AMBS celebrates jump in enrollment

Annette Brill Bergstresser on October 7, 2025

Eighteen students (pictured here) participated in the on-campus version of AMBS’s orientation course, Leadership Education in Anabaptist Perspective, in August 2025. Thirty students participated in fully online versions of the course. (Credit: Brittany Purlee/AMBS)

Published: October 7, 2025

Multiple key graduate-level statistics are the highest in years 

Eighteen students (pictured here) participated in the on-campus version of AMBS’s orientation course, Leadership Education in Anabaptist Perspective, in August 2025. Thirty students participated in fully online versions of the course. (Credit: Brittany Purlee/AMBS)
Eighteen students (pictured here) participated in the on-campus version of AMBS’s orientation course, Leadership Education in Anabaptist Perspective, in August 2025. Thirty students participated in fully online versions of the course. (Credit: Brittany Purlee/AMBS)

By Annette Brill Bergstresser

ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Enrollment at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, continues to climb to heights not seen for nearly 20 years, with 200 students in September 2025 (190 in 2024). Of these, 162 are graduate students and 38 are participants in the undergraduate-level nondegree Journey Missional Leadership Development Program. 

“Our historic enrollment growth bears witness to the trust and confidence the global church places in AMBS to form leaders for God’s reconciling mission,” reflected David Boshart, PhD, President. “In our learning community, we’re equipping leaders to draw on the richness of Anabaptist perspectives to navigate polarization, conflict and injustice and to lead communities of faith with resilience, hope and joy.”

According to Scott Janzen, MDiv, Assistant Dean, Registrar and Director of Retention, AMBS is seeing upward trajectories continue in several significant categories for its graduate programs:

  • The number of graduate students — 162 (compared with 149 in 2024) — represents the highest enrollment since 2007.
  • The full-time equivalency (FTE) of graduate student enrollment — 70 (compared with 60.9 in 2024) — is the highest since 2010.
  • The number of degree- or certificate-seeking graduate students — 141 (compared with 132 in 2024) — is the highest since 2003. 
  • The number of guest students rose from 17 in 2024 to 21 in 2025.
  • The number of unique students served over the last 12 months — 175 in 2024–25 (compared with 165 in 2023–24) — is the largest in at least 13 years.
  • The incoming class of 48 students is the second largest since 1999, helping offset the 33 students who graduated in May, which was the largest graduating class since 2014 and was 50 percent larger than the 2024 graduating class.

Janzen noted that the rapid growth of the seminary’s new distance-friendly Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Leadership is contributing to the increase in numbers, with 20 students in 2025 (compared with 12 in 2024). The fully online Spanish-language Graduate Certificate in Theology, offered collaboratively with Hispanic Ministries of Mennonite Education Agency/Mennonite Church USA, also grew from 10 to 15 students in 2025.

These enrollment figures are from AMBS’s close of registration on Sept. 15, 2025.

Graduate programs

Of AMBS’s 162 graduate students, 86 are from the U.S., seven are from Canada and 69 are from outside of the U.S. or Canada — compared with 82 U.S., four Canadian and 63 international students in 2024. The graduate student body represents 17 countries (by citizenship): Canada, Chad, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Tanzania, United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Of the seminary’s 69 international students, 10 are studying on campus; the rest are in their home countries. According to Janzen, while only one admitted international student was granted a visa to study on campus in 2024, and only three in 2023, seven international students received visas in 2025. However, he noted that international student access to U.S. schools is becoming more restricted due to changes in government regulations. 

Enrollment in the seminary’s distance-friendly programs continues to increase, accounting for 86 percent of AMBS’s degree-seeking students in 2025 (up from 79 percent in 2024):

  • The seminary’s fully online Master of Arts: Theology and Global Anabaptism (MATGA) program has 49 students in 2025, compared with 50 in 2024. Twenty-nine of these are Ethiopian students who are enrolled in MATGA cohorts through a partnership between AMBS and Meserete Kristos Seminary in Bishoftu/Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. Nine are South Korean students taking MATGA courses in South Korea through a partnership between AMBS and the Nehemiah Institute for Christian Studies in Seoul. 
  • Twenty-seven students are enrolled in AMBS’s three 21-credit-hour distance-friendly Graduate Certificate programs (up from 22 in 2024). 
  • Twenty-two students are enrolled in the distance-friendly Master of Divinity (MDiv) Connect program, compared with 20 in 2024. 
  • Three students are enrolled in the new Master of Arts in Christian Formation (MACF) Connect program, which just became available as a distance-friendly program this semester.
  • Also, the number of students taking an online or blended course (121) increased 20 percent from 2024. (Blended courses are campus courses that students from a distance can join via live videoconference during posted class times.)

Janzen noted that many students in distance-friendly programs still experience in-person instruction during their seminary studies. Students in MATGA cohorts in Ethiopia and South Korea are required to take some of their courses in person in their home countries, taught on location by AMBS professors — including faculty appointed by AMBS from partnering institutions. Students in the MDiv Connect and MACF Connect programs participate in a certain number of hybrid courses — which combine online work with one week of in-person intensive sessions on campus — to meet residency requirements. Students in the DMin program meet for a week of in-person coursework each January. 

“These in-person experiences help students deepen their relationships with their fellow students and faculty members,” Janzen said. “At the same time, we also hear from many students about how much great community-building happens in our online and blended courses.”

Fourteen percent of degree-seeking students are enrolled in campus-based programs — for students who live on campus or within commuting distance:

The number of graduate students who are studying part time has risen, representing 80 percent of students in 2025 (130, compared with 79 percent in 2024). Twenty percent are studying full time (32, compared with 21 percent in 2024). These figures align with trends across seminaries in the U.S. and Canada.

Janzen noted that in 2025, 131 graduate students are affiliated with Mennonite World Conference or related Anabaptist groups — the highest number in 20 years. This includes AMBS’s two sponsoring denominations, with 71 students from Mennonite Church USA and six from Mennonite Church Canada. Thirty-one students are affiliated with other faith traditions.

Journey Missional Leadership Development Program

Participants, mentors and leaders in AMBS’s Journey Missional Leadership Development Program gathered for a Weekend Learning Event at Amigo Centre in Sturgis, Michigan, in September 2025. (Credit: Brittany Purlee/AMBS)
Participants, mentors and leaders in AMBS’s Journey Missional Leadership Development Program gathered for a Weekend Learning Event at Amigo Centre in Sturgis, Michigan, in September 2025. (Credit: Brittany Purlee/AMBS)

Of the 38 current participants in Journey (41 in 2024), 11 are in the U.S., four are in Canada, and 23 reside in countries other than the U.S. and Canada — including Nigeria, the Philippines, Uganda and Southeast Asia (precise locations are not specified for security reasons). Journey is a distance-friendly undergraduate-level certificate program of AMBS’s Church Leadership Center that develops leaders centered in Jesus Christ for ministries in local churches and communities.

Eighteen Journey participants are affiliated with Mennonite World Conference or related Anabaptist groups, including 10 with Mennonite Church USA and three with Mennonite Church Canada. Two are connected with other Christian traditions. (The affiliations of the Southeast Asia participants are not listed for security reasons.)

“In September, we saw one of the largest incoming Journey classes in years, with nine new participants,” said Steve Norton, Assistant Director of Journey. “We’re also excited that Mennonite Church Eastern Canada will become a new sponsoring regional church of the Journey program starting in 2026.”

According to Norton, the conference ministers and participants from sponsoring conferences/regional churches have opportunities to develop relationships as they participate in the program’s in-person Weekend Learning Events twice each year. The conference ministers can also identify potential Journey participants and help facilitate their applications.

“We’re grateful for all the ways that conferences/regional churches and conference ministers engage with their constituents and support the Journey program,” he said.

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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