Published on February 27, 2017 by Erin Bognar  
Matt cook

Matt Cook, a 1993 alumnus, will deliver Samford University’s annual Auchmuty Lecture March 7–8.

The lecture “The Gospel of a Dying Church” will take place at 10 a.m. March 7 in Reid Chapel. The lecture will be based on Luke 24:13–31.

“I’m going to take the present reality of the decline of North American church life, and look for signs of hope and renewal,” said Cook. “It’s more intellectual than personal.”

The lecture is free and open to the public.

A luncheon will be hosted at 11:30 a.m. in the Rotunda Club following the lecture for area clergy and faculty to visit with Cook. All Samford faculty are invited. The luncheon is free, but reservations are required.

Cook also will lead a March 8 roundtable with University Fellows, Samford’s undergraduate honors program, entitled “Virtues, Vices and the Intellectual Life.”

Cook is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, and a former moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. After graduating from Samford, he earned his Master of Divinity and Ph.D. from Baylor University.

The Auchmuty Lectures were established in 2004 by Birmingham’s Shades Crest Baptist Church in partnership with Samford’s Center for Congregational Resources. It honors James Auchmuty, retired former pastor of Shades Crest Baptist Church and a Samford graduate. The Center for Congregational Resources sponsors lectures, seminars, workshops, sabbaticals and study leaves for pastors and congregation leaders.

Erin Bognar is a journalism and mass communication major and a news and feature writer in the Division of Marketing and Communication.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.