About
Dr. Jimmy Lim
Executive Vice President
At NSBT
Dr. Jimmy Lim is the Executive Vice President of The New School of Biblical Theology. Under the Bylaws, the Board of Trustees appoints the Executive Vice President to serve as the chief executive of the institution and its chief administrative and academic officer, and he reports directly to the Board. He holds full operational authority over NSBT, delegated by the Board, across the institution’s academic, administrative, financial, and legal functions. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of all institutional operations, academic programs, faculty, and staff, for carrying out the policies, directives, and strategic priorities of the Board, and for coordinating the preparation of the annual operating budget for Board approval.
Dr. Lim, Dr. Dale Irvin, and Dr. Onorio Chaparro, working under the vision and leadership of the Founding President, Dr. A. R. Bernard, Sr., established the founding concept and final design of the institution. Dr. Lim worked first with Dr. Chaparro, developing the institution’s name, academic structure, and design through successive drafts. He then brought on Dr. Irvin for his expertise in institutional design, staffing, and compliance. In consultation with Dr. Irvin, whom he appointed Director of Strategic Planning, Dr. Lim assembled the faculty and staff according to the institutional plan Dr. Irvin had drawn. He has led the institution from its founding through program development, student enrollment, and four graduating classes totaling 46 graduates across four commencement ceremonies.
Formation
Dr. Lim holds the Doctor of Ministry from New York Theological Seminary (2010), the Master of Divinity from New Brunswick Theological Seminary (2002), and the Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, cum laude, from Nyack College (1998). At New Brunswick Theological Seminary he was a Dutch Heritage Full Scholarship recipient and received the Underwood Academic Excellence Prize. He completed Clinical Pastoral Education at Columbia University Medical Center in New York in 2002. He was ordained in the Reformed Church in America in 2002.
Career
Dr. Lim brings 27 years of executive leadership in theological education, ecumenical relations, and nonprofit administration. He served as Executive Director of the Council of Churches of the City of New York from 2007 to 2014, elected by its Board of Directors on January 18, 2007 and installed at Marble Collegiate Church on September 20, 2007. The Council, founded in 1895, is the oldest ecumenical council of churches with a continuous existence in the United States and represents Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox congregations across the five boroughs of New York City. Dr. Lim was the youngest person and the first Asian American ever to hold that office. As Executive Director he managed all operations, programs, interfaith initiatives, public advocacy, and denominational relations, and sustained the Council’s institutional presence through a period of significant organizational transition. He had joined the Council in 1999 as Executive Assistant, was Program Director and Editor in Chief of its publications and communications from 2001 to 2006, and was Associate Executive Director from 2006 to 2007.
From 2014 to 2016 he was General Secretary of the New York Commission of Religious Leaders, an interfaith body convened by the Council in 1999 that brings together senior religious leaders across Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other traditions in New York City. He coordinated the Commission’s work on civic, humanitarian, and public policy matters affecting the metropolitan area. He was a member of the Commission from 1999 to 2016. Since 2016 he has served in the Office of Dr. A. R. Bernard, Sr., the executive office of the Founding Pastor of Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York, one of the largest churches in the northeastern United States, where he provides strategic counsel on institutional initiatives, organizational development, and external partnerships. He was adjunct faculty at New York Theological Seminary from 2005 to 2019. He has served on the Board of Trustees of New York Theological Seminary and on the Board of Trustees of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, founded in 1784 as the first theological seminary in North America. These trustee roles gave him direct experience with academic program approval, presidential review, audited financial statement review, and the strategic governance of graduate theological education at the trustee level.
Church and civic service
Within the Reformed Church in America, Dr. Lim served as Chairperson of the Minister’s Supervision Committee of the Classis of Greater Palisades and as an Executive Board Member of the Collegial Accompaniment and Assessment Ministry. In 2008 he organized the ecumenical delegation and interfaith service for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to New York City in coordination with the Archdiocese of New York. His responsibilities included coordination with the United States Secret Service for background clearances and the selection of the non-Catholic denominational and independent church delegation. From 2001 to 2005 he coordinated the September 11th Caregiver Project, which provided pastoral care and support services for clergy and caregivers serving communities affected by the September 11 attacks in New York City, and sustained the initiative over four years of active programming. He chaired the Language Committee of the Billy Graham Greater New York Crusade from 2004 to 2005 and the Church Relations Committee of the Chinese Bible Exhibit from 2005 to 2006.