VALLEY FORGE, PA (8/10/22)—The Cleveland Baptist Association is pleased to announce Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle has been selected to serve as the Interim Regional Executive Minister of the region. McMickle began in the role on August 1, 2022. He will serve for a period of not more than 18 months while a search for a permanent Regional Executive Minister is being conducted. Dr. McMickle has been called to serve following the retirement of Rev. Dr. Yvonne B. Carter.
A message from the region noted, “Dr. Carter served valiantly for nine years, transitioning and strengthening the region with a new operational structure, innovative programming, board engagement, and shepherding us through a global pandemic. She will be truly missed, as we prepare to celebrate her tenure and accomplishments. A celebration is scheduled for Friday, August 19, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. Our entire region celebrates Rev. Dr. Yvonne B. Carter and welcomes Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle to this new role in our region.”
“Dr. McMickle has a strong history in local church pastoral ministry and theological education and is well respected as a pastor to pastors and as a champion for issues of justice and peace. This background, along with his commitment to American Baptist ministry, makes him well suited to serve as the Interim Regional Executive Minister with the Cleveland Baptist Association during this transitional period in its history. We welcome Dr. McMickle in this role and look forward to his contributions,” said Rev. Soozi Whitten Ford, interim associate general secretary for Regional Ministries.
Dr. McMickle served as president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y., from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2019. Following this, he served as the director of the Doctor of Ministry Program. Prior to joining CRCDS he was pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio from 1987 to 2011 and a member of the Board of Trustees of Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. McMickle was also the professor of Homiletics at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio, from 1996 to 2011. Upon retiring from Ashland, the faculty named him Professor Emeritus. He is the author of 18 books and dozens of articles that regularly appear in professional journals and magazines. His writings also appear in Feasting on the Word and Preaching God’s Transforming Justice two recent preaching commentaries. He is a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and has also served as a Visiting Professor of Preaching at Yale University Divinity School.
Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle is a 1970 graduate of Aurora University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and completed two additional years of graduate study at Columbia University in New York City. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 1998. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from his Alma Mater, Aurora University, in 1990 and was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 2010.
American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.