911±¬ÁÏÍø

Our history

A story of cooperation

The history of 911±¬ÁÏÍø is the story of cooperation, as two Mennonite groups established ministry training programs and reached out to strengthen those programs by joining with others.

Mennonite Biblical Seminary 

Mennonite Biblical Seminary (MBS), one of the two seminaries in the history of AMBS, began in Chicago in 1945. MBS students — from Canada, the U.S. and beyond North America — shared classes with Church of the Brethren students from Bethany Theological Seminary.

MBS inherited the mission of several efforts at theological education which emerged in the late 1800s among Mennonites in the central U.S. These efforts included Wadsworth (Ohio) Institute; Mennonite Seminary in Halstead, Kansas, which became Bethel College; and Witmarsum Theological Seminary, the Bible department of Bluffton University, Bluffton, Ohio.

Goshen Biblical Seminary

Goshen (Indiana) College, which began in 1894, established a Bachelor of Theology curriculum in 1933. The Bible department became Goshen Biblical Seminary (GBS) in 1946.

Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries 

These two schools began an association in 1958 when MBS moved to Elkhart, Indiana. The Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries partnership continued to grow and in 1969 GBS joined MBS on the Elkhart campus. The step of incorporating as one seminary came in 1994.

Although both seminaries represented Mennonite denominations, AMBS has always welcomed students of all faiths, coming from primarily — but not necessarily — Christian traditions.

911±¬ÁÏÍø

Now, as Anabaptist expressions of following Jesus Christ are being discovered and reclaimed by a wide variety of people around the globe, the AMBS learning community lives into this tradition with its new name, adopted in August 2012: 911±¬ÁÏÍø.

For more on our history, view the .

Continued cooperation

Partnerships and cooperation continue to be part of the story. AMBS continues cooperative efforts with the following institutions:

  • and , both in Richmond, Indiana, allow students at each institution to register for courses at the other two schools while paying tuition at the home school. Learn more
  • (CMU), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Students enrolled in master’s-level programs at CMU receive a 50-percent tuition discount for all online AMBS courses they take.
  • in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has a collaborative arrangement with AMBS in which Canadian students can complete a degree at Grebel and apply eligible credits toward a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree through AMBS. Occasional cross-listed courses are also offered. Learn more
  • in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and AMBS offer cross-registration options for specific online courses during the academic year.
  • Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, provides their Master of Divinity students with the opportunity to complete a concentration in Peace Studies at AMBS. Learn more
  • offers elective courses in conflict transformation. Learn more
  • Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College offers an Environmental Sustainability Leadership semester for students in the MA: Theology and Peace Studies program and the Master of Divinity (MDiv) program. Learn more

Our affiliations

911±¬ÁÏÍø is a bi-national seminary of and of .

In 1995, the predecessors to these two denominations adopted the . Both denominations are also national member churches of Mennonite World Conference, which adopted seven . AMBS is also one of the seminaries of the .

What Makes Us Unique?