Horace G. Underwood Chair and Center Endowment

The Horace G. Underwood Chair in Global Christianity endowment helps us in building our global community of faith and learning.

Horace G. Underwood, who graduated from New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1884, and followed his missional call to Korea the following year, is considered by many as the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Korea. His missional presence and vision embraced the physical and spiritual needs of all people with a gospel message that redeemed the whole person and society for God. In recent years, it is reported that almost 20% of the population of Korea consider themselves Presbyterian Christians!

For the past half dozen years, the Seminary has sought gifts to endow the Underwood Chair in Global Christianity and to initiate an Underwood Center that would connect the global church more closely to the Seminary community.

As the church in Europe and North America is struggling to grow, the church in Asia, Africa, Central and South America is flourishing in remarkable ways. It has been observed that the church in Africa is growing at a rate that exceeds any other  we have witnessed in the 2,000 year history of Christianity. It is the intent of this Chair and Center for NBTS to more organically connect with the global church and to learn from it new and creative ways to serve in our own missional settings.

Endowed chairs and programs, like the Underwood Chair and Center, are critical to the Seminary’s future as a way to sustain scholarly excellence and as a means to respond more profoundly to a changing world.

• The Underwood Professor will teach courses in world mission history and the missionary mandate for the 21st Century.

• The professor will also coordinate and expand the Seminary’s relationships with schools, churches and programs around the world.