Sawatzky begins as Director of the AMBS Church Leadership Center
Published: February 17, 2026
By Annette Brill Bergstresser
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Joseph C.L. Sawatzky, PhD, of Goshen, Indiana, has been named Director of the Church Leadership Center for Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, effective Feb. 2, 2026.
In his new role, he will guide the vision, strategy and operations of the seminary’s Church Leadership Center (CLC), oversee the Volunteer Program, supervise CLC staff and Volunteer Coordinators, and directly manage certain program elements.
Sawatzky succeeds Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, PhD, Dean of Lifelong Learning, who has directed the CLC since 2001 and the AMBS Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Leadership since 2022. Longenecker will continue as Dean of Lifelong Learning through Aug. 2, working closely with Sawatzky to ensure smooth functioning of the CLC’s theological and continuing education programs through the transition. After that, she will continue half time as Director of the DMin Program, and Sawatzky will join the seminary’s Administrative Cabinet, reporting to David Boshart, PhD, President.
Since August 2020, Sawatzky has been serving AMBS one-third time as Global Leadership Collaborative Project Specialist through a partnership between AMBS and Mennonite Mission Network (MMN), where he worked in the Church Relations and Training and Resources departments (2015–26). MMN shared his time with AMBS in support of an agreement formed in 2020 between Mennonite World Conference and AMBS to provide Anabaptist-Mennonite theological education to church leaders and institutions around the world.
Sawatzky has also served AMBS as a Core Adjunct Faculty member since 2022 — teaching courses in missiology, history and biblical theology — and as a Faculty Mentor for the DMin program since January 2025.
According to Boshart, Sawatzky is uniquely prepared to take on the responsibilities of this role.
“Joe brings extensive experience in nondegree theological education, leadership formation and global church engagement,” he said. “His years of teaching, writing and leading programs — particularly through Mennonite Mission Network and AMBS — demonstrate a sustained commitment to forming leaders grounded in Scripture, Anabaptist theology and missional practice.”
Boshart noted that the Search Committee was excited about Sawatzky’s capacity to contribute to the strategic growth of the CLC as a leadership development resource for the global church by expanding digital and on-demand offerings, strengthening denominational partnerships and integrating global perspectives.
“Throughout the interview process, Joe articulated a compelling and coherent vision for the CLC as a bridge between the theological academy and the lived realities of church leadership,” he said. “We see in him a combination of theological depth, relational wisdom, institutional knowledge and strategic imagination to lead the CLC with faithfulness and creativity.”
Sawatzky holds a PhD in Systematic Theology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (2021). His dissertation — “Toward an Anabaptist-Pentecostal Vision: Exploring Ecclesial Identities in North American Mennonite Mission with Pentecostal-Type Churches in Southern Africa” — was published by Pickwick Publications in 2023 as part of the American Society of Missiology Monograph Series. He also earned a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Mission and Evangelism from AMBS (2005) and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas (2001). At AMBS, he received both the Jacob Enz Award for Excellence in Biblical Theology and the Wilbert Shenk Award in Mission and Evangelism.
Following his graduation from seminary, Sawatzky and his wife, Anna Sawatzky, served with MMN in South Africa (2006–14). He was an instructor for Bethany Bible School (now Mennonite Bible School) in the Eastern Cape Province, where he developed and taught a 24-topic curriculum cycle for a nonresidential nondegree Indigenous-language pastoral/leadership education partnership between African Initiated Churches and North American Mennonites. The curriculum gave an overview of the Bible; Christian history, theology and ethics; and church and ministry. Sawatzky taught in English with translation into isiXhosa.
He also taught courses for the Evangelical Seminary of Southern Africa in Pietermaritzburg (2013), MMN’s Sent Network Church Planting Curriculum (2019–20, 2022–23) and Sekolah Tinggi Agama Kristen Wiyata Wacana in Pati, Central Java, Indonesia (2024), and served Goshen (Indiana) College as a Guest Lecturer (2015–18) and Teaching Assistant (2015). He has written articles for Mennonite Quarterly Review and MMN and has presented at the American Society of Missiology Annual Meeting and at Anabaptist-Mennonite conventions, conferences and congregations around the world.
Gingerich Longenecker noted that Sawatzky’s ability to manage complex programs; work collaboratively across institutional and denominational contexts; and cultivate trust among pastors, faculty and church leaders will serve him well in his new role.
Sawatzky attends Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship in Goshen, a congregation of Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA.
History of the Church Leadership Center
According to Gingerich Longenecker, AMBS’s Church Leadership Center emerged from the vision of AMBS President Emeritus J. Nelson Kraybill, PhD, in 1999. In conversations with constituents, Kraybill sought input on what the church most needed from AMBS.
“What he heard was a clear call to broaden the seminary’s educational scope beyond its highly regarded graduate theological programs to include accessible learning opportunities for leaders and lay learners,” she said.
The CLC was then founded to promote and inspire a biblical vision of effective leadership for a changing world from an Anabaptist theological perspective. Under Gingerich Longenecker’s leadership, the CLC has expanded the seminary’s offerings by providing a variety of programs for personal enrichment, spiritual and theological reflection, and ongoing leadership development. Its educational programs include the Journey Missional Leadership Development Program, Online Short Courses, Ministry Reflection Circles, Transition to Leadership, Practical Leadership Training modules, Spiritual Direction Seminars and the Invite AMBS speakers bureau, in addition to the annual Pastors & Leaders conference.
“With Jewel’s leadership over 25 years, the Church Leadership Center has grown into a trusted resource center for leadership development,” reflected Boshart. “I am grateful for her vision and sustained leadership in shaping the CLC and its offerings.”
Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu
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