Welcome to the team Chaplain Greg Schmidt
We’re excited to introduce Greg Schmidt as the new part-time Chaplain at Newton Presbyterian Manor! Greg began serving as the Chaplain of Wichita Presbyterian Manor on February 1, 2007. In 2015, Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America, Inc. decided to initiate a Hospice ministry that was eventually named “Heart & Soul Hospice” and he has served as Chaplain in that capacity since its inception.
In addition, Greg has served as a Youth Pastor, Pastor for Worship & Nurture, and Senior Pastor (7 years) in five churches in Kansas and California. He has served Mennonite Brethren, American Baptist, and Presbyterian congregations. He is currently a member of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita.
Greg and his wife, Marguerite, live in Newton and have three sons, two daughters-in-law and 6 grandchildren. He loves gardening, feeding and watching birds, creating all kinds of BBQ, and watching TV.
Chaplain’s Corner
By Chaplain Greg Schmidt
“I remain confident in this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” – Psalm 27: 13-14
Masks. Social Distancing. Shots in the arm. All because we are constantly aware that an invisible virus is only a breath or cough or handshake or hug away. COVID-19 has challenged and changed virtually everything about the way we think and live and who we listen to on a daily basis.
David would have understood. His life was often threatened. Daily. The young shepherd tangled with predators like bears and lions. His riverside encounter with a giant named Goliath informs us that more than one person wanted him dead! Without a doubt such threats to David’s physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life consumed his life. Daily. How could it not?!
David’s response? Discover refuge in the Faithful One! Daily! Some days we have the courage to rise to the ever-changing challenges before us. Other days our confidence, like David’s, is shaken to its core. David pleaded with God to meet him in the midst of those challenging moments. Why? To provide strength for that day’s battle. Because otherwise David would react foolishly and lunge into the day’s battle without first waiting to determine how God might lead and use him.
Here’s the point: Among God’s greatest desires is to be the Lord of TODAY! His followers – “the living” – should begin each day considering His way and will. Why? Because in listening to Him at the start of each day we discover His way and are blessed with His goodness. Listen to me Church, God cannot be relegated to our “what if” or “leftover” or “end of the day” moments. I believe one of the single greatest failures of Christianity in our lifetime is how we’ve unwittingly demoted our God to mostly being “the Lord of Heaven” and forgetting He is “the Author and Finisher” of THIS life! He is and has always been the Lord of TODAY! He’s vitally invested in how you and I, like David before us, pull together our daily responses and choices … including our styles of life … TODAY! Why? Because He desperately needs active, living witnesses to what He’s doing “on earth” not just “in heaven.” Christianity is about how you choose to live … today! Heaven is the reward for choosing to follow Jesus’ example daily throughout your lifetime!
However you elect to respond to the challenges of our COVID-dominated world, remember that your greatest challenge is to CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOSE voice will challenge and change you as you “wait” for it: God’s, yours or someone else’s! Want to see the goodness of God in your daily living? Then hit pause every morning, take a deep breath, wait patiently for God’s still, small whisper – and discover the connectedness of your daily decisions with the will and way of God!
