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Please discuss how any pastoral or ministry experience you've had informs your teaching and the way you interact with students:

Phil B.: I think my years as a pastor and missionary give my teaching a strong practical emphasis as I help students think about dealing with church life and its nitty-gritty reality.

Eric: I have served as a pastor in four congregations for a total of 12 years. When I began teaching spiritual formation at RBC two years ago, I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it, from the first day of my preparation. It later dawned on me that the reason for this was the fact that "spiritual formation" was essentially what I had been doing as a pastor! It was a joy, then, to approach my work as a teacher, in that course especially, from the perspective of a pastor.

Reuben: I have about 13 years experience as a pastor in small congregational settings. I have several more years experience in various other leadership and teaching roles. I am acutely aware when I am teaching at RBC that I am passing on more than intellectual content. I am trying to place student learning in a context in which it can be used by the students for growth and service. I want to see their faith grow, not weaken, as they pass through this critical time in their lives. I can't do this well by simply telling students what or how to think about hard issues. I have to equip the students with the chance to make their own fair, informed and adult decisions relating their learning to faith in Jesus Christ.

Lynette: When I taught full time [at Delaware Christian School], I did a lot of mentoring, Bible studies, and counseling . . . . Though it is now impossible in six weeks to develop the kind of relationships I had with students several years in a row, I do try to relate to each of my RBC students personally. I ask for prayer requests related to their lives and try to follow up to see how/if they've been answered. I also end the course with breakfast at my house and a simple prayer of blessing on the many choices they have in front of them.

Jon: I've always had a strong sense that what I do at RBC enriches my work as a member of a pastoral team, and vice versa. The study and preparation that is built into teaching has obvious benefit when I'm preparing to preach, but my work as a pastor also shapes my teaching. For example, when I'm discussing with my Anabaptist History students the theology of adult baptism or of the Lord's Supper that emerged in the sixteenth century, we end up also wrestling with practical questions of pastoral significance: Is there a minimum age that a believers' church should require a baptismal candidate to have? Should children be permitted or encouraged to participate when the bread and the cup are passed? Why or why not? For me these aren't theoretical questions, but ones that I've faced in a pastoral context.

Phyllis: I've worked with children and with parents in multiple settings, each setting giving me unique perspectives on child development (the class I teach at RBC).

Why did you come to Rosedale Bible College?

Phil B.: I am interested in supporting the growth of evangelical Anabaptism within the Me

nnonite community.

Eric: Because I couldn't get President Bush to appoint me to the Supreme Court. And because Richard Showalter invited me to teach here after I was a speaker at Leadership Seminar in 1992.

Reuben: RBC took me by surprise. I am not an alumnus and CMC is new territory for me. I was an admirer from a distance for many years. I came because I want to see Anabaptist Christianity not merely survive, but thrive in the 21st century.

Jon: I began teaching part time while I was in graduate school at Ohio State University. I've stayed because I enjoy the mix of teaching and interaction with students and colleagues, and because I remain convinced that RBC is contributing significantly to God's kingdom as we shape the lives of young adults during important years of development.

Phyllis: I want to share what I know about children in a way that helps students become fascinated with them.

What do you like best/enjoy or appreciate most about teaching at Rosedale?

Phil B.: Helping students better grasp biblical truth; enabling them to better minister in the world for Christ and the gospel.

Eric: The tremendous privilege of being involved in the education and spiritual formation of young people. And the fact that I can walk to work in about four minutes.

Reuben: I like all of it being part of the picture. I was never in organized sports and I have worked mostly in situations in which teamwork was a pretty abstract concept. Here, maybe for the first time, I have the sense that I am playing on a team with the rest of the faculty and staff, and I have a lot of that sense of "team pride" in its best sense. I feel very honored to have a place on a team with so many great players.

Lynette: I love the students. I love their energy and vitality (especially at 8 a.m.) and excitement for life and serving God.

Jon: I enjoy the teaching process itself, and find that I'm energized by spending time with students in class. I remember early in my work at RBC going home at the end of a day and telling Dawn that I went to class feeling a little down, but came out an hour and a half later fully recharged! Of course not every day is like that, but those days also are not rare. What more could you ask for in a job?

Phyllis: It is intriguing to me to have in my classes students who have previously volunteered on staff at Choral Camp. I enjoy explaining theoretically what we do practically at Choral Camp. I've worked often with parents who wish they could start over again with their children. Most of my students at Rosedale are pre-parents. It is an opportune time for them to learn.

What is the biggest challenge you face as a teacher at Rosedale?

Phil B.: Long hours of preparation.

Eric: Staying fresh and vital and current in my spiritual life, in course content, in presentation of material, and in connecting with young people when the generation gap keeps widening.

Reuben: I am not from an evangelical or Mennonite background. Even after 25 years of sailing the Mennonite seas, it is sometimes hard to translate my life and experiences in ways that are intelligible and helpful. It goes both ways sometimes I just don't get it!

Lynette: Balancing my life as a wife and mother with my teaching responsibilities.

Jon: It's probably the challenge of keeping things fresh, and teaching not out of what I've known for a long time but out of what I'm learning.

Phyllis: Time shortages. (I have a day job.)

Describe your most memorable classroom incident.

Eric: The class had just begun taking a midterm exam when I turned on the overhead fan, sending a shower of baby powder (which had been carefully applied to the upper side of the fan blades) cascading onto the students below and filling the room with a sweet-smelling fog.

Reuben: There are all kinds of moments of comedy, but in the long run they aren't all that important. Sometimes when everyone is quiet, thinking, maybe even troubled, all talking has stopped, and we know again that we hold treasures in jars of clay. I remember these moments as holy.

Lynette: On my 33rd birthday, my students walked into class singing in beautiful Mennonite harmony "Happy Birthday" and carrying a dozen roses and a card. I was floored and so blest!

Jon: It's probably the day one of my classes played a game they called "Trap the Rat," which involved steadily but surreptitiously moving their chairs forward while I was teaching until they were nearly pressed against the podium. I knew something was going on there was more giggling and general restlessness than usual and was disconcerted by my inability to figure out what it was. Only after class was over did I discover that the whole class had been in on the project, and I never caught on! It was fun in retrospect.

Phyllis: A day-long seminar I did on Ohio's death row. I was working with death row inmates who tutored other death row inmates in reading. The motivation for some inmates to learn to read was to read the Bible before they died.

If you had the ability to convince everyone you taught to agree with you on one thing, what would it be? Why did you choose that one?

Phil B.: Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. It is the ultimate issue.

Eric: That Christian discipleship is all about God knowing Him, pursuing a relationship with Him, finding Him faithful. Contemporary evangelical Christianity is too much about us from the way we worship to the way we approach ministry. We take our cues from the prevailing culture, which is narcissistic and materialistic. We need to stop that. It's not about us!

Reuben: That we can't stress too much that we are saved by grace. Our faith has to start with what God has done and does, not what we have done or must do. I think Mennonite Christians tend to always emphasize church life, discipleship issues and hard work sermons/messages seem to always circle back around to something we have to work harder at. I don't find that all bad, but from time to time I want us all to stand back and behold his glory, bask in it, be touched by his power and live there for a while, without presuming to paste our righteousness on the scene.

Lynette: That writing is fun! I chose it because most students think writing is such torture it should be a level in Dante's Inferno.

Jon: That a commitment to peace and nonresistance is not an "Anabaptist distinctive," but is a conviction rooted deeply in the New Testament. I have the sense that quite a few young adults are coming to RBC from churches that aren't clear about this. It seems to me that there's a huge temptation to ignore, downplay, or even apologize for that part of our theological understanding. In the rush to be seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, and relevant to the community, it's not easy to keep teaching a part of the gospel that is currently and likely always was difficult to market.

Phyllis: To be sure God is at the center of the home (not children). Because much of current Christian radio and literature, while not promoting child-centered homes explicitly, seems to promote child-centered homes implicitly.

Name one theological issue you're still working on/name one theological issue you think people should take more seriously.

Phil B.: Working on: how sanctification is to be part of the Good News. Take more seriously: contextualization and fidelity to biblical truth.

Eric: Working on: the role of women in the life of the church. Take more seriously: Grace.

Reuben: Nonresistance is a hard pill for me to swallow, but I believe it, and am committed to it. I don't want to see it simply fade away for want of attention, or because it is considered a liability in outreach.

Lynette: I think too often the Mennonite Church has focused so much on holy living that we've lost sight of the fact that it is by grace and grace alone that we are saved. We are/were dead in transgressions and no amount of "working out our salvation" saves us. It is only God's grace!

Phyllis: Why God created human beings when he already knew about the Fall.

What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?

Phil B.: Going to southern Sudan.

Eric: I once drank milk three days after its sell-by date.

Reuben: Pursuing a 23-year-old girlfriend when I was 17.

Lynette: Having children! Bringing eternal souls with free will into our home to teach and reach for Christ is both terrifying and exhilarating!

Jon: Probably the biggest risk recently was packing up the family and moving to central China for a year to teach English at a university in Luoyang. It was a great year, but there were sure lots of unknowns!

Phyllis: Trying to keep up with my husband on a week-long 300-mile bike trip.

What's one thing most people don't know about you?

Eric: I love bluegrass music and play the spoons with enthusiasm if not proficiency.

Reuben: I've loved fishing since childhood.

Lynette: That I used to help in the barn, feeding cows and calves. And the line "You can take the boy off the farm, but not the farm out of the boy," also applies to girls.

Jon: When I was five, I wanted to be a policeman. See, Dawn, there's hope for our boys!

Who is your RBC hero and why?

Eric: Elmer Jantzi he is my model for growing old with grace and style.

Reuben: Bill Burns, for providing me olive oil and feta cheese. He has managed to combine his role as chef with being a spiritual influence on campus. Twila Snider, RBC's cheerful first impression. Jon Showalter, for his very strong and fair mind.

Lynette: Bill Burns. I hate to cook and admire those who do. But Bill is more than a good cook. He uses his job to minister to students both at RBC and Bethel Camp. He is using his gifts for God's glory.

Jon: Elmer Jantzi introduced me to the study of theology at RBC when I was seventeen. It was in his class that I read Francis Schaeffer, R.C. Sproul and Os Guinness, and I found it exhilarating. Elmer had such an active, creative mind, and it was clearly his love of God and love of learning, rather than formal academic credentials, that made him such a dearly loved member of RBC's faculty.

Phyllis: Sharon Miller she's efficient, nice, and smart, all at the same time.

Please list any pastoral or ministry experience that you've had, and how it informs your teaching and how you interact with students:

Aram: My passion has always been for cross-cultural work, and I whetted my appetite for ministry up in NW Ontario, working with Native Americans. But most of my cross-cultural experience is with Hispanics . . . Wherever I am, I try to make ministry my first priority. This vision for "ministry everywhere you are" is part of what I try to impart to young(er) people; it is my conviction that commitment to serve the kingdom of God is the lifeblood of the church, which my current students must learn to carry.

Christa: As Director of Children's Ministries at Mechanicsburg Christian Fellowship for the past 7 years, I've had the chance to couple evangelism and discipleship. As I interact with the students at RBC, I use my training in fine arts to help them find ways to creatively and dramatically convey spiritual truths that can lead others to Christ.

Conrad: I've worked for the past 25 years as a bivocational pastor. I've also worked in the context of a Christian School as a teacher/administrator as well as in private practice counseling. I see all of these things as being pastoral in some sense.

Ken: As a worship leader at Shiloh Mennonite Church, I am aware of the complexities of the interactions between the church leadership, the worship team and the members of the congregation. This brings a realism to the courses I teach on worship and leadership.

Lynette: I'm very aware that I approach both classroom and individual interactions more as a pastoral counselor/ spiritual director than as a highly academic instructor.

Phil W.: Being a missions associate in Lexington in 85- 87 taught me a great deal about my own inadequacies, which I suppose is a very good foundation for anything God has been able to do through me since that time. It certainly gave me a sense of solidarity with the rest of the human family who struggle with life and spiritual power. ...My time with prison ministry We Care has given me an optimism about the possibilities for people who are "on the move," who are willing to make changes and think of new possibilities because they believe God is calling them to do more than be good and attend church faithfully.

Why did you come to Rosedale Bible College?

Christa: I was deeply impacted as a student at RBC in 1995-1996. To be part of the institution that so impacted me is a great honor. I believe RBC is a great opportunity to share the knowledge God's given me with other seekers of His path for their lives.

Conrad: I first came to RBC as a student. The experience there was very significant in my spiritual formation, so when I was invited to come to RBC to teach a term, I was excited to be able to share my faith and my life experience with this generation of students.

Ken: I first came to RBC as a student. The spiritual growth I experienced and the friendships I formed made me a believer in the role this college can play in the lives of the students who come here. When the opportunity came to join the faculty, I took it with excitement.

Phil W.: Because I wanted to had a rather deep desire to, as a matter of fact. Probably because of the great effect this place had on me as a young person, and the desire to be a part of a similar impact on this generation of young people.

What do you like best/enjoy or appreciate most about teaching at Rosedale?

Aram: A big draw is the interaction with students.... Teaching at RBC is a front-row seat to observe, and even participate in, some of the most crucial months and years of these people's lives.

Christa: The interaction with the students and faculty. I also enjoy the constant challenge to be on my toes creatively.

Conrad: I simply enjoy teaching! I enjoy class discussions. I enjoy interacting with students one-on-one. I enjoy the stimulation of interacting with other faculty members.

Ken: The commitment of the faculty to academic excellence and to performing their duties with integrity; the care and concern the faculty exhibits with each student; the friendly atmosphere.

Lynette: The opportunity and privilege to minister as I teach . . . . Team-teaching whether we're in the classroom together or alone. I think we offer more to the students because Conrad and I are strong in different areas.

Phil W.: The students, of course. Great colleagues with whom to engage in silly or serious debate in the workroom over coffee. Fascinating subjects like church history and sociology and the Bible.

What is the biggest challenge you face as a teacher at Rosedale?

Christa: Helping the students see that drama isn't just about making yourself look good on stage.

Ken: Being pulled in many different directions. It's a challenge to develop a good chorale at a small school, given the fluctuations in talent and experience levels of the singers who come through RBC, and the unpredictability of voice parts that vary from year to year.

Phil W.: Trying to find the balance between opening minds to the reality of the big questions in biblical scholarship on the one hand while increasing confidence in the authority of Scripture and the sufficient basis for a Christian worldview on the other.

Describe your most memorable classroom incident.

Christa: At the end of the term when the students presented their final projects, I saw all the elements of drama coming together in amazing ways and I knew that at least in some measure the students had really grasped what we were studying.

Ken: One of my more memorable experiences with RBC happened while on tour with the Chorale. During a performance of the song Easter Song of Triumph, suddenly it all came together the words, the acoustics, the harmony, and a strong crescendo where we all moved together precisely. That time truly sent chills up and down my spine. The Chorale members all felt it too and talked about it after the program.

What have you learned from the experience of teaching at RBC?

Conrad: I keep learning that the most important changes in people happen as a result of encountering God in some way through the Word, the Spirit, or the people of God. That principle is a good reminder that education isn't just about knowledge but about connections.

Ken: I have learned, and am learning to treat each person, regardless of his or her gifts or interests, with respect. People are willing to work with you and for you if they know that they are valued.

Lynette: I have learned that it takes an incredible amount of work to be prepared for each class and give meaningful feedback to students' work; that it's not always obvious what connects with students; and that I am almost always invigorated when I leave class.

Phil W.: A lot. That Scripture is enlivened by the Spirit of God, even when it is taught by a dimwit like me.

If you had the ability to convince everyone you taught to agree with you on one thing, what would it be? Why did you choose that one?

Aram: Anabaptism is a far more useful and biblical paradigm than most Mennonites realize. I see people all across the Christian spectrum who are "discovering" Anabaptist ideas and find- ing exceedingly creative ways of expressing them in our current context.

Christa: I would convince everyone I taught that even though God uses any little bit we give to Him, we need to offer Him our best. I have seen too much evangelical drama that is just thrown together instead of . . . performed with excellence.

Conrad: Capital "T" Truth is found in the Bible, God's revelation to humanity. Our understanding of revelation is foundational for every choice, every discussion, every relationship of life.

Ken: I would try to convince everyone that we fill our lives with too much that is mediocre.... I think God created us in His image to appreciate order and beauty and we're missing it because we choose whatever is cheaper or easier.

Lynette: Your personal healing from God and an understanding of yourself is so much more valuable in helping others than what you know or the practicing of a technique.

Phil W.: You mean they don't agree with me on everything?

Name one theological issue you're still working on/name one theological issue you think people should take more seriously.

Aram: Here's one I think I should take more seriously and I haven't met many people who take it seriously enough: the economic ramifications of the Kingdom of God are far more opposed to our ways of thinking than we recognize.

Christa: I'm still working on the issue of women in leadership.

Conrad: Men and women working together in the family and church to best fulfill God's plan.

Ken: Musical worship in the church. What is the basis for saying some styles are appropriate and some are not? How do we separate our personal preferences from what is scriptural?

Phil W.: The relationship of Christians to government and involvement therein. People should take more seriously the call to be set apart, living life with a different set of values than the surrounding culture.

What's one thing most people don't know about you?

Christa: I get very nervous in front of people.

Conrad: My first name is David. I started using my middle name when my family moved to Rosedale the year I started high school.

Ken: That I find bouncy balls, slinkies, gyroscopes and other scientific toys extremely fascinating. Maybe I'll try to operate a toy store when I retire.

Lynette: I have a wide range of food tastes. As a child, I was found in the sandbox devouring June bugs. Since then I've enjoyed soy-soaked grasshoppers in Tokyo and roasted termites in Kenya.

Phil W.: I have a High School Vo- Tech certificate in Power and Diesel Mechanics.

Who is your RBC hero and why?

Aram: Jon Showalter his gift for and pleasure in teaching gave me a vision for what that trade could be.

Christa: Elmer Jantzi. In Early Child Development (1996) he got me to open up about memories I had never brought to light and helped me to inject God into the situations.

Conrad: Walter Beachy was both a pastor and teacher to me. His love of church history fed and stimulated my own. I was amazed at Elam Peachey's ability to relate the Old and New Covenants. I credit David I. Miller with encouraging my interest in Greek. His word studies in I Corinthians were probably responsible for my later study of Greek at Ohio State University.

Ken: I think that would be my predecessor, Lloyd Kauffman. He took a hodgepodge music program and turned it into one with a strong choral reputation. We are, in many ways, still building on the musical foundation he put in place.

Lynette: Phyllis Swartz because she models what I believe about children, education, and character development.

Phil W.: Willard Mayer. Because he loves the Word and cares for people with such passion, and has done both so consistently for such a long period of time.