by Tony van der Hiele

The Canadian Baptist Theological Seminary and College is deeply committed to teaching students to love God with all of their hearts and souls and minds. Loving God with their minds happens in the classroom and through coursework, but loving God with heart and soul goes beyond. Through conversations outside classes, journey groups, and weekly chapel, CBT aims to foster an environment where students grow deeper in loving God. CBT’s annual Spiritual Emphasis Week is an intentional component toward spiritual growth and alignment with God’s will.

This special week in the first month of the semester features daily chapel services dedicated to worship, prayer, teaching, and reflection—a time when students, faculty, and staff are all on common ground, serving one Lord. “God has consistently done something very special during this week,” noted CBT President Dr. Rob Blackaby before introducing Pastor Tommy Swindol. Year after year, God provides speakers whose messages resonate deeply with what He is already stirring in our community—a truth that proved especially evident this year.

Pastor Tommy Swindol flew in from Nashville, TN, to speak and share his heart at SEW 2026. Tommy is a leader with Kingdom vision and a heart for those under his leadership to bring health and a strong gospel witness wherever God assigns them. “I have encountered only a few outside the Canadian National Baptist Convention family who speaks our language—who gets us,” said CBT’s President by way of introduction, “because the church he pastors is actively giving themselves away.” Tommy has been in pastoral ministry for over twenty years. He served in Detroit for seven years, and fourteen years ago, God moved him to Nashville, to The Donelson Fellowship, where he served as a young adult pastor before becoming lead pastor.

At the start of Spiritual Emphasis Week, Tommy shared something about himself that set the tone for the week: “The best way I know to be a shepherd is to be open, honest, and vulnerable about my life.” He put that into practice, and throughout the week he invited students to chat with him, grab a coffee, and share their stories; he also gave out his contact details without restraint or conditions. The SEW 2026 speaker modelled openness and vulnerability by inviting the audience to write down questions and answering them openly from the platform. Showing his passion for discipleship, he welcomed students into his life and came with a heart ready to enter into theirs. God worked through Tommy’s approachability and his deeply relatable, relevant messages.

Tommy opened his first session with a simple question: “What do you pray about?”

Drawing on Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1:9, he pointed out that God doesn’t just care about what we do; he cares about what and who we love, and he urged his listeners to pray for that love to abound more and more. On the second day, Tommy emphasized that God requires emptiness before he fills us, based on 1 Kings 4, where the poor widow collected empty jars, and God kept pouring oil. The theme of stepping out of the shadows surfaced in the third session, when Tommy connected the sinful woman’s anointing of Jesus in Luke 7 to encouraging the community to be real and to trust that, whatever baggage they may carry, God can handle it. “When we bring what was in secret into the light, it loses the power over us!” With these words, Tommy invited everyone present to step out of the shadows, encouraging them that the CBT community is a safe environment to be vulnerable. On the last day, Tommy unpacked John 3, challenging his audience to treasure Jesus above everything else, and reminding everyone that in God’s Kingdom we serve for His glory, not our own.

The clusters of people praying after the sessions showed that God was doing a work in the lives of those present. Whether God’s work in hearts was purification, healing, pruning, restoration, or something else, we desire His work to continue in and through our students. It is paramount in preparing students for leadership in tough places and goes hand in hand with coursework, assignments, and academic efforts. Charis Vedoya, a student in the Bachelor of Christian Ministry program, shared, “It was amazing to see how the topics in each session pointed directly to something I’d been wrestling with—a situation or question I was already sitting with. Even better, I kept noticing connections between the sermons and what I was learning in class!” She continued, “There’s something so affirming about seeing that kind of consistency—God’s character and the message He’s speaking into my life lining up again and again.” Luisa Toteda, CBT’s Admissions Coordinator, observed how Tommy valued caring deeply and fostering relationships over numbers: “Just like Jesus!” Noticing how closely Tommy’s messages and perspectives align with the heart of CBT, she remarked that “turning eyes and hearts to Jesus…cannot be emphasized enough!”

As students dive deeper into the semester, we pray that what God started during this special week will continue throughout the year, with hearts open and vulnerable before Him, teachable to everything He shows, and ultimately ready to go to the tough places He assigns, determined to treasure Jesus above all else.

Spiritual Emphasis Week is always open to guests and available online on CBT’s YouTube Page.

To learn more about how you can receive training to fulfill God’s call on your life, start here.