Doug Birsdall

Current Ministry Assignments

In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for A3, Doug is currently serving as the Ambassador-at-Large for our movement and the Honorary Chair for the Lausanne Movement.

Background Info:

Doug Birdsall

Doug and Jeanie Birdsall have served in the global mission of the church for 45 years. In June of 1979, just after graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, they were appointed to serve as missionaries to Japan with A3 – then known as LIFE Ministries, and later as Asian Access. They arrived in Tokyo on January 12, 1980. Stacia Beth, their first child, was born twelve weeks later on the fifth of April.

Japan was the primary home for the Birdsall family throughout the eighties and nineties. During their first four and half year term, Doug and Jeanie were involved in student ministry in Tokyo. Following a year of studies at Harvard during their first home assignment, the Birdsalls returned to Japan to lead a church planting team on the west side of Tokyo. Doug also assumed responsibilities as the director of the missionary staff in Japan in 1985. Judson joined the family on October 4, 1982. Jessamin arrived on March 30, 1987. All three of the children were born in the same room of the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Tokyo. 

Appointed as President (1991-2007)

In June of 1991, Doug was appointed to serve as the president of the mission. This appointment placed them in Pasadena, California until the summer of 1994. Upon returning to Japan, work was begun to re-organize the ministry to focus primarily on leadership development and church planting. Two years later, the work of the mission began to expand beyond Japan began with the pilot project of A3 in Mongolia.

Doug and Jeanie and their children returned to the States in 1999. At that time, the work of the ministry in Japan was entrusted to Japanese leaders. In the years since 1999, the work of A3 has also been established in China, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Myanmar. Plans are in place for the establishment of leadership training in twelve additional countries across Asia over the course of the next six years.

Other Roles

In 2004, Doug was installed as the Executive Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. His work to revitalize the movement culminated with the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization: Cape Town 2010. Christianity Today and the Pew Forum reported that gathering of 4200 participants from 198 countries to be “the most representative global gathering Christian leaders in the 2000 year history of the church.” Doug has also served coterminously as the founding Director of the J. Christy Wilson, Jr. Center for World Missions at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In 2012, Doug was appointed to serve as the President of the American Bible Society in New York City, following which he established, Civilitas: Civil Conversations for the Common Good.

Family

Throughout their years of service with A3, Jeanie has been involved in many dimensions of ministry in Japan and in the States. She has enjoyed teaching the Bible and mentoring women in the communities where they have lived. During her years of raising a family and serving the mission, Jeanie has also earned graduate degrees at Fuller Theological Seminary and at Gordon-Conwell.

The Birdsalls three children, who were raised in Japan, are now young adults. Their eldest, Stacia Birdsall Lee, is a graduate of Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and NYU. She is a professor of nursing at NYU and lives in Manhattan with her husband and three children. Doug and Jeanie’s son, Judd, is a professor of Theology at Georgetown University. He was previously the Founder and Managing Director of the Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies at Clare College, Cambridge where he completed his Ph.D. Judd previously served at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. He and his wife live in Washington, DC with their twins, Kuyper and Ivy. Their youngest child, Jessamin, graduated from Harvard University and Princeton University. While working on her Ph.D. she worked for the Church of England Urban Fund in London. Jessamin has recently been hired to teach Sociology of Religion at Wheaton College. She and her husband have also recently had their first child.

Jeanie and Doug are both graduates of Wheaton College and Gordon-Conwell Seminary. Jeanie also did a degree in Cross-Cultural Studies at Fuller Seminary. Doug did a degree in Comparative Religion at Harvard, and completed Ph.D. studies at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.

The Birdsalls have cherished their years as part of the A3 mission family. They look forward to remaining a part of the community through service on the Board of Directors, and as Ambassador-at-Large for A3. Doug also serves as the Honorary Chair for the Lausanne Movement.

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