bg真人

Published: August 21, 2024

By Annette Brill Bergstresser

ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) 鈥� Margaret J. Miller, BA, of Centreville, Michigan, began July 29, 2024, in the new part-time role of Administrative Assistant for Orienting With the Word for Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (bg真人) in Elkhart, Indiana.聽

She is providing support for a program that will train pastors and lay leaders to lead their congregations in a process of investigating their context, facilitating innovative Bible study and guiding group discernment. The five-year project 鈥� titled 鈥�Orienting With the Word鈥� (formerly 鈥淎nabaptist Thriving Congregations鈥�) 鈥� is funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment鈥檚 Thriving Congregations Initiative.聽

Miller will work closely with Naomi Wenger, MAR, MA, Program Administrator for Orienting With the Word, and Malinda Elizabeth Berry, PhD, Director of bg真人鈥檚 Faith Formation Collaborative and Grant Director for Orienting with the Word.

鈥淢argaret is a thoughtful team member and accomplished copy editor and will bring strong organizational and hospitality skills to this role,鈥� said Wenger. 鈥淪he has a heart for the church, as is reflected in her prior roles in church planting, working with children and youth, and serving as clerk for her home congregation.鈥�

Miller also brings her passion for education to her new role. She was an elected Board of Education member for Centreville Public Schools (2015鈥�22) and served as secretary for five of those years. She also homeschooled her seven children through their early years of school and served as an English tutor at Glen Oaks Community College in Centreville (2018鈥�20). As a copy editor with more than 17 years of experience, she has edited scholarly works, novels, memoirs, Bible studies, devotionals and children鈥檚 stories.

Wenger noted that Miller is eager to contribute to this new project to strengthen the church.

鈥淗er belief that the gospel is something that is lived and her commitment to Jesus Christ and the way of peacemaking have carried her through many tough years of working toward reconciliation with the students at an Indian residential school in Ontario at which she and her husband served on staff as young adults during a voluntary service assignment,鈥� she said.

Four years after their voluntary service assignment, Miller and her husband, Devon, also served with Impact North Ministries on a team that worked to establish a church among First Nations believers in Thunder Bay, Ontario (1989鈥�93). They currently meet virtually each month with a group of former staff members of Mennonite-operated Indian residential schools in Canada to bring healing to past harms. 

Miller has a foundation in Bible training from her upbringing in the Conservative Mennonite Church and from having taken courses in biblical and religious topics at Rosedale (Ohio) Bible College (formerly Institute; 1980鈥�81, 1985鈥�87) and Bethel University (2020鈥�23). She studied at Glen Oaks Community College (2017鈥�20) and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in literature, English and sociology from Bethel University in Mishawaka, Indiana, in 2023.

Miller鈥檚 home congregation is Florence Church of the Brethren Mennonite in Constantine, Michigan, which is affiliated with both the Northern Indiana District of the Church of the Brethren and Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA.

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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