President

Jun 19 2025

Every day is a good day to learn a little more about history. Today, Juneteenth, is an especially good day to listen to a story that has shaped our present day through a long and painful struggle for freedom. In…

Jun 05 2025

When Kevin and I set out on a learning tour about Anabaptists in Switzerland and Germany, we were prepared to hear stories of persecution and cruel executions. What has surprised me are the stories of ecumenical reconciliation and active love…

Jun 02 2025

Last week I had the privilege to participate in the 100th anniversary celebration of the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. This 100th anniversary coincided with the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism, with the joint theme, The Courage to…

May 27 2025

“Translate, understand, convey.” – The English translation of a new poster outside Zürich’s main Reformed church marking events of 1525 As part of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism this year, Kevin and I are with Joe Springer (curator…

Apr 29 2025

Last weekend, I had the privilege of making my final speech to our 2025 graduating class of seniors at our baccalaureate service, for which they chose the theme of joy. Here are a few of the thoughts I shared with…

Apr 09 2025

I am asking myself, in this moment of alarming and rapid change, “what is it that I need to be learning?”

Mar 02 2025

Are you needing some hope right now? I have come to understand that hope is not only, or even primarily, a feeling. It is a practice. It requires muscles. Here are three strong practices of hope.

Feb 17 2025

We are writing jointly, as a Mennonite pastor and college president, to explain and support a recent lawsuit filed to protect our religious freedom to practice our faith in the sanctuary on this campus.

Jan 03 2025

My word for the year is RENEW. Renewal is part and parcel of the God-filled life. It is the stuff of life – we see it in the turning of the earth and the seasons and in death and birth.…

Nov 08 2024

Today is national First-Generation College Celebration Day. Nearly half of our students are the first in their families to go to college, and many of our staff and faculty are similarly first-gen. I am the second generation in my family…

Oct 30 2024

Last week, Dr. Wendsler Nosie brought us a gift and an invitation. The gift was his call to awaken to the sacred nature of the land. The invitation was to stand in solidarity with the Apache in their struggle to…

Oct 11 2024

As we pass the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, we are witnessing the predictable horror that unfolds when the arithmetic of revenge – “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” –…

Aug 26 2024

If you are a college president, which I happen to be, your inbox is full of alarms and advice about the winds of conflict on campuses this fall.

Mar 11 2024

I honor Anne Frank this Women’s History Month because hearing her voice speak across the decades through her house-turned-museum woke me up to the power of girls. My experience in those upstairs rooms made me see not only the world…

Jan 31 2024

Jim Collins, author of the business books Good to Great and Built to Last, defined a Hedgehog Concept as what differentiates great companies from good ones. He writes, “A hedgehog concept is not a goal to be the best, a…

Jan 17 2024

My word for the year is faith because it’s what I need. Faith is such a familiar word that it can sound bland, and so I’ll try to explain what I mean. Faith for me is the belief that God…

Dec 20 2023

This year I am newly awake to the reality that Jesus was born in Palestine under the occupation of an empire. And yet, throughout the Gospel stories of the Nativity, in the face of empire, people seek the light. They…

Nov 02 2023

The violence unfolding in Israel/Palestine is horrifying and heartbreaking. As a follower of Jesus, I stand for peace and am opposed to killing. And as Dr. Martin Luther King said, “There can be no justice without peace and there can…

Sep 12 2023

It is no secret and no surprise: Goshen College has been in many ways subverted – turned from below – by our inquiring and passionate students and faculty and the transformational changes they have brought about. John D. Roth, professor…

Jul 24 2023

My thoughts have been circling around issues of gender for a while: a recent essay on masculinity, Haitian women competing in the World Cup, Barbie becoming human, Lionel Messi in pink.

Apr 05 2023

One of my favorite questions to ask alumni is: “Who is the person who was most influential to you from your time at Goshen?” For our older alums, the most common answer is Mary Oyer, professor emerita of music, who…

Jan 30 2023

That’s when it struck me: Clear is my word. Clear in the ancient faith . . . and in eye, clear. May our clearness be gentle or fierce, as needed.

Dec 21 2022

Christmas, for us northern-dwellers, is the co-incidence of an astronomical event and the incarnation of God as a baby. Two truths, of very different sorts. When darkness is at its longest, the world turns, but almost imperceptibly. In a world…

Dec 13 2022

I am experiencing Advent this year as a thin season. I love the image of heaven whispering. And that makes me think about all the angels at work in the Christmas stories. Angels with Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, the shepherds –…