The Bible and religion department is now 2-0 for commencement speakers, with Peter Goerzen giving this year’s address.
The graduating Class of 2026 chose Goerzen, assistant professor and department chair, after last year’s seniors picked Dr. Trent Voth, assistant professor of Bible and religion.
Seventy-six seniors are scheduled to take part in the 133rd commencement on Sunday, May 10, at 4 p.m. in Memorial Hall.
The Baccalaureate worship service, May 10 at 10 a.m., will be in Bethel College Mennonite Church.
Both events will be available to view via livestream on the Bethel College YouTube channel.
The 2026 Baccalaureate theme is “Salt and Light of the Earth.”
The service begins with prelude music selections by student a cappella groups Woven (soprano-alto) and Open Road (tenor-bass).
Special music during the rest of the service will be by the Bethel College Concert Choir.
Graduating seniors will offer reflections: Quincey McGuffy, Hahnville, La., Delaynie Mayes-Stuart, Hesston, Kan., and Patricia Huerta, McPherson, Kan.
The commencement program begins at 4 p.m. with a processional by the Thresher Brass Quintet, an alumni group, which will also play the recessional at the end.
Dr. Jon Gering, president, will introduce the ceremony and later confer the degrees after Dr. Robert Milliman, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, presents the graduates.
Milliman will also give the Ralph P. Schrag Distinguished Teaching Award to a faculty member.
Two graduating seniors will participate in commencement by offering prayers at the beginning and end of the ceremony – April Powls, Garnett, Kan., and Jaric Woodley, Houston.
Goerzen will give an address titled “Grand Visions of Small Things.”
Goerzen joined Bethel’s Bible and religion department as a faculty member in 2020. He was Bethel campus pastor and an instructor of Bible and religion from 2017-20, and campus pastor and director of church relations from 2014-17.
He graduated from Bethel in 2007 with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematical sciences. He earned his Master of Divinity in pastoral ministry with emphasis in biblical studies from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Ind., and is ABD for a Ph.D. in biblical theology and interpretation from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Springfield, Mo. His dissertation topic is “Defenseless Anabaptist reception of the Divine Warrior in scripture.”
Goerzen’s areas of academic and professional interest are biblical hermeneutics, peace theology and ethics, homiletical and liturgical studies, faith formation, and Bowen Family Systems Theory.
After graduating from Bethel, Goerzen worked at Excel Industries in Hesston as a software developer for two years, before becoming a pastor at Grace Hill Mennonite Church in rural Newton from 2009-14.
He received Bethel College’s Ralph P. Schrag Distinguished Teaching Award in 2022. At AMBS, he was the recipient of the Marlin E. Miller Award for Excellence in Theological Studies and an Award for Excellence in preaching.
His articles on “Divine Warrior” and “Nonretaliation” are forthcoming in The Anabaptist Dictionary of the Bible, as is his chapter (with Sheryl Wilson and Christine Crouse-Dick) “Walking, Talking, Writing, and Holding Space: Demonstrating the Transformative Potential of Circle Process” in Walking the Talk (at press). He is the co-author, with Katherine Goerzen, of Upside-Down Living: Parenting (MennoMedia, 2018).
Goerzen and his spouse, Katherine, are members of Tabor Mennonite Church, Goessel, Kan., where Katherine is a pastor. They live in North Newton with their two children.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel is ranked #25 in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Regional College Midwest for 2026. Bethel was the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Community Healing and Transformation (TCHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
