Bender, Ross Thomas 1929-

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Bender, Ross Thomas 1929-

PERSONAL:

Born June 25, 1929, in Tavistock, Ontario, Canada; naturalized U.S. citizen, 1966; married Ruth Steinmann, 1950 (died, December 13, 1997); children: Ross, Elizabeth, Michael, Deborah Lenore, Anne. Education: Attended Toronto Teacher's College, summers, 1947-48, and University of Western Ontario; Goshen College, B.A., 1954, B.D. and M.R.E., both 1956; Yale University, M.A., 1961, Ph.D., 1962; University of Pennsylvania, postdoctoral study, 1970-71.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Goshen, IN.

CAREER:

Writer, minister, educator. Teacher in public schools in Ontario, Canada, 1947-53; Rockway Mennonite High School, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, principal, 1956-60; Goshen College Biblical Seminary, Goshen, IN, assistant professor, 1962-64, associate professor, 1964-66, professor of Christian education, 1966-96, dean, 1964-95, dean emeritus, 1996—. Ordained Mennonite minister, 1958; associate pastor of churches in Waterloo, Ontario, 1958-60, and Lansdale, PA, 1970-71; dean of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, 1964-79; Urban Ministries Program for Seminarians, member of administrative board, 1969-75, chair, 1969-70; executive secretary of Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries, 1972-74; Institute of Mennonite Studies, director, 1990-97.

MEMBER:

Religious Education Association, Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education, American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (clinical member).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellow, American Association of Theological Scholars, 1961-62; Lilly Endowment grant, 1967-69, to direct development of a model for theological education in the "Free Church Tradition"; National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowship, 1970-71; Mennonite Mutual Aid grant, 1974, to direct Project Christian Family Living.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The People of God: A Mennonite Interpretation of the Free Church Tradition, Herald Press (Scottdale, PA), 1971.

Old Enough to Get Married? A Guide to Premarital Counseling, Word, Inc., 1974.

Christians in Families: Genesis and Exodus, Herald Press (Scottdale, PA), 1982.

(Coeditor, with Alan P.F. Sell) Baptism, Peace, and the State in the Reformed and Mennonite Traditions, Wilfrid Laurier University Press for the Calgary Institute for the Humanities (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), 1991.

Doctor of Ministry Projects: 1967-1994, Institute of Mennonite Studies (Elkhart, IN), 1995.

Education for Peoplehood: Essays on the Teaching Ministry of the Church, Institute of Mennonite Studies (Elkhart, IN), 1997.

Contributor to theology and education journals; author of study guides and scripts for cassettes, including The Christian Family: School of Faith, Word Inc., 1974. Author of The Christian View of Sexuality and Biblical Personalism and Christian Nurture; author of foreword to Alternative Models of Mennonite Pastoral Formation, Institute of Mennonite Studies (Elkhart, IN), 1992.