Religion corner: Never leave God at home

By Rick Leland
Sun contributor
A right turn and it’s two blocks to Lake Michigan. Three bicycle riders, looking ready for the Tour de France, opt to go left. Cruising past a small enclave of shops beckoning tourists to stop and spend, they find their Sunday morning destination — breakfast at Cherry Republic’s outdoor cafe.
Within whiffing distance of the cyclist’s breakfast, other people arrive at their Sunday morning destination. A traditional white steepled church stands out in looks and function among the tourist shops. Inside Pastor Paul Schneider of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church leads the congregation in its first chorus.

The cedar-toned wood sanctuary is filled with joyous voices: “In the morning when I rise give me Jesus. Give me Jesus . . . You can have all this world, give me Jesus.”
Pastor Schneider embraces the church’s shopping mall-ish setting. And spreading out from the church’s immediate surrounds is the majestic beauty of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
When he arrived at the church two and a half years ago he set his perspective on the church’s location by challenging the members. “Are you ready to make some changes which are really going to be dramatic in your lives? We have to turn this congregation from an institution into a missionary center.” And then he gave his formula for the conversion: “We need to take on the flavor and character of Christ.”
Pastor Schneider comments on another aspect of his Glen Arbor congregation: “An average of 110 to 130 people on a summer Sunday and then we’ll go as low as 30 during the off-season.” Pastor Schneider tunes into the Apostle Paul’s perspective on headcount. “It doesn’t matter if you’re preaching to many, it doesn’t matter if you’re preaching to a few; it’s the same message.” He grins, “And I’d get just as excited if two were here.”
For the people who do consider making the church a stop during vacation he says he tries to make Bethlehem Lutheran, “A safe haven for visitors to come anytime.” They play a vital role for the church: “If it wasn’t for the visitors, this church probably couldn’t exist.”
Yet he concedes that only a very small percentage of the vacationers and locals attend church. Michigan’s little finger tourist mecca offers many distractions from God. Undaunted, Pastor Schneider grabs a purpose driven outlook: “The mission field here is great—humongous.”
Pastor Schneider knows well the distractions from the things of God.
He has lived through them. But even when his life was misguided, he says, “I loved the Lord; I have to say that there was no question about my faith.”
He grew up in the Lutheran church and attended a Lutheran high school in Detroit. A stellar High school football career propelled him to a full ride scholarship at Western Michigan University.
“I played very successfully at Western,” Schneider says. “And I was even being considered by Dallas for the pro draft.” Bad knees crippled that pursuit, even though he tried to hang onto his it’s-in-your-blood dream for a year and a half playing semi-pro ball. He came to his, “enough is enough” decision as he looked up into the stands and saw his wife and two young children.
Pastor Schneider, who defines himself as a bullheaded goal pursuer, then plowed full tilt into his career as an automotive engineer. He confesses that during his high torque career chase, “I really started to drift from God.”
Eighteen-hour workdays in an atmosphere including the whole realm of what he terms, “Let’s just say . . . some very anti-Christian characteristics. I fell into that trap . . . it consumed me.”
Pastor Schneider then had what he coins his “Damascus road” experience. “I had a nervous breakdown, I had two ulcers, it all happened at one time — basically, I collapsed.” He adds, “I do believe the Lord did slam dunk me and turned my life around.”
He points to friends as the amazing-grace factor in turning his life around, with the simple message: “You need to come back to the Lord.”
Pastor Schneider recalls the initiation of his personal revival. “I just had a high experience with the Lord, seeing others who were praising the Lord in a way that was totally foreign to Lutherans.” The setting was a vibrant charismatic church in Kentucky. He had been coaxed to Kentucky to set up a multi-million dollar engineering project for a company he co-owned. He was invited to the church by a friend who had enlisted him to take on the project.
Over the next few years, Pastor Schneider says, “I had a renewed fervor to seek the Lord more closely.”
A steady progression in his faith journey culminated in the decision to attend seminary and become a pastor. He remembers his reaction the day when he felt the absolute call of God on his life: “I’m scared right now, I’m really scared.”
Upon completion of four years of seminary, Schneider was assigned to a mega-church in Fort Worth to be a church planter. He calls their target market, “White Anglo, Texas people churches.” So he was surprised when a refugee from Sudan came to him and said, “God told me, our people must be here to worship.” Initially Pastor Schneider balked until he came to the conclusion: “God, this is You, isn’t it?”
Refugee ministry developed into one of the major ministries of the church. Besides a church for refugees from Sudan being held at the facilities, separate churches for refugees from Bosnia, India and Sierra Leone were formed. An entire ministry developed to meet the whole range of refugees’ needs.
Pastor Schneider’s next assignment was senior pastor in Franktown, Colorado. He says of the venture, “I knew I was going into a hornets nest but I took it and ended up in a very troublesome ministry.” The church had just experienced a devastating church split—a wounded congregation.
Pastor Schneider was thankful for the tough-skinned personality he had developed in the high-stress automotive engineering field. He endured three years there, moving the church forward in the healing process.
It was a wearing process. He cried out: “I just need a break, Lord.”
God’s answer came via Pastor Schneider’s family connections at Bethlehem Lutheran and He was asked to pastor the congregation.
Glen Arbor, his need-a-break destination is a place of refreshing for many vacationing people. Pastor Schneider has his suggestion: “You should never leave God at home. You need him in your vacation.”
AT A GLANCE:
Pastor Paul Schneider, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Glen Arbor
Age: 56
Married: To Karen for 37 years
Children: Kenneth- 36, Kevin- 33, Kimberly- 30
Training: Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Western Michigan University, Master’s of Divinity from Concordia Seminary
Years in Christian Ministry- 8 years
Favorite Bible verse: Romans 8:28