Passages - Christianity Today

Moving Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, to become president of Saint Vincent College. Towey will begin July 1 at the Catholic liberal-arts college of 1,600 students in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Before working at the White House, he was secretary of Florida’s Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. He represented Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity on legal matters for 12 years and founded the advocacy group Aging with Dignity in 1996.

Selected Paul Corts, as president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He will replace retiring Bob Andringa when he begins work in June. Corts has served as assistant attorney general for administration for the U.S. Department of Justice since 2002. He previously served as president of Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida and president of Wingate University in North Carolina.

Selected Ken Behr, as president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Behr replaces Paul Nelson, who is retiring after 12 years. Before beginning his work on May 1, Behr was chief operating officer of North Way Christian Community, a 3,500-member church in the Pittsburgh suburbs. More than 1,200 Christian organizations submit to ECFA’s annual evaluation and approval process.

Selected John Edmund Kaiser, as president of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches, Canada’s second-largest Baptist denomination. Kaiser began work in March. He is the denomination’s first American president and replaces Terry Cuthbert, who left to work with urban church planters in Montreal, Quebec.

Selected Kurt Wise, as director of the Center for Theology and Science at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Wise, a creationist, will replace William Dembski, a leading proponent of Intelligent Design. Dembski resigned to teach closer to home at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Wise will leave his post at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, where he worked as director of the Center for Origins Research. He begins at the seminary in August.

Died Robert Neff, 64, former vice president of broadcasting for Moody Broadcasting Network (MBN), on April 21 after battling Lou Gehrig’s disease. MBN expanded under Neff’s leadership from 3 owned and operated stations in 1974 to 35 when he stepped down in February 2005.