Celebrating Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell: Our 2025 Distinguished Graduate Award Winner!
We are thrilled and incredibly proud to announce that Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell, Class of 2020, has been selected as our 2025 Distinguished Graduate Award Winner! The entire Saint Paul community celebrates this well-deserved recognition of Ben’s extraordinary ministry and his profound impact on the world.
Meet Ben: Changemaker, Leader, Saint Paul Alum
Ben Boswell is a dynamic preacher, passionate pastor, thoughtful author, dedicated educator, and inspirational social justice leader who has courageously led anti-racist spiritual formation work for people racialized as white and white-dominant organizations. His journey to this transformative work includes service as a U.S. Army Officer and academic excellence at Campbell University (B.A., cum laude), Duke Divinity School (M.Div., magna cum laude), and right here at Saint Paul School of Theology, where he earned his D.Min. with distinction.
Throughout his meaningful 20-year ministry career, Ben has touched countless lives as Senior Pastor of three different congregations and as an active interfaith community leader. For nine years, he served as the Senior Minister of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, where his leadership inspired deep community engagement.
We couldn’t be prouder of how Ben has put his Saint Paul education into action! During his doctoral studies with us, he developed “Confronting Whiteness,” a groundbreaking nine-week spiritual formation course for anti-racism work. Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Ben began offering this transformative program to his community. What started as a local initiative has blossomed beautifully – today, more than 1,000 people across 15 states and three countries have participated in the program! The work has grown into an annual conference drawing over 250 attendees and nurtures a community of more than 700 people committed to becoming anti-racist in their spheres of influence.
Ben has also shared his wisdom through two essential books: For the Facing of this Hour: Preaching that Resists White Christian Nationalism (2022) and Confronting Whiteness: A Spiritual Journey of Reflection, Conversation, and Transformation (2022).
In 2021, at just 40 years old, Ben received Charlotte’s prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Medallion – the city’s highest honor for those promoting racial equality, social justice, and community service. Through it all, Ben’s most significant source of pride is being a father to his wonderful 15-year-old daughter.
The Distinguished Graduate Award: Celebrating Excellence
Each year at Commencement, we honor one outstanding alum who embodies Saint Paul’s mission and values through their ministry. Recipients like Ben live out our commitment to being centered in Christ. They demonstrate the power of intentional relationships and formation for innovative ministry through rigorous academic life, deep exploration of Scripture and tradition, and diverse, contextual experience.
Our Distinguished Graduates, like Ben, bring to life our core values by being:
- Christ-centered, prophetic, and evangelistic
- Formed in justice, integrity, and faithful experience
- Contextual, diverse, relevant, and inclusive
- Committed to both intellectual excellence and faithful practice
- Builders of community in challenging contemporary contexts
- Champions for peace and justice through theological dialogue
- Innovators using multiple approaches to ministry
Celebrate With Us!
We invite you to join us for Commencement on Friday, May 16, at 11:00 AM CT. You can participate online via Facebook or join us at our Kansas or Oklahoma campus. Together, we’ll celebrate our Class of 2025, enjoy an inspiring message from keynote speaker Bishop Laura Merrill, and honor Ben with his much-deserved Distinguished Graduate Award.
To RSVP for Commencement and explore other Commencement Week activities, please visit https://www.spst.edu/commencement/.
We hope to see you there as we celebrate Ben’s remarkable achievements and the positive difference he continues to make in our world!