bg真人

Published: January 24, 2024

From the President: David Boshart, PhD

This piece originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of the bg真人 Window newsletter.

Our Forming Leaders Together campaign at bg真人 is taking us to places we have never been before 鈥� both in the world and in unprecedented collaborations.

While many national, regional and local leaders today predict that the future of the Mennonite Church in the U.S. and Canada will be characterized by decline and disintegration, I鈥檓 not willing to concede our future to this framing. Based on what we are experiencing in this campaign, bg真人 is proving that our Anabaptist witness can thrive even in secular, polarized societies. We need a renewed vision for what a church with an Anabaptist vision can be 鈥� a vision we can share together.

Building programs to grow practical skills

The Forming Leaders Together campaign began with listening to church leaders across Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA. We asked, 鈥淲hat is the most meaningful thing bg真人 can do to support current and future leaders for the church?鈥� That project set us on a course to provide practical training for leaders to strengthen their capacity for faithful and vital leadership in the churches they serve.

Examples of new programs include our Practical Leadership Training modules, Doctor of Ministry in Leadership, Ministry Integrity Circles and Transition to Leadership programs. We鈥檝e developed all of these learning experiences in close collaboration with local, regional and national leaders. We are forming leaders together.

Strengthening Anabaptist identity and leadership worldwide

Through the campaign, we鈥檝e also sought to respond to the growing number of invitations bg真人 has been receiving from national church leaders 鈥� through our collaboration with Mennonite World Conference 鈥� to offer Anabaptist leadership education around the world.

We鈥檝e followed the Spirit鈥檚 leading into new collaborations such as shared staffing with for our global partnerships; working with to deliver our Journey Missional Leadership Development Program in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; working with national leaders in Indonesia to provide educational programs for the three Mennonite synods there; and collaborating with to accelerate access to graduate-level theological education for Spanish-speaking leaders. When we form leaders together, our collective work becomes a rising tide that raises all boats. (Learn more about our global partnerships and where we are offering programs.)

In this process, we鈥檙e learning to form Anabaptist leaders together where it counts most: in contextually relevant ways. In October, (MA 2022), Regional Director for Asia and the Middle East for Mennonite Mission Network; Joe Sawatzky, PhD (MDiv 2005), Global Leadership Collaborative Project Specialist, also of MMN; and I responded to an invitation to provide a short course on leadership for five Anabaptist conferences in India. Each conference sent two women, two men and at least one youth to be trained to teach this material in their area.

For the three-day course, we tested the materials with the leaders and then revised them for contextual relevance, providing spaces in the curriculum for trainers to include case material from their local context. This material now belongs to these churches to use and adapt in ways that are most helpful in their settings. We look forward to reconnecting with these leaders a year from now to see how this program has impacted leadership development.

Donors propel program development

Through the support of generous donors, we are forming leaders together through a campaign that funds our global and practical leadership education programs for the next 10 years. Because of early contributions we received, we have been able to implement these programs at full speed.

The results are clear: we have experienced 70 percent growth in our enrollment over the past four years; we are living into our fourth consecutive balanced budget; and we have the means to continue growing our mission.

Forming leaders together is proving that the future of our church need not be marked by ongoing decline and disintegration. When we form leaders together, we have a future with hope!

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs 鈥� all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God鈥檚 reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu

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