Brodbeck enjoys ministering to people at each stage of their life
Pastor Mark Brodbeck is pictured with his wife Barb. He is the chaplain at Signature Healthcare and the pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Newcomerstown.
COSHOCTON – Mark Brodbeck has been a chaplain at Signature Healthcare of Coshocton for more than four years and began ministering at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Newcomerstown last June. Known to employees and residents alike as Pastor Mark, Brodbeck has been in ministry for more than 30 years and has a passion for people.
“I’m an extrovert,” he said. “So I like being around people. I like to make people smile and laugh. I think it gets them past their worries. I want people to feel comfortable around me. I want to let people know about Jesus, and that’s not done only in words, but also in actions. And let’s face it. Not everyone who works here is a believer, but they feel comfortable enough to come to me and I’m not going to push anything on them.”
Brodbeck had been in the parish ministry for 31 years when he decided to do something in the ministry field that did not involve the parish. He found a job listing for the position of chaplain at Signature Heathcare online and applied. He started in October of 2014 and is Signature’s first chaplain.
Brodbeck’s first church where he served as minister was the St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Hamler, Ohio. He then moved on to First Lutheran Church in Findley, Ohio where he started as an associate pastor and then served as senior pastor for a total of 15 years. His next parish was the First Lutheran Church of Tiffin, Ohio and then he served in a mission congregation, Family of Faith where worshippers met in the Tiffin Mall. That congregation started with 120 people attending and it later grew by leaps and bounds.
“Every church that I’ve served has grown by the time I left,” said Brodbeck.
As the chaplain for Signature Healthcare, Brodbeck helps the residents, their families, and the employees grow spiritually. He also helps with activities and every weekday at 3 p.m., he announces the “News and Views” or “Hot Topic” of the day where he takes a humorous event from the world news and shares it with the residents.
Brodbeck also created a music and memory program where residents, especially those with Alzheimer’s or dementia, listen to music of their choice as a form of therapy. The program has grown from listening to music individually to listening and singing as a group.
“We get about 15 to 20 residents together and we’re sitting back there singing these old songs, which is so much fun,” said Brodbeck. “My goal is to make people smile and have hope.”
Brodbeck also has Bible studies once a week and helps with marketing and admission at Signature. At St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Brodbeck leads Sunday worship and is in the church office once a week for meetings and counselling. He also visits homebound parishioners and those in the hospital. He is actively involved in the Coshocton Ministerial Association.
“I had a great mentor when I grew up,” he said. “He came up to me when I was in seventh or eighth grade and said Mark, you have the gift to be a minister.”
Originally, Brodbeck didn’t want to go into ministry. He attended Capital University to become a math teacher, but soon after, decided to change his career path and become a minister.
“It changes every day,” he said about being a chaplain. “When I come in here to work, I could have a list of things that I want to do but I may not get to any of them.”
Brodbeck said he enjoys his position as pastor because he can minister to people in all aspects of their lives.
“You touch on people’s lives at their peaks, their highest, and very lows and everything in between,” he said. “In doing that, you’re able to show them that God loves them. It’s literally a 24/7 job. People don’t realize that, but it is.”
However, Brodbeck said he wouldn’t change anything.
“These people really touch my heart,” he said. “They minister to me as much as I minister to them.”
Brodbeck has been married to his wife, Barb for 39 years and the couple has known each other since kindergarten as they attended the same church. They have one son, Joshua and a daughter-in-law, Katya. Barb also works at St. Paul Lutheran Church and Joshua is a world-class pipe organist. He will have a concert at St. Paul Lutheran Church in March. Kayta is a Methodist minister in Powell, Ohio. The two also have two grand-dogs, Fredrick and Bella.
Category: Faith
