Most people spend 40 hours in a job where they do what they have to do and go home at the end of the day, staying with the daily grind because it pays the bills and feeds the kids. Jonathan Shenk left his job security and his life as a minister in pursuit of freedom, fulfillment and happiness. Some may call him a dreamer, but in his opinion, it’s all part of God’s plan.##M:[more]##
Shenk began his latest endeavor — Holy Roller Painting — in 2006, just after he had left the First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck, where he had been an associate minister for five years. Though he is happy in his current situation, he realizes that his life has taken a much different path and he believes it will do so again.
“This is all a spiritual journey for me,” professes Shenk, standing in his new work uniform, T-shirt and jeans, with white paint on his arms. “I am trying to find out who I am and what really brings me the most fulfillment.”
Shenk, 40, is still searching different walks of life and exploring what it is he believes in and wants to be a part of, all elements of his own personal self-discovery.
Born in Somalia to missionary parents from Lancaster, PA, Shenk along with three siblings was raised Mennonite. His parents, David and Grace Shenk, spent their lives traveling the world teaching people about Christianity. “My parents love their work,” Shenk says.
Now, living in Lancaster, they both spend a lot of time talking with church groups about Muslim and Christianity. David W. Shenk has written books about the topic and travels around the world trying to help people develop an understanding of both religions.
At the age of six, Shenk and his family left Somalia and moved to Kenya where he lived until he was twelve. While his parents worked to spread the teachings of Christianity, Shenk recalls the irony of the childhood he had.
“My parents were on the field converting people to Christianity and I was playing with children of all different faiths,” states Shenk.
It was in Kenya that Shenk learned about the hand drum, an instrument that is used along with hand clapping during worship. Today, he plays the Djembe — an African hand drum from Ghana. “It is a way for me to come alive,” Shenk says.
As he entered his teenage years, he started questioning his religion and decided he would need to explore the pastor life for himself in order to better understand it. Shenk attended Goshen College, a Mennonite college in Indiana, where he majored in communications, graduating in 1988. There he met his wife, Cynthia Yoder, also from a Mennonite family. They were married in 1989.
Shenk then earned a masters at Union Seminary in New York and began doing youth group work, something he had always enjoyed, and ended up in Westchester County, New York, as a youth leader. In 2000 he took a job as associate minister for the First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck in Princeton Junction, where he remained until 2005.
Though he enjoyed his work as a pastor, Shenk still struggled with his fight to be his own person and now his own pastor. He tried to make his sermons his own, and spoke of his own personal matters when he preached. “I think, for the most part, people appreciated the fact that I was engaged,” Shenk says. “I used my own words.”
Though he tried his best and gave his time at the church his all, Shenk soon came to realize that being a pastor was not for him. “My faith was expanding beyond Christianity; I was more interested in human relations and people than by the distinctiveness of being Christian.”
Knowing he needed to move on to something more fulfilling, Shenk spent some time looking into alternative ministries and prison Chaplin positions. Nothing came up. Finally he took a risk and gave his three months notice to the church. “I told them I was going to be moving on to something but I had no idea what,” he says. Before he knew it, three months had passed and Shenk — a husband, homeowner, and father — was out of a job.
Then Shenk was approached by Jason Boyer; a friend who had recently started his own painting business. Shenk had done some painting through college and had worked as a painter’s apprentice at one point. Needing the work, he accepted Boyer’s offer and began working as a painter.
Shenk soon decided to go out on his own. Former colleagues and friends from the Dutch Neck church offered him work and helped him spread the Holy Roller name. When the business grew Shenk collaborated with Andrew O’Connor of Berrien City (who since has gone off on his own), and Gorge Ortiz of Trenton. Today Shenk oversees a crew of three painters.
Though pastor to painter may not sound like an easy transition, Shenk has not left his social conscience behind him. Shenk offers the option of green paint, a more eco-friendly paint. According to Shenk, green paints have very low or zero volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Paints containing high amounts of VOCs give off a terrible smell and vapors even after they have dried.
“Green paint is new and people still do not know much about it,” Shenk says. “I am hoping that part of my business expands.”
Shenk is thankful for his success in beginning his new life. Though not yet fulfilled and confident that this is another chapter of his life, he is for the time being happy with it.
“I am at peace with the knowledge that this is what God intends for me to do right now,” he says, adding “I am curious about what lies ahead.”
While painting is now a business for him, it has also been another opportunity for Shenk to work on his self-discovery. “My ancestors on both sides of my family were involved with the church but they were also laborers,” Shenk says.
Farmers and builders — they too took a hands-on approach in the work that they did, just as Shenk does now. As Shenk puts it, it is one more way for him to understand who and where he comes from and who he is.
Shenk and his family currently live in the Revolutionary era Widow Bergen Tavern on South Mill Road (see story on West Windsor historic bike tour, page 28). Shenk recalls removing wallpaper from a spot in the living room and discovering a joke on the wall. “I painted over it,” Shenk says. “I don’t remember what it said, but it was crude.”
His wife, writer Cynthia Yoder and author of Crazy Quilt: Pieces of a Mennonite Life, also works for Center Heart Meditation Center in Princeton. Their son Gabriel, 9, attends the Studio for Experiential Learning in Ewing.
Shenk’s advice to people who may be trying to find their own self-discovery is to pay attention to the things you truly enjoy and where you find the most fulfillment despite your religion. “It is through doing the things we enjoy that God shows himself,” says Shenk.
For information on Holy Roller Painting, contact 609-314-6953 or E-mail HolyRollerPainting@comcast.net.
