Our Lives

Malcolm and Karen Yarnell serve their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as teachers and authors. 

Malcolm serves the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention as Research Professor of Theology at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Managing Editor of the Southwestern Journal of Theology. He also serves the Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas as Teaching Pastor and is a Member of the Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Christian Unity with the Baptist World Alliance.

He is currently writing the second part of a 3-volume popular-level dogmatics called Theology for Every Person. The individual volumes are entitled God, Word, and Spirit. Malcolm and David S. Dockery, President of Southwestern Seminary, just completed a major dogmatics volume, Special Revelation and Scripture (Nashville, 2024). His other recent books include a biblical theology, Who Is the Holy Spirit? (Nashville, 2019), and a philosophical theology, John Locke’s “Letters of Gold” (Oxford, 2017). His most widely reviewed volumes include a biblical theology, God the Trinity (Nashville, 2016), an historical theology, Royal Priesthood in the English Reformation (Oxford, 2014), and a theological method, The Formation of Christian Doctrine (Nashville, 2007).

Malcolm has written 10 monographs and edited 18 volumes, while publishing over 160 other academic and popular essays. He earned advanced degrees in theology, history, and biblical studies from Oxford University (2000), Duke University (1996), and Southwestern Seminary (1991). After completing a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Malcolm served for over two decades as the Chief Financial Officer of a real estate investment corporation.

The 60 research students he mentors include  church, university, and denominational leaders in the United States, Germany, Ukraine, China, India, Korea, Nigeria, Chile, and the Middle East. His next three projects include a book on Eighteenth Century London Baptists, a volume on Baptist Ecclesiology co-edited with Bart Barber, and a book on Anabaptist Theology co-authored with Michael Wilkinson.

Karen is a popular speaker for women’s conferences and has contributed essays on the Trinity, on women as teachers, and on family Bible teaching. She regularly serves Southwestern Seminary as Adjunct Professor of Women’s Studies, focusing upon courses in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Karen received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from the University of North Texas and a Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Having read applied theology at the University of Oxford, England, she is currently writing her Master of Theology thesis on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Malcolm and Karen are blessed to be the earthly parents of such virtuous young men as Truett, Matthew, and Graham, and of such gracious young women as Kathryn and Elizabeth. Truett is a Dallas banker, and he and his wife, Ashlyn, are new parents. Matthew, having completed a Master’s degree at the University of Arts, London, now serves with his wife, Victoria, in a church plant in London. Graham, having completed a double major in Philosophy and English at Oklahoma Baptist University, now serves a local church in Shawnee. Kathryn is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the University of London.