Southwestern elects undergraduate school deans

FORT WORTH, Texas — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees have elected two of their own board members as deans of the seminary’s newly formed undergraduate program.

During their April 6 meeting, trustees elected their chairman, David Allen, as dean of the theology school and Denny Autrey, chairman of the trustees’ academic affairs committee, as dean of the J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston.

Allen, pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving and professor of expository preaching at Criswell College in Dallas, has been a seminary trustee since 1992. The board voted to create the Southwestern Center for Expository Preaching and charged Allen with developing it. At his alma mater Criswell College, Allen directed the Jerry Vines Institute for Biblical Preaching. He earned a master’s of divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary and a doctor of philosophy in humanities degree from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Autrey, pastor of First Baptist Church, Lindale, since 1996, will serve as chief resident officer for the seminary’s theological center in Houston. He is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University and holds master’s of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern.