Hunter Farrell is the Director of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s World Mission Initiative. He worked for thirty-four years as a missionary (in DR Congo and Peru), mission leader (Director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.) and professor of mission and intercultural studies (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary). He developed fluency in three languages (Spanish, French and Tshiluba) and earned his Master of Divinity in Cross-Cultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, the Diplôme d’études approfondies degree in religious anthropology at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and a doctorate in anthropology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

 

While living overseas, he received more than sixty short-term mission groups and studied the complex and nuanced interactions between U.S. visitors and Congolese and Peruvian hosts. He has researched and written articles on congregational mission engagement that have been published in Missiology: An International Review, The Journal of Latin American Theology and Christianity Today magazine. With Balajiedlang Khyllep, he is the author of Freeing Congregational Mission: A Practical Vision for Companionship, Cultural Humility and Co-development (InterVarsity Press, 2022).

 

Hunter is married to Ruth Brand Farrell and together they raised three children—now adults: Ndaya, Will and Andrew. Hunter is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).