Home Christian News Mark Labberton Hopes His Successor at Fuller Seminary Will Be a Woman...

Mark Labberton Hopes His Successor at Fuller Seminary Will Be a Woman or a Person of Color

Johnson, who now pastors a church in downtown Seattle, said the new leader will have to balance being “academically excellent, at the same time pastorally relevant.” He was at Fuller for 16 years.

He lauded the seminary’s online programs for adapting to a changing demographic of students who sought the convenience of virtual learning. Once COVID-19 struck, Johnson said, “it wasn’t new for us.”

Johnson said seminaries in general have been under siege in recent years for a number of reasons, including a decline in church attendance and polarization across the country, including in “our churches over race, gender.”

“We realize that right now the church is in need of really well-trained pastors and pastors that can be innovative and nimble,” Johnson said. “Under Mark’s presidency, that’s one of the things we really focused on, is maintaining our academic integrity, at the same time realizing that life on the ground for those in ministry is a lot different.”

Johnson said Fuller has added courses in spiritual formation to help sustain people in ministry and has focused on presenting the gospel “in a way that can be heard by a variety of voices.”

“Urban churches are increasingly becoming multicultural as well as multigenerational, and being sensitive to that in terms of how you don’t privilege one group over another … those are issues that are addressed really head-on in all of Fuller’s classes,” Johnson said.

“I think now is the opportunity for us to consider things that may not have been considered in the past,” he added.

But for former student Trista Eazell, it’s been hard to effect real change at Fuller. Eazell petitioned to end discrimination toward LGBTQ students at Fuller and sought to raise awareness of the lawsuit filed by the students who were expelled.

About a year ago, Eazell decided to transfer from Fuller to United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Once COVID-19 struck, and without people on campus, Eazell said she felt “stuck with what we could do” in advocating for LGBTQ students.

Plus, she felt that online learning during the pandemic was “disorganized.” Eazell was unaware if the quality of online learning improved as the pandemic went on, but said she felt it wasn’t interactive enough while she was still at Fuller.

Eazell, who is working toward her master’s of divinity at her new school, said she’d hope to see a woman of color, who is a part of the LGBTQ movement, as the next president of the seminary. Eazell said she’s not sure that will happen, though.

To Eazell, the climate at Fuller has seemed to be: “If we can be racially progressive, or seem to be, and progressive for women, then that’s enough.

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Molina most recently served as Journalist in Residence at the University of Southern California (USC) and as Equitable Cities Fellow at Next City. She has worked at The Press-Enterprise, La Prensa and OC Excelsior, and The Orange County Register. In 2018, she was named one of the 15 most influential Latina journalists by Latino Journalists of California. She has also received fellowships from the Center for Health Journalism at USC and the Institute for Justice and Journalism. Alejandra is a native Spanish speaker. She received her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of La Verne.