Decatur, GA—David Gushee, a noted ethicist from Mercer University has, effective today, resigned as chairman of the board for the New Evangelical Partnership for Common Good, an organization he helped established with former National Association of Evangelicals official Richard Cizik and Filmmaker and United Methodist Clergyman Steven Martin.

No dispute was credited to his unexpected departure. Citing a desire to focus more time on denominational and church life, Gushee also hopes to invest more time and energies in his role as a university professor

According to Gushee, “I have growing responsibilities at Mercer, responsibilities that prohibited me from accomplishing the needed task of fundraising for the New Evangelical Partnership.”

Gushee emphasized that while he’ll continue to have an interest in public policy and culture, his primary task is “to help remind the church of what it means to be the church.”

“I want to invest more energies in teaching seminarians, mentoring, and teaching Sunday School, activities my current schedule has conflicted with,” Gushee added.

Gushee noted that he has a book “A New Evangelical Manifesto” in conjunction with the New Evangelical Partnership due out this summer than he will work to promote.

The book, he noted, is not about public policy, but about the crises facing evangelical Christianity. He lamented what he sees as a “total erosion of the church’s understanding of its mission” and the “increasing presence of pastors and church leaders acting as political operatives.”

Gushee did mention that he’ll continue to serve the New Evangelical Partnership in an advisory role, but that his formal partnership has ended.