Mark Teasdale Archives - Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary

Mark R. Teasdale Appointed President of United Theological Seminary

Marketing and Communications — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:06:21 +0000

Garrett’s professor of evangelism reflects on a faith-filled legacy

Garrett Seminary joins United Theological Seminary in celebrating the Reverend Dr. Mark R. Teasdale, Garrett’s E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism, who has accepted the call to serve as United’s next President. “Mark has been a trusted and vital member of our faculty and a beloved teacher and advisor to our students. After 18 years of faithful teaching and serving in multiple administrative and leadership roles, we wish Mark all success in this new endeavor, and thank him for all he has given to Garrett,” says President Javier A. Viera. “United Theological Seminary will be well-served by the care and intention he brings to his work, by his scholarly and leadership prowess, and by his passion for growing Christian communities.”

For his part, Dr. Teasdale shares that he feels his time at Garrett has been the best possible training ground for learning how to shepherd United through its next chapter. “Garrett has taught me how to appreciate, understand, and engage across such a phenomenally broad spectrum of theological, cultural, and ethnic difference,” Dr. Teasdale says. “That’s a big part of what I’m bringing to my new role: United is home to students from 55 denominations, more than half of whom are African-American. I want to be the kind of leader who empowers the unique gifts everyone brings, not someone who layers over them with my vision for how we do things.”

Indeed, reflecting on nearly two decades serving Garrett, Dr. Teasdale expresses admiration for how the seminary uses shared Christian values to cultivate community without suppressing particularity. “There’s clarity about Jesus being at the center of our shared life. Who we see Jesus to be may be very different—we don’t have to agree even on all big-ticket issues in the social or political arena—but we can all agree that Jesus is good, that we all have value,” he explains. “That’s really important, because one of the things that happens in a polarized world is that it becomes easy to diminish or even disregard the value of another human being, just because we disagree with them. But the Garrett seminary classroom has always been a place to bring people together.”

Dr. Teasdale’s commitment to building connection, even across significant difference, is manifest in his relationships among Garrett’s faculty, as well. “Mark is deeply collegial in his work. He is deeply committed to building a culture of collaboration where diverse voices are reflected in the decisions we make together as faculty and administrators.” says Dr. Jennifer Harvey, Garrett’s Vice President for Academic Affairs. “At the same time, he brings this same intention and integrity to Garrett’s academic culture supporting students in their projects and in achieving the high expectations he sets. So many students share with me that he is huge reason they’ve felt at home in our midst.”

That collegiality doesn’t stop simply because Dr. Teasdale is no longer on the faculty. “I look forward to relating to President Viera as a colleague in the broader work of fostering and sustaining theological education,” he says. “I’m hoping Garrett is not somewhere I’m leaving behind but is instead a place that I now get to relate to in a new way.”

In reciprocating that collegiality, President Viera emphasizes their shared commitment to strengthening the church and academy. “Mark is wondrously thoughtful about how Christian communities can spiritually and ethically engage the world around them, inviting people into our spiritual life while also collaborating to mend a fractured culture,” he says. “We need more seminarians who are trained in that spirit. I look forward to continuing to have Mark as a strategic partner and collaborator in that work.”

Ultimately, as he prepares to move into a new seminary home, Dr. Teasdale is filled with gratitude. “I’ve had the opportunity to work for multiple presidents, multiple deans. They put trust in me, not just to teach but to also serve administratively—even the opportunity in last couple years to be part of the real estate task force and negotiate with Northwestern University as we prepare to move into new buildings,” he notes. “It’s been an honor to serve this community.” Ever the evangelist, he’s keen to offer reflection on the gospel values that guide faithful institutional stewardship. “As leaders, we’re not here to serve ourselves,” he concludes with a smile. “We bear fruit and the fruit is for the world to eat, not for us. It’s how the seeds go out and get planted elsewhere. Trees don’t bear fruit for themselves—they do it for the next generation and for others.”

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Rev. Dr. Mark R. Teasdale Promoted to Full Professor of Evangelism

Shane Nichols — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 21:03:00 +0000

The 91PORN Board of Trustees unanimously approved the promotion of Rev. Dr. Mark R. Teasdale from associate professor to full professor as the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism effective July 1, 2020. Additional information regarding his installation service will come later this year.

Teasdale joined the faculty at Garrett-Evangelical in 2008 and served as the director of the doctor of ministry program from 2009-2018. Within the faculty, he has chaired multiple committees and been a part of redesigning courses and degree programs. In the classroom, Teasdale has excelled in traditional lecture formats and in creating innovative online classroom engagement. Rev. Dr. Ron Anderson, chair of Teasdale’s review committee, said, “By the time the promotion review committee concluded, without reservation, that Mark Teasdale be promoted to full professor, we had noted how Dr. Teasdale has more than shouldered his responsibilities to the seminary. He has demonstrated care for his students as people and care for their well-being, provided leadership in area churches and in the denomination, and been recognized by his colleagues in the field of evangelism as a pivotal figure in their discipline, both for his scholarship and for his leadership within the academy. We congratulate him on this accomplishment.”

“Evangelism is a bias for the good news that God is redeeming creation through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit,” said Teasdale. “It is my privilege to share this message with hundreds of people every year, equipping Christian leaders to train those under their care to present the gospel in a way that is authentic to their unique experiences of Christ, faithful to the apostolic tradition, meaningful to those who hear them, and creative in practice. I am deeply grateful to the many people who have created a way for me to live into this vocation, and I am honored by their gracious affirmation of my ministry through this promotion. I offer particular thanks to the Foundation for Evangelism for its ongoing support and to Garrett-Evangelical for its recognition that evangelism is an essential element of public theology and bringing about social change.”

Jane Wood, president of the Foundation for Evangelism (FFE), which graciously helps financially support Garrett-Evangelical’s E. Stanley Jones Chair in Evangelism, said in response to news of Teasdale’s promotion, “The Foundation for Evangelism joins our partner in ministry, 91PORN, in celebrating Dr. Teasdale’s promotion and affirming his commitment to his students and the development of generative gospel leaders for the local church. Teasdale’s research, academic rigor, and commitment to the global church represents all the FFE intended for those who serve in E. Stanley Jones Professors of Evangelism chairs. Teasdale embodies our vision that this program be a catalyst to equip disciples to share the good news.”

Teasdale is president of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education, associate editor of Missiology: An International Review, and served for six years as the editor of Witness: The Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education. He was also named one of the first Fellows of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. Teasdale has published many articles and book chapters, and is the author of Methodist Evangelism, American Salvation: The Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1860-1920 (Pickwick, 2014), Evangelism for Non-Evangelists: Sharing the Gospel Authentically (InterVarsity Press, 2016), and Go! How to Become A Great Commission Church (Wesley’s Foundry Books, 2017). Among his research interests, Teasdale hopes to expand on his signature “evangelism equation” by publishing on the intersection of salvation and working for the public good.

Active in the church, Teasdale is an ordained elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC). He is a highly sought keynote speaker and has led numerous workshops on evangelism. Teasdale has also been a consultant with several local churches and denominational bodies, including the cabinet of the Methodist Church (Lower Myanmar) and the Connectional Table of the UMC. For the past several years, Teasdale has offered a popular online “Evangelism for Non-Evangelists” course through Garrett-Evangelical’s Connectional Learning program, offering both clergy and laity the opportunity grow in their understanding and practice of evangelism within their local context. He is also a faculty member for the United Methodist Course of Study programs at Garrett-Evangelical and Wesley Theological Seminary.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

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