Tim Froese's story

There are many different reasons that impact which seminary a person will attend. The sense of call; the mission or faith statement of a seminary; the quality of faculty; the denominational affiliation; influence of mentors, leaders and peers; and sometimes location. In many ways, all of these factors combined to influence my decision to come to AMBS.

For me, the decision to attend seminary is a part of my own sense of call to ministry. I knew that I wanted to graduate from a Mennonite seminary, because as I understand Christian discipleship, it is the Mennonite perspective that I share, and also wanted to learn more about. I had also encountered some of the AMBS faculty presenting at different Mennonite functions, and was excited about the possibility of studying with them. Furthermore, a couple of pastors and undergrad professors who have been influencers or unofficial mentors to me had spent time at AMBS and spoke well of the seminary. While these factors were an important part of my decision to come here, perhaps it is unique how much of a factor location played.

As I have served in pastoral youth ministry for the past six years and served on different committees at both the provincial and national level for the Mennonite Church in Canada, I learned many things. One of the most striking is that location has a much bigger impact on our faith and spirituality than we usually give attention to. This observation was reaffirmed during a project I did for an online course where I studied the various factors that influenced some of the schisms within Christian history.

In light of these observations, I learned of myself that I am a Mennonite whose faith has been shaped by a west coast expression in British Columbia. My understanding of how a congregation functions, how decisions are made, and where primary influence comes from have all been shaped by a west coast form of culture, politics, history and spirituality. Both between east and west, and between the U.S. and Canada, there are some obvious, but also many subtle, cultural differences that impact the way we express our Christian faith.

For this reason, it seemed to me that attending a seminary in the east would then be as much of a learning experience as the courses I would be taking. In this way I hope that through immersing myself in the culture of another part of North America, I will be better equipped to understand, relate to and build bridges between the different locations that God may call me in ministry. As to date, I have learned many things in this way already.

Tim Froese took several online courses from his home in Abbottsford, B.C., before coming to AMBS in fall 2007 with Charlotte, his wife, and their daughter, Myra. Tim is in the Master of Divinity program.