Dr. Mark Labberton Speaking at 2018 National Gathering
The Fellowship Community is excited to welcome Dr. Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Ca., to be an opening speaker at the 2018 National Gathering!
“A Washington State native, Labberton embraced a personal relationship with Jesus Christ on the threshold of his undergraduate years at Whitman College. After earning his bachelorʼs degree he came to Fuller for his MDiv, a time he calls “a tremendously influential season” in his life. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and began what was to become three decades of pastoral ministry —along the way meeting and marrying his life partner, Janet Morrison Labberton.
Labberton served for 16 years as senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, California, when he joined Fullerʼs faculty, in 2009, as Lloyd John Ogilvie Associate Professor of Preaching and director of the newly established Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching. In early 2013 he received the call to the presidency, succeeding Richard J. Mouw on his retirement, and on July 1, 2013, stepped into service as Fuller Seminaryʼs fifth president.
“My interest in ministry has always been defined by the needs and realities of the world,” he says, and an intentional awareness of God’s work in the global church has led him to deep friendships with leaders in the Majority World. In 1982 he cofounded the Christian International Scholarship Foundation (CISF) to help fund the advanced theological education of those Majority World leaders, and served on the CISF board for 17 years. He has also been chair of John Stott Ministries (which provides books, scholarships, and seminars for Majority World pastors), co-chair of the
John Stott Ministries Global Initiative Fund, and senior fellow of the International Justice Mission. Labberton has been a popular and well-traveled speaker for years, and has taught at New College Berkeley for Advanced Christian Studies.” – adapted from the Fuller Theological Seminary Profile