New Interim Minister Joins First Baptist in Needham

Gregory Mobley has joined The First Baptist Church in Needham as the new interim minister. Mobley is also Professor of Christian Bible at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre.

Mobley has degrees from Campbellsville College in Kentucky; the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky; Harvard Divinity School; and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University.

Mobley’s professional and ministerial background has primarily been in theological education. Before coming to Andover Newton, he taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York; Harvard Divinity School; and for two years following college at a secondary school in Jos, Nigeria. Mobley has had a variety of ministerial experiences, as a pastor, interim pastor, campus minister, and schoolteacher at a mission school.

Mobley is active in Jewish-Christian relations in the Boston area and nationally. He is a Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, a participant in the White House Initiative on Interfaith Community Service, and one of the founders of the CIRCLE interfaith program jointly sponsored by Andover Newton and Hebrew College.

Mobley is the author of several books and articles about the Bible and theology, including most recently "The Return of the Chaos Monsters—and Other Backstories of the Bible" (Eerdmans 2012) and, as co-editor, "My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter and Transformation" (Orbis 2012).

A native of Kentucky, Mobley is also very active in coaching youth basketball, watching high school and college basketball, and wishing he could still play basketball.

First Baptist Needham is located at 858 Great Plain Avenue. Sunday worship service is held weekly starting at 10 a.m. Mobley leads Sunday Bible Study beginning at 9 a.m. All are welcome.