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The Goshen College Board of Directors announced finalization of its appointment of educator, biblical theologian and church leader James E. Brenneman to serve as the college’s 16th president, beginning July 1, 2006, for a four-year term of leadership of the 111-year-old institution.
With Goshen College’s relationship to Mennonite Church USA through Mennonite Education Agency (MEA), the MEA Board of Directors affirmed the appointment on Nov. 28, according to an announcement last Wednesday by Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Ind.
“Dr. Brenneman has always sought to align his love for ideas and teaching with service,” said Rick Stiffney, vice chair of the Goshen College Board of Directors who led the Presidential Search Committee, in the announcement. “This has led him to a vocational calling in biblical scholarship alongside a commitment to the pastorate and other significant leadership roles within the broader life of the church.”
Stiffney officially announced that Brenneman was the Board’s candidate of choice for the position vacated in September 2004 by Shirley H. Showalter.
Brenneman, a 1977 Goshen College graduate who lives with his family in South Pasadena, Calif., was introduced to the campus and community in a chapel service Nov. 18 as a final step in a leadership discernment process.
Virgil Miller, chair of the Goshen College Board of Directors, said in Goshen’s announcement that the leadership profile developed for the presidential post called for the successful candidate to “promote the mission of the college to ‘educate leaders for the church and world’; support and implement the strategic priorities of the institution, including the new strategic plan; and embody the core values of the college and exemplify a mature and vibrant Christian faith.”
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“The Board of Directors is confident that Jim will dynamically move Goshen College forward,” she added.
As the 16th president to lead Goshen College in its long history, Brenneman joins a list of recent leaders that includes: Shirley H. Showalter, 1997-2004; Henry D. Weaver (interim president), July-December, 1996; Victor S. Stoltzfus, 1984-1995; J. Lawrence Burkholder, 1971-1984; and Paul E. Mininger, 1954-1970.
“Jim Brenneman is an academic, a leader and a pastor,” said MEA executive director Carlos Romero, in a released statement. “In finalizing this appointment, we are affirming these gifts and the role that Goshen College itself played in his preparation for servant leadership. Goshen College has an integral role in the church’s missional identity and outreach, and he is evidence of its success in nurturing leaders. MEA rejoices with the Brenneman family, with the Goshen College community and with Mennonite Church USA on this faithful response to God’s leading.”
According to the institution, Brenneman will enter a five-month period of preparation beginning Feb. 1, 2006; activities for this time will be discerned by Brenneman and the Goshen College Board of Directors. He will officially take office July 1, 2006.
