Dearborn is associate director for faith and development at World Vision International. Until July 2003, he was dean of the chapel and associate professor of theology at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington. He is also senior associate at the Institute for Global Engagement in Philadelphia and chair of the board for International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians. He earned the Ph.D. in systematic theology at the University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland, the Th.M. in missiology at Fuller Seminary, and the M.T.S. in history of religions at Harvard University Divinity School. He has written Beyond Duty: A Passion for Christ, a Heart for Mission (Monrovia, 1997) and The Local Church in a Global Future (Eerdmans, 2000).