THE KUKMIN DAILY

“If you’re a follower of Christ, you need to demonstrate with your modest and true life what Christianity says. A Christian needs to live the life of one who is called. Vocation is about God’s call for our entire life.”

So explained President Mark Labberton (61·photo) on October 29 at a recent interview with Kukmin Daily during his first visit to Korea, about what he meant when he said, “One of the great crises of the church around the world today is the break between what we say and what we do.”

Since President Labberton was inaugurated as the fifth president of Fuller Theological Seminary in July last year, he has been implementing various changes in the school, including its curriculum. Summed up as “formation of Christian leaders called to global Kingdom vocations,” the core of the targeted changes is about making Christian studies a good influence on the reality.

He recently published “Called: The Crisis and Promise of Following Jesus Today” (IVP·InterVarsity Press), which emphasizes that the vocation of all Christians is to be followers of Jesus. He said, “We’re all called first and foremost to be followers of Jesus, and to live that out to make differences in the world to fulfill God’s purpose in many different ways. This not only includes pastors. The primary call that God gives is to the whole church, to everyone who follows Jesus.”

During his college years, when he majored in English, Labberton had a sort of fear of the Christian faith. If one had a religion, he thought, then one must devote him- or herself to that religion, thereby blocking creative, joyful or socially active life. His father, a scientist and engineer, was strongly critical of the Christian religion, thinking that religion restrained a person’s life.

“When I started reading the Bible myself, however, I was surprised to learn that Jesus, too, speaks strongly about the religious people of that time for taking great things and narrowing them down to something ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’” President Labberton said. “I would like to tell those scholars and thoughtful people who believe the Christian faith may restrain life, that the Kingdom of God expands our thinking, intellect, and heart. If you live in the Kingdom of God, you’ll learn how God’s love and mercy, imagination and justice work within the reality of this world. Faith doesn’t restrain you. It enriches you.”

President Labberton served the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley (PCUSA), California, for 16 years. His special relationship with Fuller began in 2009 when he became the director of the Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching. In particular, he was also the research assistant of Rev. John Stott, a great leader of world evangelism. They first met 30 years ago at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. From then on, he worked closely with John Stott Ministries and Langham Partnership, founded by Rev. Stott. From Stott, President Labberton said, he learned humility and poverty.

“We were in Madras, India, for a lecture event. A friend of his, an Episcopal priest in Thailand who was originally from India, asked Rev. Stott if he could visit his elderly mother, who lived in Madras, while we were there. So one afternoon, we tried find her. We didn’t have her address; all the information we had was that she lived somewhere in ‘the region of Madras.’ Eventually, after more than a few hours of wandering and asking around, and after going through several layers of small, dark houses, we finally met her in a small, inside courtyard. This friend had communicated with his mother that John Stott would come to see her if he ever visited Madras. But we didn’t know that, and she didn’t know he was coming. Upon her request, Rev. Stott spoke about the Gospel and prayed for her. That was a very important moment for my understanding of what the life of a follower of Christ is like. I had known him as a big, public, international scholar and figure, and here he was living as an authentic disciple in an invisible way and loving this woman and this friend so much. Rev. Stott was the son of a very upper-class English family. When he became a Christian, however, he underwent a huge life change. It was not just that he became a follower of Jesus and went on living an upper-class English life. Over time, following Jesus led him to change the world of people he related to, and to live simply and humbly.”

This experience is related to the “vocation” that President Labberton emphasizes. “We don’t just need spiritually right doctrines; we want to be spiritually transformed. We’re meant to be people who take every thought of ours captive of Jesus Christ. But often this does not happen in the church. Pastors try to conform themselves to the images of certain successful pastors, which has nothing to do with becoming like Christ, but is just becoming like another pastor. It’s a failure of spiritual transformation.”

President Labberton gave a proactive clarification of "Fuller’s recognition of a gay club," which raised controversies in July last year. “Fuller maintains a very traditional and biblical vision of the family and the role of sexual relationships within the context of heterosexual marriage. This is stated in the Community Standards that the Fuller faculty, staff and student body signs to abide by. The club “One Table” was a student group begun to create an opportunity for student conversations on issues of human sexuality and gender. Not the contents, but the way the article published in the New York Times /AP was translated and broadcast into Korean, raised many questions. It was a clear miscommunication.”

He also expressed the desire to learn from the Korean church. “Fuller would like to cooperate with the Korean church in respectful way. The Korean church is a global force. It has made and is making extraordinary contributions to the global church. The American church has a great deal to learn.”

Fuller Theological Seminary is an interdenominational evangelical seminary founded in 1947. Internationally renowned missiology scholars Donald McGavran, Peter Wagner, Ralph Winter, and Paul Pierson are part of Fuller’s fame. There are several Korean scholars on the faculty including New Testament Prof. Kim Seyoon.

Reporter Sangmok Shin (smshin@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)

Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok


Click here for the original article in Korean

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