Rev. Jeffrey Brown is stepping down in the spring as executive director of the TenPoint Coalition in order to pursue national work, as the anti-violence group he co-founded and the Boston Ministerial Alliance move toward an administrative “merger.”

“It’s a strategic alliance of two faith groups to work more closely together,” Brown said. The two groups will have separate executive directors and their own boards, but they will jointly seek fundraising possibilities and securing federal and state contracts, he said.

The TenPoint Coalition was set up in 1992, while the Black Ministerial Alliance has been in existence since the 1960s.

“In part, this is a response to the community, because one of the criticisms you always hear from community folks is the ministers are not together,” Brown said of the administrative merger.

A 2005 book, “Black Churches and Local Politics: Clergy Influence, Organizational Partnerships and Civic Empowerment,” noted, “Although different in terms of organizational structure and leadership, the Black Ministerial Alliance and Ten Point Coalition have overlapping memberships.”

Brown said a number of preachers met several months ago and “buried the hatchet” with other ministers they had argued with in the past. Somewhere around October and November, merger “talks began to get serious,” he said.

The TenPoint board has been talking about hiring a consultant and likely launching a search for a new executive director, perhaps with the help of the Boston Foundation, Brown said.

Brown, who spoke with the Reporter on the phone while in Las Vegas, said he is working with the local police department there, and will later be in Washington, D.C. and in California.