AMBS honors Setyawan and Youngquist with Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition
Published: September 16, 2024
By Virginia A. Hostetler for AMBS
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Yusak Budi Setyawan, PhD, of Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia; and Sally Schreiner Youngquist, MDiv, of Evanston, Illinois; are the 2024 recipients of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary’s (AMBS) Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition.
The annual award of the Elkhart, Indiana, seminary honors alumni with an outstanding record of faithful ministry and service. This year’s recipients have served in a variety of contexts, including a voluntary service unit, an intentional community, congregations, educational institutions and academic organizations.
A longtime pastor and community leader, Youngquist earned a Master of Divinity with a major in Pastoral Ministry in 1987. Setyawan, a pastor, professor and academic administrator, earned a Master of Arts: Theological Studies with a concentration in Theology and Ethics in 2003.
“Yusak and Sally have given their lives to service in and for the church,” said Alumni Director Janeen Bertsche Johnson (MDiv 1989; current DMin student). “Those who nominated them for the recognition described them as invaluable mentors, calling out and encouraging the gifts of others. They have led wisely, holding together clear convictions and gracious respect for others. We are delighted to honor them as leaders shaped by and shaping AMBS.”
Setyawan and Youngquist will be honored during a Zoom reception on Monday, Nov. 11, 8–9 p.m. EST; register to attend.
Yusak Budi Setyawan
Setyawan was born in Kudus, Central Java, Indonesia, the birthplace of the Persekutuan Gereja – Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia (GKMI, or Muria Christian Church of Indonesia) — one of three Mennonite conferences in the country. His parents and grandparents also belonged to the Mennonite Church.
After earning a Master of Divinity from Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana (Duta Wacana Christian University) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (1985–91), Setyawan served as Pastor of the GKMI in Salatiga (1991–96). He was elected General Secretary of the GKMI Synod in 1995.
In 1997, he joined the Faculty of Theology at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (UKSW, or Satya Wacana Christian University) in Salatiga — the largest university in the country. He held various academic roles there until 2022, including serving as Dean, and currently is Professor of Christianity Studies and Theology for the university. In 2001, he was ordained by the GKMI for the special ministry of higher education.
Setyawan said he first heard about AMBS from close friends who had studied there: Albert Oei, Mesach Krisetya, Paulus Sugeng Wijaya and Stefanus Christian Haryono.
While earning a Certificate in Peace and Reconciliation Studies from De Doopsgezinde Seminarium van Amsterdam (Amsterdam Mennonite Seminary) in the Netherlands in 1998, he recalls participating in stimulating conversations about Anabaptism with colleagues who were taking a summer course in the Netherlands with AMBS Professor Daniel Schipani.
“They encouraged me to go to AMBS to deepen my understanding of Mennonite-Anabaptist theologies,” he said. “As a pastor of the Mennonite Church in Indonesia and as a theology teacher at a Christian university, I needed to strengthen my Anabaptist theological roots.”
While his wife and children stayed in Indonesia, Setyawan came to AMBS in 2002 and completed his MA: Theological Studies in 2003. He remembers some challenging times but said that the community at AMBS helped.
“We had good relationships not only as students and professors but also as friends,” he said. “That encouraged me.”
Setyawan said that courses in theology, ethics and peace studies that he took with Gayle Gerber Koontz and Ted Koontz were formative for him. And he expressed deep appreciation for New Testament Professor Willard Swartley.
“They not only shared knowledge and theology, but they shared their lives,” he said. They were models of the kind of teacher he aimed to be.
Looking back, Setyawan reflected, “AMBS opened my knowledge horizons in the field of theology and enriched my life in a balanced manner between the intellectual, spiritual and psychological.”
He added, “AMBS represented God’s presence in a very real academic atmosphere and community — through the good relationships, the warm welcome, the acceptance, the encouragement. I feel that God was so real in my life through the AMBS community.”
Setyawan went on to earn a PhD in Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Interpretation from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia (2007–09). His areas of research include New Testament studies, social and public theology, and sexuality in society and religion. He has presented at numerous international conferences and has written many articles and book chapters for Indonesian and international publications.
In other roles, Setyawan is an Accreditor with the Badan Akreditasi Nasional (National Board of Accreditation for Higher Education) for the Republic of Indonesia and with the Association for Theological Education in Southeast Asia. He served as President of the Association of Theological Schools in Indonesia (2018–22). In 2012, he participated as a delegate for the Republic of Indonesia in a regional interfaith dialogue among Asia Pacific countries. Currently he offers consultation and expertise within the country on religious fundamentalism, terrorism and religious moderation. He also visits congregations (Mennonite and other denominations) for preaching, teaching and consulting.
Setyawan is married to Dr. Dwikorina Dewanti, and they attend GKMI Siloam Salatiga Mennonite Church. They have an adult son and an adult daughter who is deceased.
Sally Schreiner Youngquist
Youngquist was raised near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was active in Mt. Lebanon (Pennsylvania) United Presbyterian Church. She credits her youth pastor for opening her eyes to the needs beyond the affluent suburban church. As a college student she served on the summer staff, working with the congregation’s youth.
Youngquist earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. During her time there, she became acquainted with Reba Place Fellowship, a Christian intentional community begun by Mennonites and located in Evanston. In 1973, she became a covenant member of that common-purse community, living in multigenerational households and helping to make community decisions.
With the community’s blessing, in 1979 she took a leave to do voluntary service with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Following that assignment, she served for three years in Akron, Pennsylvania, as Assistant Director of MCC’s U.S. Program.
Youngquist named her involvement with MCC as significant in her vocational development and in her decision to attend seminary. In 1983 she began studies at AMBS, seeking further equipping for ministry and discernment about next steps. Because of her interest in urban contexts, she did a yearlong internship with the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) in Chicago. (AMBS was a participating seminary in that organization, which no longer exists.) She then returned to AMBS in 1986 and completed her coursework in 1987.
Youngquist said that she and other MCC workers saw AMBS as a “natural landing place” after concluding their service terms. She appreciated “the environment of study and dialogue,” which offered training and spiritual grounding for future pastoral roles.
“It was a stimulating place to be,” she said, recalling meaningful conversations with students from various backgrounds and expressing appreciation for the faculty, in particular Willard Swartley, Millard Lind, Erland Waltner, Jacob Elias and Gertrude Roten — seasoned professors “who loved the church and really enjoyed forming students.”
“I appreciated the wealth of experiences my AMBS professors would draw from in communicating wisdom from their lives in the church and the world,” Youngquist said. She remembers the worship experiences in the AMBS chapel that reinforced her love of word, imagery and music.
As a “convinced Anabaptist,” she valued C.J. Dyck’s course on Luther, Calvin and Anabaptism. One class project involved envisioning an ideal congregation. She recalled the affirmation of Professor David Augsburger: “I’d go to a church like the one you envision.”
Reflecting on her formation, Youngquist said her time at AMBS increased her confidence in preaching, exegesis and hermeneutics and helped her integrate her practical experiences with theory.
“AMBS’s membership in SCUPE was invaluable in providing a year of coursework practically geared toward establishing the church in the city,” she noted.
Youngquist’s SCUPE experience helped solidify her vision for urban ministry among diverse communities. During and after her internship, she and other members of Reba Place explored an outreach into the Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side. Together they developed relationships with recently arrived immigrants, eventually establishing a daughter church there.
In the mid-1990s, this daughter church became a new multicultural, multiracial, multilingual Anabaptist-Christian congregation called Living Water Community Church (LWCC), also joining Illinois Mennonite Conference. Youngquist served as one of the founding pastors and was ordained in 1994 by Reba Place Church — the first woman to receive ordination in the congregation.
In the mid-2000s, following a fatal drive-by shooting in Rogers Park, the congregation felt called to purchase a vacant mini-mall at that intersection. Youngquist helped lead LWCC in raising funds for and rehabbing the 6,500-square-foot storefront section, which became their permanent meetinghouse. She was on LWCC’s leadership team until 2009, when she was called by Reba Place Fellowship to serve in leadership there. Now retired, she serves as Coordinator of the Senior Care Team at Reba Place Fellowship. Over the years, she has also served on boards and committees with the broader Mennonite Church.
Youngquist and her husband, Orwin Youngquist, whom she married in 2003, live in Evanston. She is a stepmother to his three daughters.
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Both recipients expressed surprise and gratitude for the recognition of their ministries.
“I just work and serve God with what I can do best,” said Setyawan.
Youngquist mentioned the teams she has worked with and said, “I think I was at the right place at the right time to have different opportunities present themselves to me, and to have wonderful relationships with colleagues and mentors and partners.”
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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