Wenger joins AMBS as Program Administrator
Published: June 17, 2024
By Annette Brill Bergstresser
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Naomi R. Wenger, MAR, MA, of Three Rivers, Michigan, has taken on the new role of Program Administrator for the Anabaptist Thriving Congregations Grant for Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana. She began June 17, 2024.
Wenger will work with Malinda Elizabeth Berry, PhD, Director of AMBS’s Faith Formation Collaborative, to design a program to equip congregations in the U.S. and Canada to read and interpret both the Bible and their sociocultural context with the goal of connecting more authentically with their communities. The five-year project — titled “Anabaptist Thriving Congregations” — is funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative.
“Naomi has a deep and vibrant passion for Scripture study that awakens us to God’s presence,” said Berry, who is serving as Grant Director for the project. “She is also a seasoned worship leader, preacher and spiritual director, which gives her a keen interest in helping groups and individuals hear what God’s Spirit is saying. These are important attributes that will help her train pastors and lay leaders to lead their congregations in a process that involves investigating their context, facilitating innovative Bible study, and guiding group discernment.”
Wenger brings experience in ministry, administration and communication to her new role. From 2001 to 2018, she served as Co-Director of The Hermitage Community, Inc. — a contemplative retreat community on 62 acres in Three Rivers. In this role, she provided both visionary and spiritual leadership: leading daily prayer services and seasonal group retreats on spiritual life and formation; assisting with hospitality services for 700+ guests per year; publishing a quarterly newsletter; and overseeing maintenance of the land and buildings. In 2018, she ended her time as Co-Director and served as part-time Program Coordinator until 2021.
Wenger will work three-quarter-time at AMBS so she can continue her involvement with spiritual direction and environmental stewardship projects. She has served as a spiritual director since 2003 and as a supervisor for other spiritual directors since 2022. She’ll continue to manage an online spiritual direction and retreat programming portal, Convergences, which she created in 2021.
A 2016 AMBS graduate, Wenger earned a Master of Arts: Theological Studies with a concentration in Biblical Studies. Her thesis topic was, “Can the Bible Speak in a Chaotic Universe?: A test case of John 13:31–17:26,” and she was honored with the Willard M. Swartley Award for Excellence in Biblical Interpretation. She also earned a Master of Arts in Religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois (2000), and a Bachelor of Arts from Houghton (New York) College (1983).
Wenger completed training in spiritual direction with the Sursum Corda: Spiritual Director Formation Program in Landrum, South Carolina in 2004, and earned a Certificate in Supervision for Spiritual Directors from the Institute for Spiritual Guidance of the Racine (Wisconsin) Dominicans in 2022.
She also has been a presenter and leader of retreats and workshops on topics such as contemplative spirituality, prayer, spiritual practices, creation care and eco-theology. She blogs at www.convergences.blog and preaches on a monthly basis in her home congregation, Florence Church of the Brethren Mennonite in Constantine, Michigan, where she also has served on the Pastoral Transition Planning Team and as Congregational Chair. (Florence Church is affiliated with both the Northern Indiana District of the Church of the Brethren and Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA.)
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
Learn more about the Anabaptist Thriving Congregations grant.
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