SWBTS Summary of Findings: Prez. Adam Greenway Spent Money Like a Drunken Pirate (Ie: $59,865.79 for Christmas Decorations)
Nine months ago, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Adam Greenway was canned for being terrible at his job. Marked by a desire to reshape the seminary’s ethos in his own self-centered image, at least 45 faculty left under Greenway’s watch, either retiring, resigning, or simply being fired, such as the canning of the much-loved top professors David Allen and Robert Lopez.
We’ve been critical of Greenway’s poor leadership and low moral habits for years, with our grievances going back a decade and long before it was fashionable. From 2005 to 2015, Greenway was a trustee and board chairman for the largest retailer of heresy in the world, Lifeway Christian Resources, and we beat him up for overseeing the selling a litany of theologically-polluted wares.
With morale at SWBTS at an all-time low and full-time equivalent enrollment at SWBTS down nearly 30% from the last two years, Greenway dragged the seminary into massive debt, ensuring his vocational coil was swiftly snuffed out. The fact that he recently challenged the biblical definition of a pastor and claimed the Baptist Faith and Message 2000’s restriction of the pastorate to men likely applied only to the (biblically non-existent) office of “senior pastors” and not other ‘pastoral roles’ likely didn’t help matters either.
A new Summary of Findings released by the Southwestern Seminary Board of Trustees Task Force into the behavior of Greenway and the institutional failings at SWBTS is devastating. According to their report:
The task force concluded that Adam Greenway engaged in a pattern of spending that the task force believes did not reflect proper stewardship of seminary resources. This pattern of spending occurred without deference to financial controls and seminary financial policies.
Between 2019 and 2022, over $1.5 million was spent on renovations, furnishings, and related expenses to the President’s home. These expenditures were made at a time when the seminary was making significant budget cuts, including the reduction of faculty personnel and positions. Examples of expenses for the President’s home include $59,865.79 for Christmas decorations, more than $25,000 for artwork, and $11,123.49 for an espresso machine and accessories. Despite extensive renovations completed early in his tenure, further optional work was done on the President’s home in late 2021 when more than $180,000 was spent on HVAC work… $4,850.51 for the framing of personal diplomas.
They further report:
The task force found that a significant amount of the work done on the President’s home was carried out by the seminary’s facilities team, creating an unsustainable demand, and contributing to poor morale and high turnover. It was reported that employees were often asked to do the same job multiple times to meet Greenway’s demanding expectations. Multiple change orders were also true with outside contractors, increasing costs of the projects.
Between the summer of 2020 and early 2021, over $500,000 was spent on the President’s office, including renovations and furniture.
They conclude:
We grieve the pattern of poor stewardship evident in this summary of the task force’s findings. We wish to express our gratitude to those seminary employees who sought to enforce existing policies and challenge the pattern of spending noted above, even as their efforts were met with resistance.
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Is this guy even a Christian? Sounds like a typical worldling to me. Man, the SBC and it’s universities pick some truly sketchy people.