On Thursday, March 10, Nathan Finn delivered two lectures for the sixth installment of the David and Lanese Dockery Lectures on Baptist Thought and Heritage at 3:30 p.m. in Harvey Auditorium and at 7:00 p.m. in the Carl Grant Events Center.
Finn served as the dean for the school of theology and missions (STM) at Union University from 2015-2018. He is currently the provost and dean of the university faculty at North Greenville University and has served there since 2018.
The David and Lanese Dockery Lectures of Baptist Thought and Heritage were endowed by former Union president David Dockery and first lady Lanese Dockery to have leading scholars come to Union each year and discuss Baptist history and the influence of Christian intellectual tradition.
Finn discussed studies of the Southern Baptist Convention and offered a recommendation for the future in the first lecture, “Toward a Holistic Interpretation of Southern Baptist History.” In the second lecture, “Church-State Separation: A Southern Baptist Perspective,” Finn provided the history of how Baptists understood the separation of church and state and how it relates to current issues. Finn allotted time for questions at the end of both events.
“The lectures were really helpful in better understanding the history of the Southern Baptist movement and some of the things that make our denomination unique,” senior Christian studies major Brennan Kress said.
In combination with the lectures, STM also held a 15th anniversary dinner at 5:30 p.m. in the Carl Grant Events Center. 75 people registered for the dinner, including STM alumni, faculty and current students. Three alumni— Shawn Parker, Executive-Director/Treasurer of the Mississippi Baptist Convention; Clay Hallmark, pastor of First Baptist Church Lexington and president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and Jeremy Seward, pastor of True Holiness Deliverance Temple in Milan, TN—provided testimonies about their time at Union, specifically their experiences as STM students. Ray Van Neste, dean of Union’s school of theology and missions, provided stories about STM’s history, recent development and hopes for the future.
“I particularly enjoyed Dr. Van Neste’s closing remarks in which he went through the history of Union and the development of the STM,” Kress said. “He showed how the word of God has been central throughout Union’s history and that many students who have studied here have gone on to serve in fruitful, kingdom-building ministries. I found myself reminded of the very reason I came to Union in the first place: to have a truly Christian education and to use that education to further the kingdom of God.”
“I appreciated Dr. Finn’s wide-ranging work in Baptist history and his ability to demonstrate its relevance for a hopeful future for Southern Baptists,” Jacob Shatzer, associate professor of theological studies, said. “The STM anniversary dinner was a wonderful time of celebrating God’s work in the past and looking forward to his continued kindness to the school of theology and missions and our students.”
Photo by Natalie Nagy
