2025 Retirements at LBC
FOCUS, Lancaster Bible College’s student newspaper, sat down with Dr. Ed Scheuerman, who retired from LBC at the close of the 2024-25 academic year. “Dr. Ed,” as he is affectionately known, has served the college since July 2010 as the Director of the Intercultural Studies program. Along with the Student Missions Fellowship, he helped lead 15 Missions Conferences, a beloved tradition for LBC students from across the decades.
Scheuerman, who has learned Mandarin and Thai over 23 years of missions work in East Asia, is the father of four daughters, grandfather to nine and has been married for 43 years to his wife, Carol (’15), who earned her master’s degree in counseling from LBC and serves the local community as a counselor. Together, they have ministered to unreached people groups in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and India, among others.
FOCUS: How would you define LBC’s Missions Conferences?
DR. ED: Missions Conferences are LBC’s attempt to bring God’s heart for the world deeper into the heart of the LBC community. It is a Student Missions Fellowship-sponsored activity that takes hundreds of hours poured into it by many, many students. As soon as this one is done, I start thinking of a theme and a speaker for the next one.
Dr. Ed treks through the snow, in flip-flops of course, to a past Missions Conference session.
Dr. Ed Scheuerman speaks to students during his final LBC Missions Conference in February 2025.
FOCUS: What goes into leading this memorable event for so many LBC students and graduates?
DR. ED: In September, we gather with about 20 other people to brainstorm what to have in the schedule. The co-chair – who was SMF President Josh (’25) for the February 2025 event – had the responsibility of recruiting members for each of the 20 committees. For example, Abby (’25) and her team thought carefully on what to put into the breakout sessions and how to lead them. All the committees start working in October or November. Mission agencies send representatives to LBC, and I decide who to invite based on fit with the theme and their prior commitment to LBC. Many LBC alumni also return to campus to represent the missions agencies they now work with.
FOCUS: What will you miss most about not leading the Missions Conference after retirement?
DR. ED: Working with my co-chairs. I’ve had many wonderful co-chairs. I will miss Terrie Aites, Department Assistant for LBC’s School of Bible & Ministry – she’s been doing this for 27 years – and I will definitely miss seeing how God touches the hearts of students as well as staff and faculty.
FOCUS: What’s next on the horizon for you and Carol?
DR. ED: Carol and I will be returning part time to cross-cultural ministry. We will be working with church-planting teams to help them to receive new missionaries well and to help them to flourish on the field.
Sky Kahler is an undergraduate Communications student at LBC. She is a writer for FOCUS, the host of “The Gospel and Women’s Rights” on LBC Radio and a Giant Direct shopper in Shrewsbury, Pa.