by Laurie Oswald Robinson for Mennonite Church USA
Joanna Shenk, a 25-year-old seminary student, had questions about the institutional church. When she first encountered Andre Gingerich Stoner in spring 2008, she felt a flicker of hope as she sensed that work for her within the denomination may be a possibility. Stoner is director of Interchurch Relations for Mennonite Church USA.
In her mission and peace class at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Elkhart, Ind., Shenk was inspired as she heard Stoner, a visiting speaker, describe his journey into church work and his vision of leadership as capturing a vision and empowering others. The more she listened to him articulate his views on church work, the more she began to envision herself exploring a similar vocation.
“Having come from a family heavily involved in the church, I wanted to make a contribution authentic to my journey. This put me on a long road of discernment,” she said.
At the end of that road, Shenk, a spring 2009 AMBS graduate with a master’s degree in theological studies, began her full-time position Aug. 3 with Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership. She is working for the denomination as associate for Interchurch Relations and Communications.
In her first Communications project, she is coordinating the collection of data for an audit of women in leadership within Mennonite Church USA. This audit is a response to the call from Mennonite Women USA to investigate declining numbers of women in Mennonite organizational leadership. As a young woman, Shenk is encouraged that the church is taking seriously the involvement of women, and she hopes to continue and resource the conversation with her work.
“It is a real opportunity for us to have Joanna as a member of the Executive Leadership team,” Marty Lehman, director of administration and advancement, says. “Not only does she bring a youthful perspective as well as a passion for the church, but also strong communication skills and experience in ecumenical settings. We are grateful for the gifts she brings.”
Shenk grew up in Springfield, Ohio, and, in junior high, went to Dagestan, Russia, with her parents, Phil and Alice, who served as mission workers with Mennonite Board of Missions and later the Mennonite Mission Network. She graduated from high school at Bethany Christian Schools in Goshen, Ind., a Mennonite Church USA school.
She attended Huntington (Ind.) University where she was a leader in student government. One summer she studied in Beijing, China. She also spent a semester in Colorado Springs at Focus on the Family.
Following her graduation, Shenk held various jobs in the Huntington area before heading to AMBS. She was assistant to the executive director of United Way of Huntington County and assistant manager of One World Handicrafts, a fair trade store in North Manchester, Ind. She also served as research assistant to theologian Beth Felker Jones in the publication of Jones’s book, The Marks of His Wounds: Gender Politics and Bodily Resurrection.
Shenk, who is part of Fellowship of Hope Mennonite Church in Elkhart and an associate member of Jubilee House, the MVS house, has already been exposed to the margins. She’s worked alongside neighbors to think creatively about responses to high unemployment, poverty and violence.
In June she taught a jewelry making class to young people and adults in her Elkhart neighborhood as part of a community-initiated summer academy.
“The teachers and students, a mix of genders, ethnicities and ages, created the academy as a space for the community to come together and learn from each other,” she said. “Clearly, no one homogenous group has all the gifts.” This idea she brings to her work with Mennonite Church USA.
Shenk has come to believe that these kinds of mutually beneficial relationships within diverse groups call all people out of controlling positions and into new ways of working together and being the body of Christ.
“We don’t need to be threatened by new approaches or new voices,” she says. “We can both explore new ways of relating, such as through interchurch relationships, and also hold on to the best of our traditions and institutions. For us as Mennonites, this is an opportunity, not a risk to our identity or our denomination.”
For example, in her Interchurch Relations work, one of her projects is to engage with intentional communities and other emerging churches across the country. These groups want to be in relationship with Mennonites due to their interest in Anabaptist-Mennonite theology and ethics but not necessarily join a denominational structure.
“With her wide range of experiences and relationships, Joanna will make a strong contribution to the Interchurch Relations work of Mennonite Church USA, especially as we build relationships with new discipleship communities that share a kinship with Anabaptism,” says Stoner.
To summarize her vision for work within the denomination, Shenk quotes contemporary Canadian theologian Mary Jo Leddy in saying, “Our critique of the church needs to be as strong as our hope for the church.”
That’s the tension Shenk hopes to sustain in her work. “I want to offer my gifts in a way that is helpful for the future and, at the same time, draw on the strengths of the past,” Shenk adds.
The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.