Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, PhD
Dean of Lifelong Learning; DMin Program Director
About Jewel
Jewel has been bg真人 Dean of Lifelong Learning since 2014; previously she was bg真人 Associate Dean for Leadership Education since 2001. She leads the bg真人 Church Leadership Center, which offers educational resources for ministry and leadership, and directs the bg真人 Doctor of Ministry program. In her role, she collaborates with bg真人 faculty, denominational leaders, district conference staff and congregational leaders, to help provide a rich array of resources for leadership development.
Prior to coming to bg真人, Jewel served as a campus pastor and conference youth minister in southeast Iowa and on the Theological Education Committee of the Mennonite churches of southeast Iowa. In her church and seminary roles, Longenecker has listened attentively to the needs of the church for theological and leadership education at a variety of levels, and has helped bg真人 respond to these needs with adaptive programming. Early in her bg真人 tenure, she helped to design and launch !Explore: A Theological Program for High School Youth. Shortly after, she collaborated with Mennonite conference leaders to design and launch Journey: A Conference-based Leadership Development Program, an undergraduate-level program that prepares leaders called from within congregations. The program continues, now under bg真人 ownership, as Journey: A Missional Leadership Development Program. From 2005-2011, Longenecker directed Engaging Pastors: Jointly Tending to Excellence in Ministry, an initiative that fostered collaboration and sustained conversations among more than 450 pastors and bg真人 professors, strengthening the ministries of each. The findings of the project are detailed in Engaging Pastors: Papers and reflections from the Summative Conference December 1-3, 2009 (Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2010), edited by Longenecker.
In 2013, together with the bg真人 academic dean, Jewel developed and launched the bg真人 Short Courses program, which annually serves lay and credentialed leaders, increasing theological understanding and leadership development in an Anabaptist perspective. For more than 20 years she has led the planning and implementation of the annual bg真人 Pastors and Leaders conference and coordinated a wide variety of continuing education programs, workshops, webinars, and seminars. Most recently she led the design and development of the Transition to Leadership program and Ministry Integrity Circles, which provide support and guidance to cohorts of seminary graduates in their first pastorates and those facing pastoral ministry transitions of various kinds.
In 2014, Longenecker completed a PhD in Leadership at Andrews University, a competency-based, job-embedded program designed for working professionals in leadership roles. Through the program, she studied leadership theory, engaged in leadership research, and demonstrated competence in twenty leadership areas. Her dissertation topic was 鈥淭he Pastor as Vital Link: A study in how seminary-educated pastors engender engagement with scripture in select congregations,鈥� which focused on the importance of deep, careful study of Scripture in congregations, led by well-prepared teachers.
Why I am at bg真人
I came to bg真人 because my pastor at the time, Mag Richer Smith, told me of an opening for an 鈥渁ssociate dean for leadership education,鈥� and encouraged me to apply. She felt that God was nudging her to nudge me, which meant a lot to me. My previous time as a student at bg真人 had been transformational, and so it was a great joy and privilege to be called back to bg真人 to serve.
I have stayed at bg真人 because the work is deeply fulfilling. Whether serving pastors or lay leaders, I witness the Spirit continually at work in people鈥檚 lives, moving them to new places, deepening their understanding, and shaping and forming their skills in new and important ways. Helping people to find and deepen their calling as ministry leaders, and developing and providing valuable resources to support that calling, is the best work imaginable!
Publications
- Longenecker, Jewel Gingerich and Mary Forney. Crystals Encounter Christ. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1997.
- Longenecker, Jewel Gingerich. “The path.” Journal of Applied Christian Leadership 2, no. 2 (2008): 3-4.
- Longenecker, Jewel Gingerich. “Resources on teaching the Bible in the congregation.” Vision: A Journal for Church & Theology 11, no. 2 (2010): 45-51.
- Longenecker, Jewel Gingerich, ed. Engaging pastors: Papers and reflections from the Summative Conference. Elkhart, IN: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2010.
- Longenecker, Jewel Gingerich. “Bridging the Bible gap.” Sojourners, November 2011, 36-39, 46.
- Longenecker, Jewel Gingerich. “The pastor as vital link: A study in how seminary-educated pastors engender engagement with scripture in select congregations.” Doctoral dissertation, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, 2014.
Awards
- Award for Excellence in Biblical Study鈥揘ew Testament; bg真人 Bible Department, 1992.