ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network) — Arden Shank credits Mennonite Mission Network, along with other Mennonite institutions, for laying the foundation for his award-winning ministry in creating affordable housing and building healthy neighborhoods in Miami.
Oct. 4, Goshen (Ind.) College awarded 1974 graduate Arden Shank with the Culture for Service Award. Given to alumni who embody the core values of the college throughout their lives, the award recognizes Shank’s lifelong economic and social justice work.
Soon after he graduated from Goshen College, he moved to Washington, D.C., and became aware of how his work could positively affect other’s lives. He started as an urban director for Student and Young Adult Services, a department of Mennonite Mission Network that came from an initiative organized by several east coast conferences and Eastern Mennonite Missions.
Shank’s purpose was to keep students and young adults connected to the denomination even though they weren’t close to a Mennonite church building in downtown D.C.
He organized social and educational events for the young Mennonites that helped them navigate the disparity between their eye-opening experiences in D.C., and that of their mostly rural, and sometimes conservative, backgrounds. He tried to help them learn how they could integrate their faith principles into their professional work.
“[One of the things] I’m most proud of was that I did as much as anyone could in the late 1970s to reconnect a lot of people who came from the Mennonite background and churches,” said Shank. “It helped people start to think about what the Mennonite presence in D.C. should be.”
After six years as urban director, Shank went to seminary and received a Master of Divinity degree at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He then started his work with community development as the executive director of LaCasa Inc. in Goshen from 1988 to 2001. He also helped start Habitat for Humanity of Elkhart County and Maple City Health Care Center in Goshen.
In 2004, Shank graduated with the first class of community development executives in the Achieving Excellence program, sponsored by NeighborWorks America and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
He is now the president and CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, a nonprofit organization that works to revitalize neighborhoods and create affordable housing. The organization educates people about home buying and helps them find and finance homes.
“My current work in Miami builds on the foundation begun at Goshen College, as well as my time in Washington, D.C., soon after graduation,” said Shank. “[My time in the city] introduced a bucket full of issues that came together in an unintended learning lab—the contrast of wealth and poverty, how does one carry a commitment to justice into the professional world and the political world, how does one respond to gay and lesbian exiles from the church, and is there such a thing as ethics for church institutions.”
As president of Neighborhood Housing, Shank was the lead member of a consortium of seven other community development organizations that were awarded nearly $90 million to acquire, rehab, and rent or sell foreclosed properties, as well as acquire vacant land to build new housing units. By the deadline for the federal grant in February 2013, they had spent the funds as required and were well on the way to completing construction on 1,255 housing units.
Shank lives in Miami with his wife, Meribeth. They have two adult children, Nadia Shank Van Eenige and Justin Rothshank, and three grandchildren.
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact news@mennonitemission.net.
