A Blessing to One Who Cared and Served Graciously: Central Chaplain Joe Brummel to Retire

For nearly a generation of Central College students, the warm smile and open arms of Chaplain Joe Brummel have been a steady presence - a reminder they are seen, valued and welcome exactly as they are. This spring, Brummel will retire from his role as campus chaplain, leaving behind a legacy that stretches far beyond chapel walls, mission trips and The Calm on Sunday evenings. He leaves behind something rarer: A community shaped by his extraordinary care.

"Joe Brummel's leadership has shaped Campus Ministries into a place where students from all backgrounds and faith experiences find a place where they belong," says Karmen Ten Napel, vice president for student development and dean of students.

Ten Napel notes that many students arrive at Central still discovering where they fit spiritually.

"He has created space for students to explore and grow in their faith, while building a strong foundation that will carry this work forward and keep Campus Ministries an important part of students' sense of purpose and connection," she says.

From detective to divine calling

Brummel's path to chaplaincy is not a straight one - and that is part of what makes him so effective. He came to ministry after a career as a detective, a background that gave him a practiced eye for people in need and a deep 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, Amber Brummel Young, 2004 Central graduate, who encouraged him to follow her to college. This meant a difficult decision to leave a growing church in Prairie City.

In many ways, Brummel's journey mirrors what he hopes for his students: A willingness to follow a call even when the road is unexpected, and the courage to step into new chapters with faith.

He hired Central students to work at Lake View Camp - a summer tradition that has formed countless 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.

Mission, ministry and miles traveled

Among Brummel's most cherished contributions are the mission trips to Texas each winter break, where he brought Central students face-to-face with communities far beyond their own experience.

Though he shares so many God moments during his missions, one memorable experience took place in Texas. After a long day of construction, the team finished laying the foundation of a home - a symbolic beginning in itself. As the homeowners, a young couple married just two years earlier, joined them, conversation revealed they had never been able to afford a proper wedding celebration. Moved by this, the team quickly transformed the moment.

"We realized they'd never had a wedding celebration - not even a first dance - so right there on the platform of the house we'd just built, we made one for them," Brummel remembers.

With the help of a pastor translating, they organized an impromptu celebration. A circle formed, singers from the team led a love song and the couple shared their first dance surrounded by cheers and tears. What followed was a heartfelt meal prepared by the bride's mother, reimagined as a wedding banquet, complete with toasts and laughter. What began as a day of labor became a deep human moment of joy, community and celebration.

Another God-inspired mission involved constructing an AIDS clinic in Malawi, a country where one in three children were dying of AIDS because they couldn't get medicine.

"We were mixing concrete by hand building the foundation. One day, a man working beside me pointed at my gloves - he didn't think it was fair I had them and he didn't. So, I gave him one and kept one, and we both laughed as he proudly told everyone, 'I have a glove.' By the end of the week, after we'd worked side by side, I gave him the other one. It was a small thing, but it meant we built something together."

For Matt Diehl, associate director of student support services and a 1987 Central graduate, it is not one single memory that defines Brummel, but a lifetime of small and large moments shared side by side.

"I remember when we went on a mission trip to Texas, he had me speak at a church in Spanish. I was nervous, but he was an encourager for Jesus. I will miss him," Diehl says.

"He has been a blessing to me by his encouragement and invitations to work alongside him," Diehl reflects. "He is a mentor, a friend, a brother in Christ and a role model for me. I'm very thankful to have walked with him through the years with college students, camps and mission trips."

Diehl also offers the most direct portrait of who Brummel is at his core: "He is a big teddy bear that hugs well with a soft heart to love others. I see him with a huge smile, wanting to help others feel seen. He encourages others to jump in and walk out their faith through serving others."

A vision that endures

Brummel shared his vision for campus in the November 2016 Central alumni magazine, and it still rings true today.

"Students in Campus Ministries come from many different Christian backgrounds, but a common desire to love and serve God unites them. It has to make God smile because there are no labels, no tags. With God as our focus, we worship."

"College can be tough years when you're deciding how important is this faith, and do I want to continue walking with Jesus. The sad thing is sometimes college life is when you decide to walk away. I think that Campus Ministries has tried hard to be a consistent reminder to students that God cares. That even with mistakes that we make, God is there and he welcomes you with open arms," Brummel says.

That vision has always fit naturally within Central's own commitment to inclusivity, humility, kindness and hospitality - values the college extends to learners of all backgrounds and faiths. Brummel did not merely reflect those values; in many ways, he helped cultivate them.

"Scripture says the comfort we receive is meant to be shared," Brummel says. "Here on campus, students find that comfort in community, friendship and support in their faith. But it doesn't stop there - we're called to extend it to others: To serve, to give and to lift people up. That's the full circle of our faith."

As for the future of Campus Ministries, the college is working closely with the RCA to imagine how the program will grow and evolve, with student input central to the process. Thanks to a generous donor, that conversation is already underway. "It has been a part of the fabric of Central for many years and will continue to be," Ten Napel says.

The quiet joys

When he is not leading others, Brummel finds renewal in simple pleasures: Reading, refinishing furniture and above all, spending time with his grandchildren. Those who know him well say these pursuits reflect the man himself - patient, careful, attentive to the beauty in old things made new again.

Brummel has spent his tenure not building a program, but caring and nurturing people. The students who wandered into Campus Ministries searching for something - belonging, purpose, a reason to hope - found it in part because of him. That is no small thing. That is, perhaps, everything.

The Central community thanks him for every prayer offered, every student encouraged, every mile traveled in service of others. He now goes into a well-earned rest - carrying with him the gratitude of a community he has faithfully loved so much.

Alumni and friends are invited to share their photos of Joe at photos and write a note of appreciation which will be shared with him.