Educator, biblical theologian and church leader Dr. James E. Brenneman is the 16th president to serve Goshen College. During 26 years in California, Jim founded and served as lead pastor of Pasadena Mennonite Church and taught courses in Old Testament studies at Episcopal Theological School, Fuller Theological Seminary and Claremont School of
Theology.

A 1977 Goshen College graduate, Jim pursued an interdisciplinary degree, combining Bible, biology and natural science. He went on to attend Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and completed a master of divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1982. At Claremont Graduate University, he earned a master of arts degree in religious studies in 1991 and a doctorate, with a focus in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies, in 1994. Jim is the author of “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks: Lessons from the Book of Deuteronomy” (Herald Press, 2004) and “Canons in Conflict: Negotiating Texts in True and False Prophesy” (Oxford University Press, 1997).

Jim is a leader with a pastor’s heart and a scholar’s mind lived out in joyful witness. His Anabaptist, urban, multicultural perspective developed throughout a life
that began in Kalona, Iowa, found him in the Cuban quarter of Tampa, Fla., until he came to study at GC and his 25-plus years spent in the urban context of Los Angeles as a Mennonite pastor with an interest in ecumenical conversations. He and his wife, Dr.
Terri J. Plank Brenneman who is a clinical psychologist, have one son, Quinn.