Fuller Seminary names Labberton next president

PASADENA, Calif. — With one foot in the church and the other in the academy, Mark Labberton said he is ready for his new role as president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., the world’s largest multidenominational seminary. He was the unanimous choice after trustees considered 250 nominees.

Labberton, who turned 60 on March 23, served for 16 years as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, Calif., a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation near the University of California campus. From there, he returned to Fuller, where he earned his master’s degree, in 2009 to serve as a Fuller preaching professor and director of its Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching.

Labberton is a disciple of the late John Stott, considered by many as a kind of “evangelical pope” who fostered evangelical scholarship and crafted the 1974 Lausanne Covenant, a statement of belief that unified evangelicals worldwide.