Having served nearly a generation of Central College students, Joe Brummel will retire from his role as campus chaplain this spring.
Brummel began his chaplaincy after a career as a detective, a background that gave him an eye for people in need and an instinct for meeting them where they are. Feeling called to something more, he pursued his Master of Divinity at New Brunswick Seminary, then pastored churches near Holland, Iowa, and Prairie City, Iowa, before joining the Central community. Tom Iverson, a former provost, initially invited Brummel to serve as Central’s chaplain, but it was Brummel’s daughter, 2004 Central Graduate Amber Brummel Young, who encouraged him to follow her to college.
During his time at Central, he hired Central students to work at Lake View Camp, a summer camp that forms young people in faith, friendship and servant leadership. Each summer, Joe and his wife, Diana, extend that ministry further, leading both church camps and Angel Tree camps. The Angel Tree program works with Prison Fellowship offering camps to children with incarcerated parents.
Brummel led mission trips to Texas each winter break, where he brought Central students face-to-face with communities far beyond their own experience. Joe also led a mission that involved constructing an AIDS clinic in Malawi, a country where one in three children were dying of AIDS because they couldn’t get medicine.
Alumni and friends are invited to send photos of Joe or write a note of appreciation, which Central College will share with him.
