Darrell Whiteman
Affiliate Faculty
Education: BA, Seattle Pacific College, 1970; PhD Southern Illinois University, 1980.
Darrell Whiteman, in semi-retirement is presently Founder and Director of Global Development, www.globaldevelopment.org a non-profit ministry focusing on missiological training and discipleship development. He recently served as the interim Executive Director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, CT and editor of the International Bulletin of Mission Research. Previously he served as Vice President and Resident Missiologist at The Mission Society in Norcross, Georgia (2005-20014). Prior to joining the staff of The Mission Society he served as Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism, and Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Asbury Theological Seminary, in Wilmore, KY (1984-2005). He grew up in the Free Methodist Church, preparing to become a medical missionary. However, his initial mission experience in Central Africa convinced him that he should study anthropology instead of medicine. He served as a United Methodist missionary in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific before joining the faculty at Asbury Seminary in 1984.
He is the author and editor of three books dealing with the cultural dynamics of missionary and national interaction. They are Melanesians and Missionaries; An Introduction to Melanesian Cultures: A Handbook for Church Workers; Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Culture Change ,and also co-editor of World Mission in the Wesleyan Spirit, and Paradigm Shifts in Christian Witness: Insights from Anthropology, Communication, and Spiritual Power. He is active in the training and orientation of missionaries with several denominations in the United States and around the world and also served as editor of the journal Missiology from 1988 until 2003. He is active in a number of anthropological and missiological associations, is the founding chair of the Network of Christian Anthropologists, has served as President of the Association of Professors of Mission, Vice President and President of the International Association for Mission Studies, and President of the American Society of Missiology.
He lives with his wife Laurie in Gig Harbor, WA. His son Geoffrey is married to the former Kriss Hultman, and daughter Julia is a nurse in Seattle, WA.
For more information, please view Dr. Whiteman's CV (PDF).