Our Lives

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

Malcolm serves Baptists and other free churches as Research Professor of Theology at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is also the 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. Malcolm is an academic who believes the church has institutional priority and finds great joy in exploring the truth of God in classrooms around the world.

He is currently writing the third part of a popular-level dogmatics called Theology for Every Person. The individual volumes are God (Nashville, 2024), Word (Nashville, 2026), and Spirit (Nashville, forthcoming 2028). 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 short 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 11 monographs and edited 23 volumes, while publishing over 165 other academic and popular essays on biblical theology, classical theology, theological method, Baptist history and identity, evangelical history and identity, religious liberty, and practical theology. He earned advanced degrees in biblical studies, historical theology, and systematic theology 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 has mentored 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, recently served with his wife, Victoria, in a church plant in London, and is a photographer. Graham, having completed a double major in Philosophy and English at Oklahoma Baptist University, now teaches in a Christian school in Oklahoma, where he and his wife, Gracie, reside. Kathryn has just completed a bachelor’s degree at the University of London. Elizabeth is beginning her journey with a double major at Southern Methodist University.