AMBS appoints two faculty members to focus on Christian formation

Rachel Miller Jacobs and Andy Brubacher Kaethler have been appointed to faculty positions at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, each to focus on different aspects of Christian faith formation in our current culture. Both will begin these half-time assignments in July.

Miller Jacobs will serve as assistant professor of congregational formation. She currently is in a Doctor of Ministry program at McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Ill. She also serves as a spiritual director and worship resources coordinator for Leader. For six years she was pastor of Christian formation for Kern Road Mennonite Church, South Bend, Ind. She is a frequent leader for retreats and workshops and has been a sessional instructor at AMBS. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from AMBS and a Master of Arts from Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

“Rachel Miller Jacobs is a natural leader with an infectious love for the church,” Sara Wenger Shenk, AMBS president, said. “Her vibrant engagement with the Bible actively draws persons of all ages into life changing learning. She will animate students and congregations with her joy in Word and Spirit, her intellectual grasp of the subject and her relational way of communicating.”

Miller Jacobs said, “The opportunity to teach at AMBS while also remaining in ministry is almost too good to be true. While my own work in both seminary and church will benefit from the conversation between theory and application, I also trust that the energy that comes from the interplay of action and reflection will serve both the AMBS community and the wider church.”

Brubacher Kaethler will serve as assistant professor of faith formation and culture. He has been director of !Explore: A Theological Program for High School Youth since 2003 and has also been a sessional instructor at AMBS. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill., and earned an M.A. in theology from the University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. From 2000 to 2003 he was conference youth minister for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, and from 1993 to 2000 was associate pastor of Bethany Mennonite Church, Virgil, Ont.

“We are thrilled that Andy Brubacher Kaethler will now officially join the faculty. Andy’s agile teaching draws many persons into deeper fascination with theological exploration. His ardent desire for disciples of Jesus Christ to be formed as culturally savvy witnesses will provide a critical service to the church,” Wenger Shenk said.

“I am excited to be a part of a teaching body of the church which so clearly sees its mission as forming leaders to engage in God's reconciling and transforming work in the world,” Brubacher Kaethler said. “The two aspects of this mission I am most passionate about are Christian formation—the life-long process shaping of Christians to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, and cultural interpretation—careful reflection on culture to discern what Christians ought to resist because they are inconsistent with the life to which Jesus calls each of us.”

Miller Jacobs and her husband, Randall Jacobs, are parents of three young adults. They are members of Faith Mennonite Church, Goshen, Ind.

Brubacher Kaethler, and his wife, Elise, are parents of two children. They are members of Belmont Mennonite Church, Elkhart, Ind.

--June 15, 2012