Jim Wallis is leaving Sojourners, the magazine and organisation he founded nearly half a century ago, to take up a full-time post at Georgetown University.
The progressive evangelical explained in an announcement that the move would give him more time to write and teach.
"This moment also offers me space to move on to a new perch, to do the things I most love and do best: write more books and regular columns, speak and preach, teach and mentor a new generation, convene faith and political leaders, advocate for justice-oriented public policy, and continue to offer my public voice on the intersection of faith and public life at a critical time," Wallis said.
The 72-year-old added that he wanted Sojourners "to go on long beyond the founder."
Wallis will leave Sojourners in June 2021 ahead of joining Georgetown to help spearhead a new centre dedicated to the "intersection of faith, public life, and the common good."
Rev Adam Russell Taylor was handpicked by Wallis to take over as president of Sojourners. He is a former student of his from Harvard Kennedy School and has been a board member of Sojourners since 2001.
"I believe that Adam Taylor's personal story, scholarship, breadth of experience, vision, sense of vocation, and ordination in the Black church all uniquely prepare him to lead Sojourners as its first African American president," Wallis said.
Commenting on his new appointment, Taylor said: "As sojourners, we are called to be both creatively maladjusted to the brokenness and injustice of what is, and committed to be what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described as 'transformed nonconformists' — to close the gap between what is and what ought to be.
"As I sojourn with you, I'm anxious to listen and learn from you as we work tirelessly to inspire a greater commitment to social justice across the church, in our nation, and throughout the world."
