CMU PRESS Launches A President’s Journey: The Memoirs of Henry Poettcker

Over 100 people attended the launch of A President’s Journey: The Memoirs of Henry Poettcker, the new title from CMU PRESS that recounts Dr. Henry Poettcker’s passage from a farm boy to the president of Canadian Mennonite Bible College (now CMU) and Mennonite Biblical Seminary (now AMBS).
 
The November 19, 2009 event at Lindenwood Manor was also a celebration of the contributions made by Henry and Agnes Poettcker to the Mennonite Church. Chaired by CMU President Gerald Gerbrandt, the evening featured reflections from friends and former colleagues, Dr. David Schroeder, Dr. Waldemar Janzen, Mary Janzen and Jake Pauls.
 
As President, Dr. Henry Poettcker worked faithfully and frugally. Dr. Schroeder emphasized a gentle efficiency in Henry’s administrative style and the special care he took to speak with the ‘voice of faculty’ when engaging Canadian churches. Dr. Janzen compared Poettcker’s teambuilding and leadership approach to straightening and reusing nails from an old building to create a new structure that would give glory to God. “When I hear the term ‘servant leader,’ I think of Henry Poettcker as the one that best fits that description.”  
 
Agnes Poettcker was engaged in church ministry both with Henry and in her own ways. Mary Janzen shared about Agnes Poettcker’s love for learning and literacy, which led her to complete a Masters degree in library science. During Henry’s presidency at AMBS, Agnes set up the area’s first Mennonite library and resource centre.
 
Once a student of Poettcker’s at CMBC, Jake Pauls, former pastor of Bethel Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, spoke of Poettcker’s ability to balance higher education with the needs of the Mennonite conference. “Besides challenging students and meeting their needs, he also had to meet the needs of the supporting conferences, which was no easy task, and he managed to do it for 40 years…  Henry did all this at a time when higher education was still not fully accepted by all the conference churches.”
 
Pauls also spoke to the contribution made by the Poettckers in their work overseas. “We here in North America have no idea how important overseas contacts are for new churches, and how important it is to read the Bible together. This is what Henry and Agnes did.” And because of it, “they have had a growing impact around the world.”
 
Servanthood, observed Pauls, is “a form of leadership that is often overlooked. It’s what our conference needed and it was done by Henry and Agnes.”
 
A President’s Journey: The Memoirs of Henry Poettcker, (CMU Press) is available for $26.50 from the CMU Bookstore at 500 Shaftesbury Blvd. Winnipeg, MB, cmubookstore@cmu.ca or from local bookstores. The cost is $26.50.
 
CMU PRESS is an academic publisher of scholarly, reference, and general interest books at Canadian Mennonite University. Books from CMU Press address and inform interests and issues vital to the university, its constituency, and society. Areas of specialization include Mennonite studies, and works that are church-oriented or theologically engaged.

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is an accredited Christian university and member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) . CMU offers undergraduate degrees in the arts, music, music therapy, theology, and church ministries and Master of Arts degrees in theological studies and Christian ministry.

Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,600 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through Outtatown, CMU's eight-month adventure and discipleship program.
 
For CMU PRESS information, contact:
CMU Press Project Manager Jonathan Dyck
cmupress@cmu.ca (204) 487-3300 ext. 659
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Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2
 
Visit our website: www.cmu.ca/cmupress
 
For CMU information, contact:
Communications & Marketing Director Nadine Kampen
nkampen@cmu.ca