SEBTS hosts 60th anniversary celebration for Journeyman program
By Mary Asta Mountain, SEBTS
On Sept. 4, 2025, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) had the privilege of hosting the 60th anniversary celebration of the International Mission Board’s (IMB) Journeyman program.
With 70 people in attendance, the anniversary celebration offered a unique opportunity for Journeyman alumni of the past 60 years to reconnect, form friendships and share stories of God’s work among the harvest. Those in attendance also included other IMB missionaries, some of them men and women who have served on the mission field for over 30 years and in a variety of cultures and contexts all around the world.
“I will always say that the most pivotal event in my life was Journeyman,” commented one program alum who was part of the very first Journeyman group to be commissioned.
Over the past 60 years, the Journeyman program has sent thousands of young men and women to those who are lost and unreached among the nations. During their two-year terms, these Journeyman units have worked alongside long-term workers who are sharing the gospel, making disciples and planting churches.
Following the completion of their terms, many of these Journeyman alumni have found their way to Southeastern in order to receive theological training and ministry preparation for long-term missions. Another large group of students over the years have joined the Journeyman program after graduating from Southeastern or Judson College, equipped to pursue international missions. This united passion for the Great Commission has resulted in a thriving Journeyman community on Southeastern’s campus.
Journeyman alumnus Elliot Windsor, a current Southeastern student, expressed that “being here tonight has made me proud to be a small part of something so much larger than myself. I feel a part of God’s global mission, spanning not only decades through the Journeyman program but also centuries and thousands of years. It reminds me that this is what God has always been about.”
Over the course of the event, attendees received updates about the Journeyman program and learned more about the recently created IMB alumni hub, which allows for close connection and engagement between former IMB missionaries and their families. This hub includes a Southeastern-specific community group.
At the end of the event, older alumni prayed over recently returned Journeyman alumni who are students at Southeastern, asking for God’s guidance in their lives and blessing on their ministry.
To learn more about how you could be equipped for international missions or get involved in the Journeyman program, visit sebts.edu/cgcs or imb.org/journeyman.
The nations are the focus during SWBTS Global Missions Week
By Michelle Workman and Remington Cook, SWBTS
FORT WORTH, Texas — The nations were the focus of the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) during the annual Global Missions Week, Sept. 2-5, as a variety of events highlighted work being done around the world encouraging all students to be involved in the Great Commission regardless of the academic degree they are pursuing.
During chapel on Sept. 4, Kevin Rodgers, professor of missions, spoke about the Gerasene demoniac found in Mark 5, pointing out that once the man had been confronted by Christ and redeemed, then Jesus instructed him to tell others about what Christ had done for him, making him possibly the first missionary sent by Jesus.
“He loves the most unlovable, and He sends the least likely candidates to do the greatest task on the planet for His glory,” Rodgers said, sharing some of his own testimony of being saved in college and later called to be a missionary in Africa.
Rodgers also pointed out that one of the most dangerous thoughts is that of assuming that someone else will share the gospel when God might be calling that individual to be the one to go.
“Not everybody is supposed to be a cross-cultural missionary,” Rodgers said. “Not everybody should go to Africa. … If God calls you to stay, stay. But if God’s calling you to go, go.”
In Africa, where Rodgers and his family served for decades, Rodgers said the gospel has spread greatly and seen much fruit as people respond to the gospel and churches are planted, but even those believers face struggles such as syncretism, and other parts of the world face even greater opposition.
“As important as it is to go where people are responsive to the gospel, we also have to go where people are not responsive to the gospel,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got to go to the hard places, to the zero-to-one places. We’ve got to go where people don’t want to hear it. We’ve got to go where it’s going to cost you something to be a witness.”
During the Sept. 4 chapel service, Texas Baptist College student Kenneth Hess shared his experience with OneLink mission teams over the summer, which trained and then sent him to South Asia for eight weeks. Hess said even the time of training was very beneficial as he realized the importance of Christian community in missions. While serving, he said he gained “a new perspective, a newfound love for people and a greater passion to live with the gospel at the center of my life.
“I don’t want you to hear my story; I want you to ask God to write your own,” Hess encouraged students. “For some of you, that might mean going on a trip with Link teams next year. For others, it might mean supporting those who go or living more missionally right here at home. But whatever it looks like, don’t leave this moment unchanged. My challenge is this — don’t wait, don’t assume missions is for someone else.”
Visiting missionaries spoke in classes around the campus and also were available during lunch hours in the Naylor Student Center as students benefited from these opportunities to ask questions about overseas missions. A Friday lunch Q&A allowed students to hear the missionaries share about professional and personal aspects of their ministries and positive experiences as well as trials they face in the field, such as living in a harsh climate or oppressive society, or just missing home.
