Fuller Theological Seminary Readies for Its 75th Commencement

Pasadena-based Fuller Theological Seminary is preparing for two significant events that highlight its commitment to empowering future leaders and fostering its legacy of faith, according to the seminary’s official website.

The institution will host its annual Giving Day on April 24, aiming to garner support from donors who believe in the transformative power of education and wish to enable students to pursue their calling.

The seminary said that participation in Giving Day ensures the continuation of its mission and invests in a legacy of faith and service.

“It’s not just about financial assistance; it’s about investing in a legacy of faith and service,” the seminary explained on its website.

The event comes as the institution prepares to celebrate its 75th Commencement on Saturday, June 8 at 10:00 a.m.

The ceremony will take place at the seminary’s main campus in Pasadena, with regional campus in-person events also planned. The commencement will be live-streamed for those unable to attend in person.

Graduates will don academic regalia, receive framed diplomas, and have the opportunity to celebrate with flowers and personalized announcements.

Fuller Theological Seminary was founded in 1947 by Charles E. Fuller, a radio evangelist known for his Old Fashioned Revival Hour show, and Harold Ockenga, the pastor of Park Street Church in Boston.

The seminary’s founders sought to reform fundamentalism’s separatist and sometimes anti-intellectual stance during the 1920s—Fuller envisaged that the seminary would become “a Caltech of the evangelical world.” In the late 1940s, evangelical theologians from Fuller, championed the Christian importance of social activism.

David Hubbard recruited Donald McGavran to be the first dean of the newly created School of World Mission in 1965. McGavran was regarded as perhaps the world’s most prominent and influential missiologist of the 20th century.

McGavran recruited some of the greatest missiologists of the 20th century to serve as faculty of the School of World Mission. This included Alan Tippett, Ralph Winter, C. Peter Wagner, and many others. These faculty would shape world missions for the ensuing decades.

Fuller’s School of World Mission became the largest missions training institution in the world. The School of World Mission also has the largest amount of missions faculty of any institution in the world as well.

In 2022, it had 2,370 students enrolled.

Fuller has had six presidents over its over 70-year history. The founding president, Harold Ockenga, remained in Boston and served as president. In 2018, Fuller briefly planned to sell its main campus in Pasadena and move to Pomona.

In October 2019, the Board of Directors voted to cancel the move and remain in Pasadena, citing dramatically escalated costs of construction in Southern California and differences with the City of Pasadena, which affected the sale and sale price of the seminary’s Pasadena campus.

Fuller currently has campuses in Pasadena, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and Houston, Texas.