June 11, 2025 (Dallas) -- Gateway Seminary President Adam Groza began his report to messengers at the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas, June 10-11, with a message of gratitude for Southern Baptist churches.

“Your Seminary in the West owes its existence, its strength, its growth, its impact, and its longevity to the work of God through Southern Baptists churches,” he said. The commitment of Southern Baptists to both the Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message is essential to the education of seminary students, Groza said.

“Brothers and sisters, it is with profound gratitude to God and to the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention that I report to you today that Gateway Seminary is healthy, we are growing, and we focused”

He reported on growth at Gateway Seminary in both academic programs and funding.

The seminary launched a Spanish master’s degree in the 2024-2025 academic year, the third language program alongside the Chinese-English and Korean-English bilingual programs.

“We are striving to meet the needs of all Southern Baptist churches and removing barriers to Christ-centered theological education,” he said.

Additionally, the Seminary established a number of strategic partnerships, including the establishment of the 4+1 Program with California Baptist University (CBU). Students in the 4+1 Program can earn a bachelor’s degree in CBU’s school of Christian Ministries and a master of biblical and theological studies at Gateway Seminary in only five years. 

Groza said this program will “create an expedited pipeline of ministry leaders for the churches of the West and for global missions.”

A $2 million gift was donated to the Go Grant fund, an endowment that provides free short-term missions opportunities for every Gateway student. The Go Grant endowment was established through a $2 million gift in 2023. The now $4 million fund will send Gateway students overseas on short-term trips for class credit in perpetuity. 

“Some of these students will answer the call to missions, but all of them will return to their local church to more effectively and enthusiastically champion the biblical cause of global missions,” he said. 

Groza also shared with messengers recent developments regarding Gateway’s properties. The campus in Fremont, California, is in a relocation process this summer to San Leandro, California. The sale of the property in Fremont will add $7 million to the Land Sale Endowment, originally established through the sale of the Mill Valley Campus, and create a $3 million scholarship fund.

“These new scholarship funds will help Gateway students complete their seminary training debt-free while serving in their local church,” he said.

At the primary campus in Ontario, California, a solar panel construction project was completed that will save an estimated $120,000 per year in utility costs.

Groza ended his report with another acknowledgment of the Seminary’s dependence on faithful Southern Baptists.

“Thank you for the faithful support you give and thank you for the amazing students you send,” Groza said. 

“Thank you for upholding us in prayer as we endeavor to glorify God by remaining faithful to His Word as we carry out our mission of shaping leaders who expand God’s kingdom around the world.”

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