Who We Are

In 2017 four groups of leaders in Holmes County Ohio contacted us at the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center within a space of two weeks, asking if we would consider offering some courses for the local community.  Neither group was aware the other had come.  Our answer was to invite everyone to sit down at the table and begin a conversation. 

As those at the table began conversing, what emerged was a burden for pastoral training for our local pastors, lifetime learning for adults, and a place where young adults within the Amish and Mennonite community could earn a degree or acquire the skills necessary to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.  The burden was to build on a solid theological foundation and within a trusted community.  

The visions and burdens of those who sat around the table took shape.  There were stops and starts and pauses.  The group was expanded to include those from other communities.  Covid interrupted.  And, we decided to put in place a separate nonprofit to facilitate the vision.

Out of this, Zollikon Institute was born.  Zollikon, because it is the name of the location in Switzerland where the first Anabaptist congregation emerged following the first adult rebaptisms during the European Reformation.  More importantly, it was a town where the townspeople took the ideas that were being put forth, and by faith walked them out in the shoe leather of life.  Zollikon was a place where ideas and faith-filled living met the challenges of a dynamic world.

As Zollikon Institute emerges, our prayer is that it will be a modern-day place where individuals grow their minds and hearts; a place the next generation is equipped to discern truth from error, and where they develop an abiding faith in Jesus Christ that empowers them to live and serve in ways that transform their communities and our world.