SELMA — Concordia College will install its new president today in a ceremony beginning at 1 p.m. in the Julius and Mary Jenkins Center on campus.

The installation of the Rev. Dr. Tilahun Mekennen Mendedo marks the ascension of the seventh president of the college.

Rev. Mendedo began his service Jan. 1.

Prior to assuming the presidency of the college, Rev. Mendedo served as the pastor of Faith Lutheran church in Mobile and taught as an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of South Alabama and Spring Hill College.

For the last 17 years Rev. Mendedo has served in the church as an evangelist, youth leader, church elder, Bible school teacher, project director and curriculum advisor for the theological centers in Ethiopia and school administrator of the Theological Training Center of the EECMY-Central Ethiopia Synod in Addis Ababa.

Rev. Mendedo also has served as coordinator of the Mobile Bible Schools of the Mekane Yesus Church (the Lutheran Church in Ethiopia) to meet the demands of the leadership of rapidly growing Lutheran churches in the world.

He has academic memberships in American Missiology Society, Evangelical Missionlogical Society, Lutheran Society of Missiology and other Academic Societies in the United States.

Rev. Mendedo earned his bachelor degree in counseling and a masters in systematic theology. His doctorate in missiology, or mission science, is from Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Ind.

Missiology is the area of practical theology that investigates the mandate, message and work of the Christian missionary.

Rev. Mendedo is a native of the Arssi region in Ethiopia. He is married to Aberash Aklilu, and they have three children: Hawii, Yeabsira, and Amen.

The public is invited.