US Mennonite Brethren

Join us in blessing a new partnership

The MB Biblical Seminary will have a new home but not a new mission.

Effective June 1, 2010, the new home will be Fresno Pacific University. The mission will remain the one stated in 1955 when the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary was established: to train pastors and church leaders for Mennonite Brethren churches in the United States and the Central Valley of California.

Fresno Pacific University did not ask for this new mission. In fact, when the MBBS Board originally approached FPU in the fall of 2008 to talk about partnership, the university said “no” because of its own financial pressures. With the nation already slipping into what has become known as the Great Recession, FPU encouraged MBBS to continue the conversation it had initiated with Fuller Theological Seminary, which has significantly greater resources and financial capacity.

When Fuller said “no” and MBBS came back with an urgent request that Fresno Pacific reconsider, the university re-thought its position and agreed to embrace the mission of MBBS. With humility and enthusiasm, Fresno Pacific accepts the mission of providing graduate level theological education for the denomination’s pastors and church leaders. It is committed to carrying on the pastoral and church leadership training mission of MBBS as well as the marriage and family counseling program. The partnership with FPU brings administrative efficiencies and economies of scale that the small size of MBBS did not permit.

FPU is a regional undergraduate university with a national graduate program. It plans to use its technology infrastructure to expand the teaching capacity of MBBS to multiple centers in the Mennonite Brethren constituency through broadband video and online programs. This will help serve the training needs of Mennonite Brethren churches and leaders throughout the U.S. and also in Canada.

FPU is currently providing professional development courses through distance learning to students across the nation and abroad. (You may be interested to know that currently, FPU’s largest group of professional development students is found in Pennsylvania. Distance matters much less than it did before.) The university would love to provide that same service to Mennonite Brethren pastors and students throughout the U.S.Conference and beyond.

An advisory council will provide guidance on how to best develop and deliver theological education. This group will be led by Dr. Larry Martens, former MB pastor, MBBS professor, MBBS president and FPU board chair. Although Fresno Pacific will have financial responsibility for the seminary, we want to work closely with the other Mennonite Brethren higher educational institutions such as Tabor College to deliver graduate education programs.

Tabor College President Jules Glanzer previously served as a seminary dean at another institution where he pioneered some new and creative approaches. Fresno Pacific wants to collaborate more closely with Tabor through the application of distance learning. At this point, it’s not clear what this might look like, but it could involve some new degree programs and delivery systems. U.S. Conference Executive Director Ed Boschman will be convening a summit that will bring our district ministers together with the institutional leaders from Tabor and FPU to explore these options.

The seminary program within FPU will build on the current faculty of MBBS who would otherwise be teaching at MBBS next year if this change had not been implemented. Lynn Jost will serve as the leader for this school. Although the seminary has not yet been named, it will function as a separate “school” with its own budget, leadership and donors. It will continue to carry accreditation from both the Association of Theological Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The assets MBBS is transferring to Fresno Pacific will be used exclusively to continue the current graduate level theological education and counseling programs within FPU; they will not be used to fund other university programs. Although FPU will provide the oversight and infrastructure for the seminary, donations received for the seminary program within FPU will be used solely for this purpose, not to fund other activities at FPU. A separate account will be established to receive funds designated for the seminary program.

MBBS President Lynn Jost and I invite you to join us in blessing this partnership designed to facilitate the training of church leaders for the Mennonite Brethren Church both in the United States and throughout theworld.

D.Merrill Ewert, President
Fresno Pacific University