Mennonite Weekly Review

ELKHART, Ind. — Joanna Shenk, 26, has had questions about the institutional church.

Shenk

Yet when she first met André Gingerich Stoner, director of Interchurch Relations for Mennonite Church USA, she sensed that working within the denomination might be possible for her.

In her mission and peace class at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Shenk heard Stoner, a visiting speaker, describe his journey into church work and his idea of leadership as capturing a vision and empowering others. She began to see 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,” she said.

Shenk, a spring AMBS graduate with a master’s degree in theological studies, began a full-time position Aug. 3 with MC USA Executive Leadership 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 MC USA. This audit is a response to the call from Mennonite Women USA to investigate declining numbers of women in Mennonite organizational leadership.

Shenk grew up in Springfield, Ohio, and in junior high went to Dagestan, Russia, with her parents, Phil and Alice, who served with Mennonite Board of Missions and later Mennonite Mission Network.

She attended Huntington University, and studied one summer in Beijing, China. She also spent a semester in Colorado Springs, Colo., at Focus on the Family.

After graduation, Shenk 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. She also assisted theologian Beth Felker Jones in research for Jones’ book The Marks of His Wounds: Gender Politics and Bodily Resurrection.

In her neighborhood, Shenk has worked with community members to respond to high unemployment, poverty and violence. She is part of Fellowship of Hope Mennonite Church and an associate member of Jubilee House, a Mennonite Voluntary Service unit.