Church of the Brethren Newsline
January 17, 2017
This is a joint release of the Church of the Brethren and Bethany Theological Seminary.
Janet L. Ober Lambert has been hired as director of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, a ministry training partnership of the Church of the Brethren and Bethany Theological Seminary.
Lambert brings 25 years of pastoral experience to the position. She has been associate pastor at La Verne (Calif.) Church of the Brethren in Pacific Southwest District since 1999. Previously, from 1991-99, she was pastor of South Bay Community Church of the Brethren in Redondo Beach, Calif.
She is a member of the Pacific Southwest District Ethics Committee; has served on the district’s Nurturing and Credentialing Committee, which she chaired 2008-13; and is a district-appointed mentor to licensed ministers. She is a founding member of Pomona Valley Interfaith Collaborative on Mental Health and a committee member of the Inland Valley Interfaith Group for Middle East Peace, both in southern California.
An ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, she earned a master of divinity degree from Bethany Seminary in 1991 and holds a degree in sociology and philosophy/religion from Bridgewater (Va.) College. She took part in the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence, Vital Pastors Cohort of the Brethren Academy in 2006-07.
In her role as director, Lambert will coordinate denominational certificate programs in ministry education, including Training in Ministry, Education for a Shared Ministry, and Seminario Biblico Anabautista Hispano-de la Iglesia de los Hermanos for the Church of the Brethren Hispanic community. The Brethren Academy also certifies ministry training programs administered by districts. In addition Lambert will oversee continuing education for ministers and leadership development in the Church of the Brethren, involving design/coordination of events, development of educational resources, and facilitating participation.
She will begin her work at the Brethren Academy based on the seminary campus in Richmond, Ind., on Feb. 1. Julie Mader Hostetter, who began serving as director of the academy in 2008 and was promoted to executive director in 2012, is retiring as of Jan. 31.
For more information about the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, go to https://bethanyseminary.edu/brethren-academy .
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