Southern Seminary Magazine

Trace Hamiter had been watching it happen for years. Students would graduate high school, leave their churches, and arrive at Auburn University. Within months, they drifted. Not because they renounced their faith, but because no one had helped them find their footing before the drift began. Hamiter served as College Pastor at First Baptist Church Opelika in 2012 when he decided to confront this college faith crisis.

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has named Trevor Coleman as Assistant Professor of Church Music and Worship. Coleman brings over a decade of pastoral ministry and a robust background in vocal performance and music education to Southern’s Department of Biblical Worship. “I am honored to step into this new role and to be a part of the rich legacy of Southern Seminary,” Coleman said.

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.

President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. used his report to the 2026 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting to point messengers to the health and faithfulness of the convention’s six seminaries, and Southern Seminary in particular, crediting the convention’s long commitment to owning and funding theological education.

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has announced that Logos Max, the full-featured tier of the Logos Bible Software platform, will be made available to all doctoral students at no additional cost. The move extends a benefit already provided to master’s-level students, ensuring that every student at Southern Seminary has unrestricted access to one of the most comprehensive biblical and theological research platforms available.

Alexis Hewitt enrolled in Southern Seminary’s Seminary Wives Institute in 2023. She never set foot on campus. She completed seven courses from home, caring for four young children, and needed only two more to earn her certificate when she died on January 2, 2026. She had turned 32 on Christmas Eve. Days before she passed, she submitted an assignment on Canvas.

You are stewards of something you don’t own,” President R. Albert Mohler, Jr., told graduates as he closed his charge from the apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy. “You are stewards of a faith once for all delivered to the saints. You are the guards of the deposit entrusted to you.” On Friday, May 8, 2026, faculty, family, and friends gathered on the Seminary Lawn for the 237th Commencement Ceremony of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

For the third consecutive spring, Southern Seminary and Boyce College gathered to celebrate recipients of the Mary K. Mohler Scholarship. The inaugural 2024 luncheon honored ten students, while this year’s event welcomed 26 scholarship recipients, with 19 attending in person to share a meal with the donors who made their studies possible. Mary Mohler, whose name the scholarship bears, captured the spirit of the afternoon.

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary recently hosted Spring Preview Day, welcoming 146 prospective students and guests to campus. Preview Day gives future students a firsthand experience of life at Southern Seminary. Guests not only tour the campus but interact with the faculty who make Southern a distinct place to grow in Christian community while being equipped to serve the church.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley delivered the 2026 Duke K. McCall Leadership Lecture at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, charging the seminary community to lead the nation toward spiritual revival by engaging its deepest moral and cultural crises. Drawing from 2 Samuel 24, in which the Lord commands King David to “go up” to the threshing floor of Araunah and raise an altar in the midst of a national plague, Hawley argued that American Christians face a similar moment of reckoning.