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A popular writer and dynamic speaker, Krabill captures audiences with stories from his years living in West Afica and his passion for the global mission of the church.

Krabill began his mission experience in 1976.  James and his wife, Jeanette, spent nearly 14 years living and teaching in Ivory Coast, including several years living in a small village among the Dida people.  The Krabills have also lived in Paris and in Birmingham, England.

Drawing on these experiences, Krabill offers his insights on how the North American church can learn from the church around the world.  Through the message of the gospel, he shares the interwoven callings of the church to evangelism and peace.  Krabill, a Staley lecturer, speaks in a variety of settings, including churches, conferences, seminars, schools and youth conventions.  He was a keynote speaker at a 1997 Mennonite youth convention in Orlando, Fla., featuring 5,500 people from the United States and Canada.

In Ivory Coast, Krabill taught Bible classes and church history to French-speaking church leaders, and guided mission efforts in six countries as an administrator for West Africa from 1992 to 1996, with the former Mennonite Board of Missions.  The Krabills also organized and coordinated international study programs in West Africa for students from Goshen (Ind.) College and Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.

Krabill became vice president of Mission Advocacy and Communication in 1995 for the former Mennonite Board of Missions, which was one of several mission agencies that joined to form the Mennonite Mission Network.  As one of three senior executives with the new agency, Krabill oversees its international and U.S. ministries, short-term mission and service programs, and human resources functions as they relate to these departments.

The author and editor of several books, Krabill has also edited a series of 24 Mission Insight booklets (1999-2002) and more recently, the Missio Dei series, which includes one of his better-known writings, Does Your Church “Smell” Like Mission?  Other publications include Anabaptism and Mission:  A Bibliography, 1859-2000 (with Chad Mullet Bauman, 2002), Anabaptists Meeting Muslims (with David Shenk and Linford Stutzman, 2005), Is It Insensitive to Share Your Faith? (2005), Evangelical, Ecumenical and Anabaptist Missiologies in Conversation (with Walter Sawatsky and Charles E. Van Engen, 2006) and Even the Demons Submit:  Continuing Jesus’ Ministry of Deliverance (with Loren Johns, 2006).  In addition, Krabill has taught courses at Goshen College, Eastern Mennonite University and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

Krabill is a member of Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Ind.  He and his wife, Jeanette, have three children:  Matthew, Elisabeth and Mary Laura.

Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, exists to lead, mobilize and equip the church to, together, share all of Christ with all of creation.  With offices in Elkhart, Ind.; Newton, Kan.; and Harrisonburg, Va.; the Mission Network supports ministries in more than 50 countries and 31 U.S. states.  It succeeds the Commission on Home Ministries and the Commission on Overseas Mission (General Conference Mennonite Church) and Mennonite Board of Missions (Mennonite Church).

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