ARLINGTON – North Carolina pastor Mark Olson has been named president of the John Leland Center for Theological Studies, a Baptist-affiliated seminary in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Olson, who is pastor of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C., will assume his new duties in July. He succeeds founding president Randel Everett, who retired this year.
Mark Olson
Olson, pastor at Snyder Memorial since 2003, was earlier pastor of Thalia Lynn Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. He was active in Virginia Baptist life, serving as first vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia. He also has been a trustee of Averett Unversity in Danville and on the presidential board of advisors of Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C.
He holds degrees from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., as well as a doctorate in New Testament and early Christianity from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
He and his wife, Linda, have two children.
The Leland Center, organized in 1997, received full accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools last year and offers master of divinity and master of theological studies degrees at locations in Arlington and Newport News. Among its financial supporters is the Baptist General Association of Virginia.