A recent chapel service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary exhorted students to champion the sanctity of life, both today and in future ministry assignments.
“This is the business of the Lord’s church: to stand right in the middle of all of the spiritual attack in this space and to advocate for the unborn,” said Jonathan Teague, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church’s North Campus and an adjunct professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS).
On the platform, Teague was joined by Leanne Jamieson, executive director of Prestonwood Pregnancy Center, which is located on the campus of SWBTS in Fort Worth, Texas. The pregnancy center was founded by Prestonwood Baptist Church. Approximately 35 years ago, the church launched Prestonwood Pregnancy Center ministries, which presently serves 32,000 clients a year.
Prestonwood Baptist Church’s historic pro-life commitment certainly added weight and credibility to Teague’s passionate words at the chapel service on September 25. The pastor/professor referenced Genesis 1:26 (“Let us make mankind in our image….”) and Psalm 139 (“For You created my inmost being….”) in making a theological case for defending life.
“I would say this morning—to those who feel called to preach, who will be serving the Lord and advancing the work of God’s kingdom through the local church and beyond—that this position is a biblical position. Our view on the sanctity of life—the sacredness of all life, including those yet to be born…— (is clear). We see right here from the pages of God’s inerrant Word that the Lord holds those little ones with immense value.”
“[In Scripture], Imago Dei (the image of God) is a declaration of life,” Jamieson said.
Jamieson noted that this year Prestonwood Pregnancy Center has had more than 1,200 client visits with expectant mothers or couples, with 45 choosing to keep their babies just in the first month after opening.
Although the overturning of Roe v. Wade effectively allowed Texas and other states to make abortion illegal, online access to abortion pills has kept it relatively easy for women to end pregnancies.
“Back when I started 10 years ago, we were still having discussions in the sonogram room about whether or not that child on that ultrasound screen was a baby,” Jamieson said in a Baptist Press article. “Do you know that no longer is the discussion? The discussion now centers around, ‘What is this going to do to my life?’”
Jamieson explained that the center goes beyond being a medical clinic and a place that provides essential resources such as diapers and bottles.
“We know that there are immediate needs that that young woman or that young couple may have, and we’re going to address those felt needs, but eventually we’re going to get to their true need, and that’s the need of a Savior,” she said in a Baptist Press article.
At the chapel service, Jamieson stressed the need for more churches to engage in pro-life ministry, lamenting the reality that some pastors may see abortion as a political issue.
“Fewer pastors are standing in the pulpit and proclaiming the truth,” she said. “This, at its heart, is not a political issue. It is a spiritual issue that feeds political decisions. And we aren’t going to see the end of abortion if we don’t have revival in our lands through a movement of Christ Jesus…”
Meanwhile, Teague encouraged the students not to fear the “messiness” that comes with this kind of ministry.
“[Ministry] is not always convenient, or even comfortable, but friends it is necessary that we love people in the way that Jesus would love them…”
“Young pastors in this room, leaders, you have a role to play in this ministry in the days ahead. You need to be championing this from your pulpit. You need to be championing this in your ministry.”