April 24, 2025
WAKE FOREST, N.C. -- The College at Southeastern celebrated its first commencement at its Wake County Extension Center, recognizing the achievements of five incarcerated women who graduated with an asssociate of arts degree.
That's one of the many ways Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and its affiliated college is impacting lives as it works to fulfill the Great Commission.
The Wake County Extension Center is designed to equip inmates to serve the Lord through public service work after they're released.
In December, the college also celebrated its second annual commencement at its Nash County Extension Center, commissioning 13 incarcerated men to serve as field ministers in prisons across North Carolina. These graduates join 24 other field ministers already serving in the North Carolina prison system, carrying the institution’s Great Commission DNA into some of the darkest places in the state.
Because Jesus made clear his final marching orders in the Great Commission, Southeastern has remained singularly focused on that mission. That remained the case throughout 2022.
Expanding its efforts to resource churches, mobilize students, and fuel Great Commission ministry around the world, Southeastern introduced new courses, degrees, faculty, and an on-campus center to better facilitate this mission. Southeastern also gave students a record number of financial resources to train students who are serving with the International Mission Board and to encourage hundreds of other students to join Southeastern on an institutional mission trip this year.
Southeastern commissioned 601 graduates in 2022, mobilizing a generation of Great Commission Christians to invest in local churches; contribute to denominational life; do ministry in the marketplace; and fulfill the Great Commission in rural towns, urban centers, and hard-to-reach places around the world.
Every spring Southeastern dedicates a week in its institutional calendar to Global Missions Week — a time to uniquely highlight missionaries on the field and encourage students to consider how they can be involved in various mission opportunities. This year Southeastern focused on mission work in Sub-Saharan Africa, hosting events, welcoming experienced missionaries to campus, and creating opportunities for dialogue about what missions in Sub-Saharan Africa could look like for Southeastern students.
Following the SBC Task Force Report on Sexual Abuse, Southeastern launched a mandatory sexual abuse prevention and response course in August as an important component of students’ holistic ministry training. Equipping students to serve the Church and fulfill the Great Commission, Southeastern is committed to training future ministers, missionaries, and church leaders to love God and love their neighbor, which involves preventing sexual abuse and caring well for survivors with gospel love, truth, and hope. The course provides biblical and theological foundations on caring well for survivors as well as practical and organizational strategies for preventing sexual abuse.
The College at Southeastern launched its Bachelor of Business Administration program in August to equip students for Great Commission ministry in the business sector. Providing biblical foundations for business, the BBA program combines robust biblical and theological training with instruction in organizational strategies and business principles.
Dedicated to making it easier than ever before for IMB missionaries to receive biblical and theological training, Southeastern announced over the summer that full-time, fully funded IMB missionaries are eligible to be awarded scholarships covering 100 percent of tuition and enrollment fees. Southeastern is committed to its alumni on the field and to the IMB missionaries serving around the world, and Southeastern’s administration hopes that these new scholarship opportunities will encourage thousands of future graduates to prioritize the Great Commission of King Jesus wherever he calls them.
At Gathering Chapel this fall, Southeastern’s Center for Great Commission Studies challenged the Southeastern community to redouble its efforts to fulfill the Great Commission and announced opportunities to get involved, including seven institutional mission trips throughout the academic year. Encouraging every Southeastern student to participate in a mission trip this academic year, Southeastern is partnering with several like-minded donors to offer mission trip opportunities across North America and around the world at significantly reduced costs.
As a strategic part of Southeastern’s Global Theological Initiatives office, the Persian Leadership Development program currently offers more than 3,000 Farsi-speaking students the first-ever accredited theological bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Farsi. Over the summer, Southeastern staff and faculty were able to meet and train these students in person, encouraging them to endure and remain faithful to Jesus even amid persecution. Southeastern’s Persian students are part of one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world, and these Farsi-speaking Christians are uniquely positioned to lead a growing missionary movement in Europe and the Middle East.
In December, Southeastern announced its new Center for Biblical Text and Translation, slated to launch in fall 2023. The center will provide translation resources Bible translators, missionaries, and ministry leaders worldwide and will help to improve the quality of major English Bible translations and critical editions of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. The center’s operational staff will include six research associates who will receive full funding for their Ph.D. studies at Southeastern; a stipend with benefits, including insurance; and free campus housing. Applications are open for fall 2023. To learn more or to apply, visit the Center for Biblical Text and Translation page.
