Profiles

Mark Labberton is the Clifford L. Penner Presidential Chair Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Fuller Seminary. He served as Fuller’s fifth president through 2022, after being appointed to the position in 2013. As Fuller’s president, Dr. Labberton brought to his leadership a deep awareness of the urgency of the gospel of Jesus Christ—and a passion for the vital role that Fuller Seminary plays in the enactment of that gospel. For Labberton, this urgency was informed by a sense of the critical and unique contribution Fuller is called to make to the global church.

Freedom and joy are concepts Labberton intentionally infused into his presidency, committing to lead with openness and a spirit of gratitude. With his long history in pastoral ministry, he brought relational warmth and an authentic concern for the individual. In his term as president Labberton led with a vision for preparing Christian leaders holistically for their callings, nurturing each student’s personal, spiritual, academic, and global formation.

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 bachelor’s 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 had served for 16 years as senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, California, when he joined Fuller’s faculty in 2009 as Lloyd John Ogilvie Associate Professor of Preaching and director of the newly established Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching (now Brehm Preaching—A Lloyd John Ogilvie Initative). 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 Seminary’s fifth president.

As rich as his pastoral experience has been, Labberton brought more than that to his leadership role at Fuller. “My interest in ministry has always been defined by the needs and realities of the world,” he has said, and an intentional awareness of God’s work in the global church 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), cochair 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.

In addition to publishing articles in such periodicals as The Atlantic, Christianity Today, Sojourners, and Radix, Labberton has authored the books Called: The Crisis and Promise of Following Jesus Today (2014), The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus (2010), and The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice (2007). He is the host of the podcast Conversing, produced by FULLER studio, where he speaks with a broad spectrum of leaders on issues at the heart of the seminary’s mission.