Mark Labberton
Mark Labberton was born in Yakima, Washington, an agricultural town in Eastern Washington State. He has been married to Janet Labberton for 42 years, and they have two adult sons. Mark did an undergraduate degree in English Literature at Whitman College, his MDiv at Fuller Theological Seminary, and his PhD in hermeneutics at Cambridge University. Mark was ordained in the Presbyterian Church USA in 1982, and served has primarily served as a pastor (twice at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, as well as in Carmel, CA, and in Wayne, Pennsylvania). In 2009, he became a professor of preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary, where, in 2013, Mark became its fifth president. He concluded his presidency at the end of 2022, and is now professor and president-emeritus, primarily writing, preaching, and speaking. Mark serves as a trustee for International Justice Mission. His podcast, Conversing, is distributed by Fuller Seminary and Comment Magazine. He instigated what became another podcast, Credible Witness.
Mark’s faith has been marked by the shocking surprise of the gospel: the breadth and depth of God’s redeeming love and justice in Jesus Christ that reorders everything. This means discipleship is about a life of worship, of continuous learning, of living and serving as part of a new communion of unlike people in Christ (the Church), and who live and love to make God visible and tangible in the world, not least in places of pain, need, and marginalization. His forty-year involvement in global theological education has been one of his life’s greatest joys and primary commitments.
Books authored or edited include:
The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice
The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus
Still Evangelical? Insiders Consider Political, Social, and Theological Meaning
Called: The Promise and Challenge of Following Jesus Today
Many articles and chapters of other publications and books.
