Written by Jolene VonGunten for MEA
ELKHART, Ind. – Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) are pleased to announce the first Spanish-language graduate certificate in theology through a seminary of Mennonite Church USA.
The fully online MEA Hispanic Ministries – AMBS Graduate Certificate in Theology will be taught entirely in Spanish and is designed to provide professionals, congregational leaders, and bivocational pastors with a foundation in theological and biblical study.
MEA Director of Hispanic Ministries Marco Güete, MaTHS, is thrilled with the cooperation between MEA and AMBS. “We are pioneering graduate-level theological education in Spanish,” he said. “This is a historic partnership that opens a range of quality theological study opportunities for Spanish-speaking leaders in the United States and across the world.”
MEA Director of Hispanic Ministries Marco Güete, MaTHS, is thrilled with the cooperation between MEA and AMBS. “We are pioneering graduate-level theological education in Spanish,” he said. “This is a historic partnership that opens a range of quality theological study opportunities for Spanish-speaking leaders in the United States and across the world.”
Michael Danner, Dmin, executive director of MEA, is thankful to Güete for imagining the new program and working with the leadership at AMBS to make it a reality. “Marco has dreamed of a partnership like this for years,” Danner said. “He deserves high praise for a lifetime of work and perseverance leading to the development of this program.”
David Boshart, PhD, president of AMBS, agreed: “I am grateful for the opportunity to be working with Marco Güete and Michael Danner on a program that can accelerate the possibility for Hispanic leaders to begin graduate-level theological education.”
The 21-credit-hour certificate consists of seven courses to be completed in two and half years. Graduates will then be eligible to enroll in AMBS’s English-language master’s-level programs. The program launched this fall with a cohort of 12 students.
“The Hispanic Mennonite church is growing,” Güete said. “We want these congregations to have well-trained disciples of Jesus to lead them.”
To learn more, contact Güete at MarcoG@MennoniteEducation.org.
The Hispanic Ministries programs of MEA also include Instituto Bíblico Anabautista (IBA – Anabaptist Biblical Institute) and Seminario Bíblico Anabautista Hispano (SeBAH – Hispanic Anabaptist Biblical Seminary). These programs offer biblical and theological education resources in Spanish to pastors, leaders, and congregations in the following academic areas: high school, university, continuing education, and faith formation. These Spanish-language programs train men and women for Christian ministry. MEA Hispanic Ministries also produces a podcast, Un Momento de Anabautismo, and a monthly digital publication MenoTicias, with news, articles, and chronicles. According to Güete, hundreds of people have benefited from these resources over the years.
Mennonite Education Agency is the education agency of Mennonite Church USA (MC USA), headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana. MEA partners with Anabaptist Mennonite educational institutions and programs affiliated with MC USA to strengthen the church through education.
Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world.
###
Image available:
Marco Güete, MaTHS, Director of Hispanic Ministries for Mennonite Education Agency (Credit: MEA);
Michael Danner, Dmin, Executive Director of Mennonite Education Agency (Credit: MEA);
David Boshart, PhD, President of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (Credit: Peter Ringenberg)
