Kenneth Daniel New Leader at United Church Homes

The Rev. Kenneth V. Daniel has long enjoyed making organizations work more carefully, effectively and efficiently. The son of a watchmaker and a nurse, he found that affinity came naturally. “Taking things apart and making things hum, from an organizational standpoint, is what I’ve come to love most in my work,” he says.

Daniel, 56, was installed as president and CEO of United Church Homes on Jan. 22 at a United Church of Christ ceremony in Kenton, Ohio. An ordained UCC minister, Daniel has now joined both the First UCC congregation in Marion and the UCC’s Northwest Ohio Association of churches and ministers. The service inaugurated a four-way covenant and commemorated Daniel as leader of United Church Homes, a Marion, Ohio-based nonprofit provider of senior housing and health care in more than a dozen states. Daniel has served as acting president of the organization since June 2011.

“What he’s doing for United Church Homes is every bit as much of a ministry as being pastor of a congregation,” says CHHSM President Bryan W. Sickbert, who preached at the installation service. “Ken is very adept at integrating spiritual values into administration and management.”

When he was a young pastor serving a Pennsylvania congregation, Daniel received the call that ultimately brought him to United Church Homes. He volunteered with the board of Phoebe Ministries, a CHHSM member ministry that serves older adults. Phoebe’s CEO recognized Daniel’s people skills, and suggested he move into administering retirement communities. He quickly learned the business side of the work.

“I saw myself not as leaving the ministry, but as going into a different type of ministry,” Daniel says. “This work has allowed me to put in action concepts of social justice and other biblical values in a way that, for me, is very deeply meaningful.”

Daniel earned a nursing home administrator’s license and a master’s degree in long-term health care administration. He worked with Phoebe for nearly 20 years, rising to vice president of Allentown campus operations at Phoebe-Devitt Homes.

In 2006, his wife, the Rev. Barbara Kershner Daniel, became senior pastor at Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ in Frederick, Md. The couple’s two sons, Mark and Christopher, who served as liturgists at the installation, were then teenagers. To be with his family, Daniel left Phoebe and led a turnaround at the Ingleside at Rock Creek retirement community in Washington, D.C. When that work was done, he became interim president at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pa., where he served for nine months.

He views his current role as being chief steward of United Church Homes’ mission and values. “I see myself as managing a network of interconnecting relationships: residents, families, donors, staff, volunteers. I want to make sure we’re communicating effectively, listening to their concerns and trying to operate the organization in a way everybody can be proud of. When we make decisions about how to deploy resources, we need to make sure those decisions align with our goals but also ensure the long-term viability of the organization.

“I experience here a very rich and deep and genuine spirit of caring that is totally focused on residents and their well-being. This isn’t something I created or started, but it’s something I celebrate. As leader, I want to find ways to affirm that spirit and lift it up.”