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Dr. Mark Husbands Selected as Fifth President of Trinity Western University

Trinity Western University’s Board of Governors selected Dr. Mark Husbands to serve as the next president of Trinity Western University. Husbands was a “unanimous first choice,” and will succeed president Bob Kuhn on July 1, 2019.

Lorne Jacobson, chair of TWU’s Board of Governors, writes, “Mark has the credentials and experience to provide distinguished leadership, but more importantly, he has the heart and passion to provide servant leadership to our University and to advance the evangelical mission of TWU.”

Husbands is eager to serve as the fifth president at TWU, the leading Christian university in Canada. Upon receiving the news he was selected to serve in this role, he wrote of the unique privilege this is, and of his excitement to serve the Lord through this ministry at TWU.

With the noble goal of being a Christian university committed to developing godly Christian leaders to serve God and people in the various marketplaces of life, Trinity Western University has earned a stellar reputation for pursing excellence in Christian higher education. Eager to advance the kingdom of God by educating learners to seek, know and follow Christ in the totality of their lives, I am thrilled to accept the invitation to become the next President of Trinity Western University.

At present, Husbands serves at Northwestern College, Orange City, Iowa, as Vice-President for Academic Affairs (2016-present). Prior to this ministry in Christian education, he served as the Leonard and Marjorie Maas Chair of Reformed Theology (2007-2016) and Director of the Emmaus Scholars Program (2011-2016) at Hope College, Holland, Michigan. He also served for six years as Assistant Professor of Theology at Wheaton College (2001-2006), Wheaton, Illinois. His teaching career began at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, Ontario (1999-2001), where he taught theology and directed its extension education and summer school.

In a sense, this is a return home for Husbands. He began his teaching ministry in Canada, and he now returns to where he began. He and Rebekah, his wife, have three adult children, Olivia, Elliot and Ethan.

As an insight into Husbands’ sense of this call as a Christian educator and an administrator at a Christian institution, he described his call in this way.

As a follower of Christ, Christian theologian, and administrator, I find immense joy in supporting faculty and students as they pursue excellent in response to the call of God; a call to study, research, teach, write, and live in light of the biblical claim that “all things have been created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:13-14; 16).

Accordingly, thinking rightly about the world demands openness to the gracious self-revelation of the Triune God manifest in Holy Scripture. As an exercise of holy reason, Christian reflection pursues the glory and worship of a holy and loving God.

President Kuhn prepares to hand of the leadership baton with assurance in God and confidence in the next chapter he is writing at TWU. “I am confident,” Kuhn states, “Dr. Husbands will prove to be an exceptional leader to serve our beloved University in this exciting time of growth.”

Along with TWU and the Evangelical Free Church of Canada (EFCC), our sister denomination, we give thanks to the Lord for this important and timely transition. In the providence of God, Husbands’ exceptional gifts and appropriate experiences make him the right person to lead TWU in this next chapter.

Please pray for the transition for President Kuhn, that he might complete some of the tasks before him and transition well to life and ministry outside TWU. Please also pray for Dr. Husbands, that he will conclude his ministry at Northwestern College well and hand off ministries appropriately to others, and that his transition back home to Canada and TWU will go well, that he will receive the leadership baton with strength, passion, vision, and fidelity to God and his Word, bearing in mind the distinctive God-given mission for TWU.

Greg Strand

Greg Strand is EFCA executive director of theology and credentialing, and he serves on the Board of Ministerial Standing as well as the Spiritual Heritage Committee. He and his family are members of Northfield (Minnesota) EFC.

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