Joe Sawatzky, PhD
Director of the Church Leadership Center; Core Adjunct Faculty; DMin Faculty Mentor
About Joe
Joe began as Director of the Church Leadership Center in February 2026. Prior to this role, while employed by Mennonite Mission Network, he worked with AMBS as a specialist for the Global Leadership Collaborative, helping to make theological education in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition more accessible to church leaders and institutions around the world. From 2006-2014, Joe worked with Mennonite Mission Network as a Bible and theology teacher among African Initiated Churches in South Africa. As a Core Adjunct Professor, Joe has taught courses at AMBS since 2022, usually in the areas of missiology and biblical theology. Joe is married to Anna, and they are the parents of four young adult and teenage sons. They are active members of Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship in Goshen, Indiana.
Publications
- Toward an Anabaptist-Pentecostal Vision: Exploring Ecclesial Identities in North American Mennonite Mission with Pentecostal-Type Churches in Southern Africa (Pickwick, 2023)
- “Recovering an Experience of the Word: ‘The Anabaptist Vision’ and ‘the Primal Imagination.’ Mennonite Quarterly Review 97 (2023) 383-94
Memberships and associations
- American Society of Missiology