to hand off the baton of leadership to those whom God will raise up to lead this Great Commission school into the future.”

The occasion he chose was Southeastern’s 75th anniversary, which is being celebrated on the campus in Wake Forest, a suburban town north of Raleigh, N.C.

Akin will turn 69 in January and has led the seminary—one of six in the Southern Baptist Convention—for much of his career.

Significant growth in last two decades

Last academic year, Southeastern had 2,263 students, half of them full-time equivalents, according to data from the Association of Theological Schools. That’s a 40 percent increase over 2004, the year Akin started, when Southeastern had 1,619 students.

About a third of the seminary’s students—776—were studying for the Master of Divinity degree in the 2024-25 school year. Of those, 441 were full-time students.

Southeastern is now the third largest of the denomination’s six seminaries, after Midwestern in Kansas City, Mo., and Southern in Louisville, Ky. The verdant campus, originally the site of Wake Forest University, also includes an undergraduate school, Judson College, with an enrollment of 1,603 students.

Akin—a theological conservative—has acknowledged the reality of structural racism and said change is needed to broaden the predominantly white ranks of SBC membership. He said one of the major goals at Southeastern is boosting the number of racial minority students.

He also has acknowledged the sins of sexual abuse in the denomination. When a former assistant accused the late Paul Pressler—one of the most influential leaders of the self-identified conservative resurgence in the denomination—of sexual abuse, Akin said he believed the testimony of the victim.

“We can’t deny the reality of the accusations,” Akin said.

Ten years ago, he even agreed to do a video spot for Openly Secular, a group of atheists, freethinkers, agnostics and humanists, in which he said that no one should be discriminated against for their belief or nonbelief.

Served previously at Southern Seminary

A former athlete from Georgia, Akin once had dreams of playing baseball, but after an injury, he answered a call to ministry, graduating in 1980 from Criswell College in Dallas.

He first came to Southeastern in 1992 as dean of students and then moved on to Southern Seminary, where he served as dean of the School of Theology, and senior vice president for academic administration for eight years.

In 2004 he was chosen to replace Paige Patterson, one of the leaders of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, as president of Southeastern.

 In his retirement letter, Akin noted: “I am often asked, ‘Is it hard to be a seminary president?’ My answer is always the same: ‘Not for me.’ My answer is simply a testimony to the people that make up the Southeastern family.”

Akin and his wife have four adult children, all of whom are serving in ministry.

National reporter Bob Smietana contributed to this report.