Sara Wenger Shenk

President

• B.A., Eastern Mennonite University, 1975
• MTS, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, 1986
• Ed.D., Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, 1999

Email: swshenk@ambs.edu
Phone: 574 296–6244
Curriculum Vitae

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Sara Wenger Shenk’s experiences in mission, church planting, teaching and administration have fostered a unique combination of leadership gifts. She was a member of the faculty and administration of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va., for 15 years prior to coming to AMBS in 2010. She and Gerald, her husband, served on study-service appointments with Eastern Mennonite Missions and Mennonite Central Committee in the former Yugoslavia from 1977–1983 and 1986–1989. In addition, Sara has served in conference and denominational leadership roles, and she has written extensively in both academic and church publications. During the last three years that she lived in Harrisonburg, she and Gerald were instrumental in leading The Table, an emerging Mennonite congregation in Harrisonburg, giving evidence to her emphasis that worship grounds all aspects of theological education.

“However one chooses to portray the distinctive qualities we as Anabaptist Christians exemplify, there is no doubt that we are increasingly being asked to bring the treasures of our story, com-munal spirituality, holistic discipleship, and missionary zeal as evangelists of the peace of Christ, into the broader public sphere. I am grateful for pastors, scholars, poets, artists, peacemakers, teachers, business leaders, builders, gardeners and healers who devote them-selves to the deep formation needed to become leaders of God’s reconciling mission in the world.”

Scholarship

• “What is this place" in The Mennonite, 2010
• “Cohabitation: What is at Stake?” in Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology (Fall 2008)
• Thank you for Asking: Conversing with Young Adults about the Future Church (Herald, 2005)
• Anabaptist Ways of Knowing: A Conversation about Tradition-based Critical Education (Cascadia, 2003)
• Toward an Anabaptist Educational Theory (dissertation presented to the faculty of Union Theological Seminary and The Presbyterian School of Christian Education), 1998
• Meditations for New Parents (Herald, 1996), co-author