[Skip to Content]

With your help, we can reach our June 30 goal!

Bethel's fiscal year comes to a close this month, and Advancement Office staff members are working hard to reach the college's goal of $1.5 million in donations by June 30.

Alumni and friends are invited to support the Bethel Fund with donations of any size. Every gift counts and is appreciated!

Enclosed with President White’s year-end letter, which was sent via mail, is a card recognizing Fred Goering ’72, who’s served as Bethel development director for the past 15 years and is retiring at the end of the month. Please give a gift to honor his dedication and longtime service.

In addition to the mailing, staff members are visiting potential donors, making phone calls, sending out emails, and posting reminders on Facebook and LinkedIn.

It's easy to give! Just go to the Bethel College website to donate using a credit card, enclose your check in the pre-addressed envelope from the mailing, or send your donation to Development Office, 300 East 27th Street, North Newton, KS 67117, postmarked no later than June 30.

Bethel appreciates the generous support already given this year and invites others to join those who have already donated. Thank you in advance for your gift as we work to raise $1.5 million for student support and, once again, bring the college’s fiscal year to a satisfying close.

June 12 deadline for BC Night at Royals game July 2

Bethel alumni and friends, including those attending the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City this summer, are invited to a “Bethel Night at the Royals” baseball game at 7:10 p.m. Thursday, July 2.

The Royals play the Minnesota Twins that evening. President Perry White, Dalene White, associate director of development Matt Hein ‘09 and director of alumni relations Dave Linscheid ’75 will host. The Alumni Office has reserved a block of seats in section #409 of the Hy-Vee Box level, overlooking the third-base line. Tickets are $17 per person. The purchase deadline is Friday, June 12. Reservations may be made by visiting or calling Thresher Bookstore in Schultz Student Center, 316-284-5205. Summer bookstore hours are 9 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays. Payment or credit card information is required when the reservation is made.

The Alumni Office will mail the pre-paid, non-refundable tickets to participants two weeks prior to the game, unless other arrangements are made. Those going may gather at 6:30 p.m. in front of the Royals Hall of Fame at Kauffman Stadium to go in together, or may head in on their own. The cost of parking and food is additional. For directions, a map and more information, visit the Kansas City Royals website.

Those attending the MC USA convention also are invited to a gathering for Bethel alumni and friends from 9-10:30 p.m. Friday, July 3, in Room 2503AB at the convention center. For more information, call 316-284-5252 or email alumni@bethelks.edu.

Faculty, staff, students to present seminars at convention

The following Bethel College faculty, staff, and students will present seminars at the Mennonite Church USA Convention this summer in Kansas City:
  • Rachel Epp Buller, Passing on Cultural Values and Mennonite Faith: The Varying Roles of Mothers and Grandmothers, 3:20-4:20 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, Room 2203
  • Doug Siemens, Engaging Boys and Girls in Faith Formation: What Research Can Teach Us About Their Unique Learning Styles, 3:20-4:20 p.m. Saturday, July 4, Room 2102B
  • Michael Unruh and Leland Brown, How Playing Football Has Formed My Faith, 9-10 a.m. Wednesday, July 1, Room 2103B, and 4:40-5:40 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, Room 2215B
  • Allison McFarland, The Millennial Generation and Church, 9:45-10:45 a.m. Thursday, July 2, Room 2105
  • Kristen and John Marble, Under One Roof: Experiencing and Celebrating Diversity ‘Family Style’, 2-3 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, Room 2102B
  • Kristen Marble, What’s Leviticus and Numbers Have To Do With Being A Christian? 4:40-5:40 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, Room 210, and 3:20-4:20 p.m. Saturday, July 4, Room 2104A
  • Christine Crouse-Dick and Chris Dick, Discussing Infertility in Church-Related Contexts, 4:40-5:40 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, Room 2201
  • Peter and Katherine Goerzen, Lamenting Sexual Abuse in Public Worship (learning experience), 1:30-3:15 p.m. Friday, July 3, Room 2102A
  • Peter Goerzen, Biblical Violence and Peacemaking: Anabaptist Approaches to Violence in Scripture, 2-3 p.m. Saturday, July 4, Room 2505B

New vice president for admissions to start in July

Bethel College President Perry D. White announced the appointment of Andrew Johnson as vice president for admissions.

Johnson recently concluded two years as director of undergraduate admissions at Fresno (California) Pacific University (FPU).

Before that, from November 2006 through February 2013, he was director of seminary admissions at FPU Biblical Seminary.

Johnson is a cum laude graduate of Tabor College, Hillsboro, with a bachelor of arts in English, and also has a master of divinity degree from Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (now FPU Biblical Seminary), where he was a P.A. and Sophie Enns Honors Scholar.

He served as an adjunct instructor in communication at FPU, as lead pastor of The Dwelling Place in Kitchener, Ontario, and as associate transition pastor at First Mennonite Church, Paso Robles, California.

Johnson officially begins at Bethel July 13 but will attend the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City in early July.

Bethel College has a wonderful history of inspiring students in the classroom, through art, athletics and service, equipping them to make a difference in the world. I am excited to join the Bethel community to continue this missional work, Johnson said.

Bethel is poised to capitalize on existing strength and value to reach out to new students who desire a college experience that encourages them to find the intersection between intellect, culture and professional success.

For more of this article, visit the Bethel College website.

Epp gives graduates ideas for building lives

As he addressed the Bethel College Class of 2015 at commencement May 17, E. LaVerne Epp ’72, Lawrence, got a little personal.

He recalled a day in May much like this one and a 21-year-old young man, a history major, sitting where you’re sitting among his other graduating college classmates.

He asked: What will I be? Will I be successful? Will I even know? What will I be doing? Where will I be living? Who will I be loving? How will I get from here to there?

In other words, Epp said, in an address he titled From Here to There: How do you take a memorable college experience and [use it to] build careers and lives?

Epp had three suggestions, starting with Be a thinker.

He quoted from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Intellect: What’s the hardest task in the world? To think. Not from the neuroscience perspective on the biological activity of the brain, Epp said, but in the sense of forming ideas, asking questions and solving problems.

Keep an open mind, Epp said. That’s how you become a thinker.

Epp’s second suggestion was Be ready.

You all know the statistics, he said. You [will likely] have four careers and seven job changes over the course of your life. And I’m right on track.

For more of this article, visit the Bethel College website.

Mennonite Life 2015 issue includes articles on Harding, Yoder

Two major sections of articles in the annual issue of Mennonite Life, now live, deal with the life and legacy of Vincent Harding and with ongoing issues surrounding theologian John Howard Yoder.

The journal is produced at Bethel College, and the current issue can be viewed at the Mennonite Life website.

The journal’s first section is titled Vincent Harding, In Memoriam. The civil rights activist, speech writer for Martin Luther King Jr. and former Mennonite pastor died May 19, 2014, at age 82.

The recent passing of Vincent Harding offers scholars an opportunity to reflect on his contributions to, and conflicted relationship with, the Mennonite church, said Rachel Epp Buller ’96, Bethel associate professor of visual arts and design and Mennonite Life editor.

When meeting a year ago to wrap up the 2014 issue of Mennonite Life, said Mark Jantzen, Bethel professor of history, who coordinated the section on Harding, the Mennonite Life" board noted Harding’s recent passing.

From his sojourn with Mennonites, [Harding] went on to be a key civil rights leader and important collaborator with Martin Luther King, Jr. Shortly before his death, after decades of distance,he reconnected with a new generation of young Mennonites and Anabaptists.

For more of this article, visit the Bethel College website.

Student athletes receive honors

The following women’s basketball players received honors:

  • April Harpe ’15, Memphis, Tennessee, Unanimous Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Player of the Year, third team National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-American and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Honorable Mention All-American
  • Brieanna Zerger ’15, Hutchinson; Lauren Ulrich, senior, Walnut, California; Kendra Scott, senior, Newton; Jessica Ebenkamp ’15, Conway Springs; Jaime Tschetter, senior, Newton; and Mekale Chapple, senior, Jones, Oklahoma, NAIA Scholar Athletes
  • Lauren Ulrich, KCAC Honorable Mention All-Conference
  • Jessica Ebenkamp, KCAC All-Defensive team and KCAC Champions of Character team

Oration contest winner: How labeling harms peacemaking

Bethel College announced the winners of the C. Henry Smith Peace Oration Contest at one of two final convocations of the school year.

Jacob Miller, sophomore from Westmoreland, placed first with For the Sake of Peace, Please Remember That Not All Terrorists are Muslim.

Starting from a personal vantage point — his own Iranian-American uncle — Miller explored the inaccurate labeling of terrorism based on religion or skin color, in particular the equating of Muslim with terrorist, within 21st-century American society and culture.

Examining reasons for this, Miller asked: Who perpetuates this? Well, besides [us Americans], the media. And we buy in. The media’s portrayal of terrorism harms us all, because white people get a free pass, and it also undermines justice. And there’s nothing peaceful about either.

Miller compares examples from the past several years. Nidal Hasan (an American of Middle Eastern descent), who killed 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, was instantly labeled terrorist while the word was never applied to Jared Loughner, who killed six and critically wounded 12 in Tucson, Arizona, or Andreas Lubitz, who crashed a German jetliner into a mountain and killed 150.

This kind of disparity — of those with white and Christian privilege marginalizing the other — Miller said, carries over to our criminal-justice system and the rest of our society, and is counter to a social-justice understanding of the words of Jesus, Paul and the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective.

For more of this article, visit the Bethel College website.