Christian service yields benefits for sending & receiving congregations
by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen

Harry Prough, working on the roof of the Carlsbad (New Mexico) Mennonite Church, gets an annual high from serving in this community.

Carlsbad Mennonite Church in New Mexico grows by a third each winter when as many as 10 couples from SOOP (Service Opportunities for Older People) join their congregation for several months.

Ellen Good, Carlsbad resident, adds her voice to the “SOOPers are super” refrain that comes from 59 service locations across North America. “SOOPers bring a boost to our congregation and help give us a good name in the community. They inspire us,” Good said.

Members of the Carlsbad congregation, average attendance about 40, sometimes can feel isolated from the Mennonite mainstream. However, this changes when SOOP participants from many parts of the continent arrive in January to enliven Sunday worship with their gifts of music, teaching and humor.

Although SOOP assignments vary in length, many participants serve the Carlsbad community for three months. Some dish up meals in a community soup kitchen. Others work in a bargain store. Handymen, like Harry Prough of Goshen, Ind., repair homes and public places, including the snake pen in the Living Desert Zoo. All join in the pecan-shelling parties conducted every other Monday evening at the Carlsbad Mennonite Church where this important local crop is processed for the Mennonite Central Committee relief sale in Rocky Ford, Colo.

Mentally-challenged adults working on a residential farm await the SOOPers’ arrival with open arms. “I love the CARC [Carlsbad Association for Retarded Citizens] farm. It is such a unique place,” Margaret Prough said. “Last year when we arrived, everyone came running to hug us like we were long-lost relatives.”

Prough and her husband, Harry, have returned to Carlsbad each of the eight winters since they retired, except one. “We went to Florida one winter and hated it,” Prough said.

“You can only walk the beach so many times,” Harry Prough added. “We feel better when we have something to do.”

SOOP participants impact their home churches as well. Ron Kennel, pastor of Clinton Brick Mennonite Church where the Proughs are members, appreciates the way this couple’s annual service trip broadens the horizons of their home congregation.

“When Harry and Margaret return from Carlsbad, they are energized, glowing and happy with what they did there,” Kennel said. “This injects energy into our congregation and helps to make service visible. It gives our congregation a sense of belonging to a larger church body.” Mennonite Mission Network works diligently to create healthy relationships among shortterm mission participants, hosting congregations and the communities they serve, acknowledging that most short-term programs primarily benefit participants, even as they also provide a valuable service to the communities who receive them.

Mennonite Mission Network also recognizes the immense value of short-term service in helping sending congregations become more missional. Begun in 2003, a new program called DEO (Discipleship, Encounter, Outreach) builds ministry internships in participants’ home congregations into its yearlong service experience.

Arthur (Ill.) Mennonite Church welcomes the addition of DEO to Mennonite Mission Network’s smorgasbord of service options. The program has proven helpful to the Arthur congregation, not only in mission outreach, but also in preparing a leader to work in their midst.

Jenni Buckler, a young woman with an engineering degree, discovered God could stretch her gifts to unbelievable limits during her time of service, learning and discipleship in Denver with DEO. Those limits continued to stretch when she returned to serve her home congregation in Arthur.

“Ministry is dealing with a lot of messy people and lots of messy circumstances in a deadline-filled space with lots of grace,” Buckler said. “Ministry is lots of fun in a church van with young kids who like to sing and scream and yell a lot. Ministry is enjoying those around you and learning to see God in each and every person. The hardest part for me is learning to see interruptions as opportunities.”

In three short months, Buckler served on Arthur Mennonite’s outreach committee, led the youth group, organized play groups for neighborhood kids each Wednesday afternoon in the church parking lot and organized a Summerfest to attract unchurched members of the community. This festival included a pancake-and-sausage breakfast, rummage sale and basketball tournament.

“Summerfest was such a positive experience that it probably will become an annual event,” Rhonda Rhodes, Buckler’s mentor, said. “It was a good summer. Jenni’s ministry definitely will impact the neighborhood kids. She’s excited about her roles here at Arthur Mennonite and is doing very well.”

All DEO participants have mentors from their sending congregations who act as liaisons while the participant is in service away from the congregation. When the participant returns to minister within the congregation, the mentor helps process the experience.

Arthur Mennonite Church shared Rhodes’ appreciation for Buckler’s gifts and, at the end of her DEO assignment, called Buckler to join their pastoral team as the outreach minister. Buckler works halftime in an engineering firm, Sodemann and Associates, and spends the rest of her working hours in ministry.

The DEO program so impressed the members of the Arthur congregation, they sent another one of their youth this year. Jeff Marner is currently in Kansas participating in the first phase of his training.