Jen Shenk, the campus pastor, began her journey at Goshen College in April of 2023 as the interim pastor before receiving the permanent position during the following fall semester. When she is not busy with her pastoral duties, she enjoys photography, exercising and spending time with her 9 year-old cockapoo, Max.

To begin her day, Shenk makes herself a cup of tea before heading into her office to journal or read underneath her “happy light.” This protected time in the morning is part of her regimen to ground herself amongst the busy tasks of the day ahead. It’s a “form of practicing Sabbath for me every day,” she said. 

As a young girl, Shenk lived in a small town called Brushy Prairie located in LaGrange County, Indiana. She grew up on her parents farm, doing 4-H with her pigs, as well as helping to take care of a few cattle and many turkeys. Shenk’s mother was a teacher and her father was the manager of a grain mill which left Shenk and her two brothers tending to the farm on a regular basis. Shenk recalls her childhood as being one of “a lot of work and creative playtime” as well as adventuring with her companion, Buffy the Cat.

Shenk has been attending church services since her childhood. As she grew older and became more active in the church through teaching in Sunday school, Shenk was encouraged by many at the church to consider going into ministry or becoming a pastor. Her answer to this remained “vehemently no, never,” into her adulthood because she had not seen many women participate in the field. Shenk believed that in order to be a pastor, it required being on “this other level of  holiness or spirituality,” that she felt was not for her. “I just didn’t feel like I had the personality type to be a serious spiritual guide for people,” Shenk said.

Shenk transferred to GC in 1992 as a sophomore commuter student to pursue her degree in elementary education with a music minor. Following graduation, Shenk taught fifth grade for roughly seven years. She then took a step back from teaching to spend time with her three sons: Caleb, Aaron and Jacob. When raising her children through a faithful lens, Shenk felt humbled “to step back and respect each of their own faith journeys as unique and precious and valid, even if they don’t choose the same kind of faith that I have for me,” she said. While Shenk’s Mennonite beliefs are a massive part of her identity, she felt raising her sons has been “a gift [to me] in seeing that faith looks different for everybody.”

To support her children’s education, Shenk started her own photography business. Her business was successful and enjoyable for her, while giving her the time to become more involved in her local congregation. While photography was fun for Shenk, it was not gratifying for her at the same level as the church. She increased her involvement with worship by creating dramas, scriptures and music and by leading the worship commission. Shenk recalled meeting with the spiritual director at the time and telling her, “I’m making all this money with photography, which we need the money for schooling for the kids, but where I really find life and energy and joy is in this work for the church. I wish I could just do that work and get paid for it.” 

Following that conversation, Shenk met with a clearness committee, which she described as a “Quaker practice [in which] you choose people that you respect their spirituality and you gather and they ask you questions.” The committee helped to provide her with clarity on what her next steps were going to be, and Shenk “came away with a very clear sense of, ‘I just needed to keep saying “yes” to the next thing on this spiritual path,’” she said. 

Shortly after, a new position became available at her church which checked off all of the boxes that she was aspiring to do. Shenk applied for the position and was accepted, but there was one part of the process that did not align with the position she had dreamed of: she would be a pastor. When attempts by Shenk to change the job title to “Minister of Worship” or “Minister of Young Adults” were declined, Shenk came to the realization that maybe she was a pastor.

After four years of Shenk “being with people, walking with them in their highs and lows, listening to them in a very deep way,  reflecting back to them God’s love and leading people in worship,”  a pastor position became available at GC. After applying for GC, Shenk took the opportunity to walk the campus and pray. Shenk asked God if GC was part of the divine plan for her and “felt a very deep sense of being drawn here,” she said. Shenk later received the news that her application was too late and that the position had been filled. However, an interim pastor position opened the next year and Gilberto Perez Jr., vice president for student life and Hispanic serving initiatives and dean of students, contacted her to ask if she was interested. Shenk then began working as interim pastor at GC, before beginning the full-time position in the fall of 2023.