FORT WORTH (BP) — Adam Groza didn’t grow up Southern Baptist, so when a friend suggested he check out Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he said, “I had never heard of Southwestern Seminary. I didn’t know about Southern Baptist seminaries, quite frankly.”
Now he is approaching his first anniversary as president of Gateway Seminary, the Southern Baptist Convention’s only seminary in the western United States.
Groza began as the eighth president of Gateway in May 2024 and described his first year as “joyful, energizing, encouraging.” He expressed gratitude for the journey that brought him there, including the role Southwestern Seminary played in his leadership development.
Groza was born in California but moved to Phoenix as a child when his dad was transferred there. Growing up in a family of faith, he said his parents made sure they went to churches where the Gospel was preached. He decided to follow Christ during a church summer camp when he was 16 years old.
“I had made earlier professions of faith, and so I probably would’ve told you I was rededicating my life, but I think, in hindsight, that was actually when I was born again,” he said.
After high school, Groza went on to study at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
“For me, it was an amazing experience because being at a public university where my faith was constantly, sort of, challenged, and being a Christ follower wasn’t ‘the cool thing,’ it had the effect in my life of making me really want to study the Bible,” Groza recalled.
As his undergraduate studies were coming to an end, Groza found himself wanting to learn more about God’s Word and theology.
