Tom Lin (evangelical)

Tom Lin (born 13 February 1973) is a Taiwanese-American evangelical and the eighth president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an evangelical parachurch organization which works with 40,200 university students.[1]

Biography

Raised in Chicago to Taiwanese immigrant parents, Lin completed a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University in 1994 and an M.A. in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.[2][3]

From 1994 until 2001, Lin helped to start local chapters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University and Boston University, after which he was the Mongolia country director of International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, from 2002 to 2006.[4] Lin and his family returned to the United States in 2006, taking up various positions in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, including directing the Urbana Student Missions Conference and, in August 2016, becoming the organization's first non-white president.[5] Lin believes he was appointed the position because of his leadership in crossing racial, cultural, and ethnic barriers.[6]

While in 2018, InterVarsity had over 1,000 chapters of its organization on 700 college campuses, Lin has set a goal of establishing chapters on 2,500 college campuses.[7]

Controversy

In 2015, then president-elect Lin and interim president of InterVarsity Jim Lundgren issued a 20-page position paper highlighting views on divorce, extramarital sex, and gay marriage, and initiating a process of involuntary terminations of staff who disagreed with these positions. Critics have held that this marginalizes members who are LGBTI or supporters of same-sex marriage.[8]

Works
  • Lin, Tom (2012). Pursuing God's Call. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830866007.
  • Lin, Tom (1997). Losing Face & Finding Grace: 12 Bible Studies for Asian-Americans. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830816842.

References
  1. Morgan, Timothy C. (25 May 2016). "Tom Lin named InterVarsity campus ministry president". The Christian Century. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  2. Petersen, Jonathan (8 August 2016). "InterVarsity Christian Fellowship: An Interview with Tom Lin". Bible Gateway Blog. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  3. "Tom Lin Commissioned as President". InterVarsity. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  4. "Tom Lin". InterVarsity. 1 February 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  5. Shellnutt, Kate (16 May 2016). "InterVarsity Names a Historic New President". Christianity Today. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  6. Morgan, Timothy C. (25 May 2016). "InterVarsity leader: 'I know what it's like to live in a culture not my own'". Religion News Service. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  7. Stetzer, Ed (14 September 2018). "One-on-One with Tom Lin on InterVarsity's 2030 Calling". The Exchange. Christianity Today. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  8. Dias, Elizabeth (6 October 2016). "InterVarsity to Dismiss Employees Who Support Gay Marriage". Time. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.