Christ is our center

Mennonite higher education—part 4

by J. Daniel Hess

The presidents of colleges, universities and seminary of Mennonite Church USA have published a statement about their highest priorities. Here is a key excerpt:

“Spiritual growth and a Christian worldview that Christ is our center. From it, students can build a foundation of values and commitments in a complex world. We support the work of the Holy Spirit in our students by inviting them to know Christ and follow him daily. In partnership with home and congregation, our institutions are places where people may embrace God’s redemptive work within them.”

I spoke with many alumni of Mennonite higher education and invited them to share what at this point seems meaningful about that education. Would they talk about being nurtured in Christ-centered spiritual growth and called to embrace God’s redemptive work?

To college … with an attitude
National figures concerning consumption of alcohol in college confirm that many first-year students, finally away from family constraints, are ready to live it up.

Steve Thomas (Hesston, 1984; Goshen, 1986), remembering his first year at Hesston (Kan.) College, puts himself into that category. “I was a jerk. My first year in college was fun and games, especially pulling lots of pranks across campus.”

Steve Thomas

That’s not the Steve Thomas who graduated from Hesston. He underwent a religious conversion during the summer between his first and second year and returned to Hesston with a calling to be a pastor. John Lederach stepped into Steve’s life. “He was a pastor, a teacher, a real shepherd,” Steve says. He says John’s grace gently redirected him from a somewhat narrow charismatic orientation to a fuller understanding of biblical faith.

A small group of friends on campus, called the Groaners (based on a passage from Romans 8), complemented for Steve what John Lederach was doing in and outside class.

Steve graduated from Goshen (Ind.) College and has been pastoring since. He is in his 17th year as pastor of Walnut Hill Mennonite Church.

A college surprise
While a percentage of students are ready for a college fling, others come with high purpose.

Such was Norma Flores (Bluffton, 2003), a member of the Church of God in Toledo, Ohio.

Norma Flores

She took an interest in history to Bluffton (Ohio) University, but when she enrolled in her first course with historian Perry Bush, she met a surprise. In her words, she was floored. “Who is this man, this historian, that he would so thoroughly integrate a worldview with spiritual convictions?”

And that spiritual perspective propelled Norma through a history major that included special research projects with professors Perry Bush and Jim Satterwhite (senior honors) and a semester at Oxford (England) through the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. She completed an M.A. in history at Toledo and is now specializing in European history at Bowling Green State University, where, she says, “It’s OK to stand up and say, ‘This is my spiritual belief.’ ” She learned this, she says, at Bluffton.

Spirit in the classroom
David Miller (Goshen, 1979; AMBS, 1993) did not grow up in a Mennonite congregation. He enrolled in a small, church-related college in eastern Pennsylvania but quickly became disillusioned with its so-called relationship with a sponsoring denomination. He withdrew after one year and signed up for a service assignment at the Center for the Handicapped in Rockville, Md., where he met a chap from Goshen College named Jim Brenneman (currently the school’s president). That friendship led David to enroll at Goshen.

“While I completed a degree in natural science, it was in the area of Bible and theology that Goshen had the most far-reaching impact on my life,” says David. “I thought I was choosing an academic institution and discovered much more—a faith community that was serious about living out its commitment in the world. I had no way of knowing in advance the significance that choosing to come to GC would have on my life.”

He tells of the course The Believer’s Church, where “I was a starving man in a deli and probably annoyed other students with my many questions and class interactions with J.R. Burkholder.” David also found Umble Center stage an important laboratory from which to examine human motivation, conflict and potential. There he played major roles in “Company of Wayward Saints,” “As You Like It” and “The Lark.”

David eventually studied at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., then Columbia Theological Seminary (DMin, 2006). He pastors the University Mennonite Church in State College, Pa.

A time of searching
Alumni shared many accounts of college as a time of searching for meaning and vocation.

Laura Brenneman (EMU, 1996 and 2000; AMBS, 2001) grew up in a Mennonite congregation. She recalls a curiosity about the Bible that left her with many unanswered questions. At Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., she majored in biology in order to prepare for medical school. She remembers the kindness and encouragement of professors Lee Snyder and Ray Gingerich.

Laura Brenneman

After a voluntary service term in Chicago, working in human rights with the Lutheran Church, Laura returned to EMU for a master’s degree in conflict transformation that furthered her understanding of the social science basis of conflict. Something in that program intrigued her about the relationship of ethics to theology. What prompted Christians to react as they did in issues of justice and peace? To learn more she enrolled at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

There she met professors Ben Ollenberger, Mary Schertz and Perry Yoder; there she studied Scripture in its original language, and there she came to see the Bible not only as a text offering rich resources of close analytical investigation but also a motivator of faith, a guide for those who seek God.

She went on to the University of Durham in England for a Ph.D. and now teaches biblical studies at Bluffton University. In her interaction with students, she recalls the profs “who took time to say a word.”

The late teens and early 20s—in other words, college days—are for many students a time to take vacation from religion. For others, such as Rachel Gerber (Goshen, 2000; EMS, M.Div., 2005) those times provide pivotal turning points in the spiritual journey. Rachel was an education major at Goshen and enjoyed student teaching, but a call came to be interim minister of youth and adults at College Mennonite Church in Goshen. She accepted, and it was “an awesome experience.”

Rachel Gerber

But when her husband (Shawn) moved to Harrisonburg to begin seminary studies at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Rachel took a job as fifth-grade teacher in nearby Bridgewater. Again she enjoyed the classroom, but restlessness prompted her to think about seminary. She talked with a colleague who said, “You’ve got to go.”

At EMS she experienced the mentoring of Heidi Miller Yoder, who “walked with me as a colleague.” But Rachel, despite her happy memories at College Mennonite and a sensed call to the seminary, had not thought of herself in ministry.

In a Formation of Discipleship class, professor Nate Yoder asked students to write about what they would be doing in 10 years. The assignment overwhelmed Rachel. She turned to a group of friends who helped her to write, “I will be a pastor.”

Rachel is now associate pastor of First Mennonite Church in Denver (and writes for the Grace and Truth column in The Mennonite. (Shawn is director of the chaplaincy department at a local hospital.) She helped plan and lead youth worship at San José 2007. She loves her work, particularly that part having to do with faith formation, yet to this day Rachel isn’t sure where the next turn will take her, but “I am committed to the journey.”

Preparation for spiritual leadership
Many spiritual leaders in Mennonite denominations and beyond have studied and found vocation on our campuses of higher education. One example must suffice. Jim Schrag (Bethel, 1966), executive director of Mennonite Church USA, grew up in a “legacy” family. His father, Menno Schrag, was editor of Mennonite Weekly Review and at the dinner table talked about church things: “the three C’s: conference, college and congregation.”

Jim Schrag

Jim attended Hesston Academy (a Mennonite high school), then Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., and finally Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, where he found “a treasured pattern” of teaching that eventually led him into the ministry and denominational leadership.

He recalls, for example, Bethel’s Bible teacher Walter Klassen inviting his freshman students to write down any question of faith or theology. Jim dared to respond by scribbling a question about the inspiration of the Bible. “I was blown away; the next class he spent the entire period attending to my question without exposing me. I shall not forget such caring.”

More on the professor’s role
In the conversations with alumni about faith formation in college, I heard many more references to professors than to chapel presentations. The dedication of academicians to matters of faith is evident.

Irene Kanagy (EMU, 1973; AMBS, 1984), a clinical counselor in Indianapolis, says some of the best years of her life occurred at AMBS, where, in community with professors, staff and students, she learned about grace. “I shall never forget professor Willard Swartley’s praying with me about an impending decision.”

Irene Kanagy

Judy Hostetler Mullet (Hesston, EMU, 1973) has been a professor at EMU for about 20 years, teaching in both the education and psychology departments. She speaks of students as on a journey, some on the way out, some on the way back. “In order to find home, sometimes you have to leave it,” she says. She wants to walk with them, identify their gifts and most of all share what she calls “holy moments,” which may consist of a sidewalk chat. For students who seem to walk away from precious things, she wants to say to them, “I will hold it for you until you come back.”

She believes in education “formed in community in the way of Jesus,” and that formation, she says, often consists of little things “that add up.”

Judy Hostetler Mullet

Embracing God’s redemptive work
The college presidents speak of our institutions as places “where people may embrace God’s redemptive work.” The alumni I contacted conveyed in their words and actions a continued identification with God’s redemptive work. Here is an example from among hundreds.

Marilyn Metzler (EMU, 1993) lived in Somalia and Djibouti, where she worked at a clinic that treated 200 patients daily, many of them refugees, and in a United Nations feeding station that served porridge to 300 children and nursing mothers daily.

As her assignment came to a close, she wanted to find work among under-served people in the United States. She took a position with Cross Over Ministry, a free clinic begun in 1983 with four sites in Richmond, Va., that is committed “in the name of Jesus Christ” to bridge the health-care gap.

Marilyn Metzler

Her people, society’s marginalized, are poor, uninsured, eking out a living 200 percent below the federal definition of poverty, people whose housing is substandard and educational level low, people who know the ravages of heart disease, diabetes and domestic violence, people of color, people who know firsthand the disparities in the availability of health care.

“As a follower of Jesus,” Marilyn told me, “I am compelled to do what Jesus did.” She lists a variety of ways Jesus addressed human needs resulting from “societal wrongs.” “If I can show grace and give value to one person, it will make a difference.”

When pressed to identify her gifts, Marilyn identifies herself as an introvert and naturally quiet.

“I am a country girl at heart (she grew up in rural Alabama), but I have the ability to empathize, I have a strong desire to empower others, I see injustices that scream at me.”

Mennonite higher education resides in the realm of a secularized, materialized and individualized academic world. Instead of enthroning intellect, our Mennonite schools place Christ as the center.

In the spirit of Anabaptist voluntarism, Mennonite higher education does not compel a person to have faith, and it does not enforce religious practice. Instead it offers community, models, invitations and connections to God’s redemptive work.

Alumni testimonials show that Mennonite higher education has been a significant stimulus and shaper of faith and, in fact, an extension of the denominational goal to be a missional church.

J. Daniel Hess is a member of Shalom Mennonite Church in Indianapolis. This is the fourth of six articles on Mennonite higher education.