CHICAGO (ABP) — The head of British Baptists' mission agency will become the head of an American Baptist seminary, according to the Baptist World Alliance.
Alistair Brown, general director of BMS World Mission since 1996, has been selected to be the 10th president of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago.
The school's trustees elected Brown in early March, while he attended a BWA meeting in Hawaii.
The former journalist and ordained minister was born near Edinburgh, Scotland. Brown first worked as a church planter in Livingston, and served for more than 10 years as senior pastor at a church in Aberdeen, Scotland.
“Walking by faith never ends, so exploring this role is part of my faith journey,” he said, according to a seminary press release. “Christ is more real and more precious now than ever before, and my determination to know and do his will controls all my decisions.”
Announcing the move to the mission board's staff in Didcot, England, Brown said, “It has been one of the greatest privileges of my life to work for BMS. But nothing in this world is forever and I believe God has called me to something new, and for that reason, and only that reason, I'm willing to leave.”
The new seminary president holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Edinburgh and a master's degree in business from the Open University.
Brown is chairman of the BWA's membership committee. He is also a member of the general council, executive committee and several other panels and workgroups for the worldwide umbrella group for Baptists.
He is expected to begin his tenure at Northern Seminary at the beginning of the school's fall term.
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