David John Schneider

1. 6/2/1935, Royal Oak, MI USA; baptized 6/9/1935

 

Spouse/Family

Wife: Darlene Mae (nee Laseman), b. 5/15/1934, Elgin, IL USA; baptized 8/2/1934

Married  6/11/1960

Children: Carolyn May b. 1963; Susan Elaine b. 1964; John David b. and died

1967;  Stephen Martin b. 1968

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1960-1978 Philippines Missionary Pastor, Seminary

Professor

1978-1985 Gulfport, MS Pastor

1985-1991 Mexico Missionary Pastor

1992-2000 South Africa Seminary Professor

2004 Kazakhstan Volunteer Seminary Prof

2005-2006 Kenya Volunteer Missionary Pastor

 

Biographical Summary

David Schneider was baptized just a week after his birth in 1935, in Royal Oak, Michigan.  He attended school in Michigan through high school, when he enrolled at Concordia Junior College in Fort Wayne, IN, and then at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis for his M.Div. studies.  Darlene Laseman, who would become his wife, born in Elgin, Illinois, attended Concordia Junior College in St. Paul, MN, then Valparaiso University in Indiana, where she undertook studies to become a deaconess in the LCMS.  The Schneiders were married in June 1960, just before David was ordained and commissioned as a missionary to the Philippines; they traveled to the Philippines shortly after his ordination to begin their mission work.

 

The Schneiders had initially been assigned to open new church stations in Quezon Province, but their path changed when a vacancy opened for a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Quezon City (Manila area).  David was instead called to pastor this church of about 60 members.  Upon their arrival, the Schneiders spent six months in full-time language study to learn Tagalog; though many Filipinos spoke English, knowledge of the language was useful both for pastoral work and in daily life.  Trinity Lutheran Church was an exciting and supportive congregation with several different ministries, including (besides regular Sunday worship) Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.  David served in all aspects of pastoral ministry for this church.  Shortly after the Schneiders’ arrival, it became clear that the building in which the congregation worshipped was too small, and the congregation embarked on a building project which took much hard work over the next few years.  After about two years of planning, the building went up in 1964.  David notes that he learned quite a bit about architecture!  While this was going on, Darlene was undertaking a project of her own – she gave birth to the Schneiders’ daughter Carolyn in 1963.  Susan was born the next year.  Moreover, the congregation of Trinity had doubled in size during the years the Schneiders were in Quezon City.

 

These first years of service coincided with the Roman Catholic council of Vatican II, which helped to spur an interest among the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines in ecumenical relations with other church bodies.  The Filipino population was, at least nominally, 90% Roman Catholic, and so it was important for missionaries from other church bodies to pay attention to the relationship between their church and the Roman Catholic Church.  Lutheran pastors were invited to many Roman Catholic gatherings, and David wrote several study guides to help Lutheran congregation members speak the Gospel of Christ in positive ways to their Roman Catholic neighbors.

 

The Schneiders note that the Protestant churches in the Philippines were also ecumenically-minded and had come together in a National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), of which the Lutheran Church of the Philippines (LCP) was invited to be a member.  This invitation prompted the LCP to ask David to make a study and write a paper about the relation between the LCP and other churches in the Philippines.  When the Schneiders went on furlough in 1965-66, David undertook studies at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in order to address this relationship, producing the paper “The Relationship of the Lutheran Church in the Philippines to Other Church Bodies in the Country.”  This paper was well-received when the Schneiders returned to the Philippines, and David presented and discussed it with all pastors and missionaries of the LCP.  Meanwhile, his work as pastor of Trinity continued.  Darlene notes that during their time at Trinity, she “did what came up” – whatever needed doing.  She taught Sunday School; undertook community service; joined women’s groups and served as president of one group for a time; created paraments for the new altar at the church; and taught Bible one day a week at Abiertas House of Friendship, a home for unwed mothers.  A son  was born to the Schneiders in July of 1967, but John lived only one day—long enough to be baptized—but then died and was buried in Quezon City.   Meanwhile, Darlene home-schooled their children until they were old enough to go to school, and the Schneiders completed their family when son Stephen was born in 1968.

 

David’s remaining years as pastor of Trinity from 1965-1969 saw the congregation continue to grow in size.  Two outstations were established with Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and Christmas programs.  The congregation also developed a Christmas caroling program with a goal to carol at the house of every family in the congregation (which took the greater part of five nights).  It was from the carolers that the church drew its choir!  Because congregation members came from all over the city, most of their activities and meetings took place on Sundays.  The Schneiders were not heavily involved in door-to-door evangelistic work, but David recalls with great pleasure a congregation member who was an outstanding evangelist and who kept the church staff busy instructing the new members he brought into the church.  He writes of his period of service at Trinity: “The members and I had many opportunities to speak God’s forgiving and empowering Gospel to one another in ordinary life – if there is such a thing as ordinary life.  They were patient teachers and good partners.”

 

In 1968, the LCP established a Commission for Ecumenical Affairs and appointed David chairman; he served in this capacity until 1972.  The CEA had oversight of Lutheran participation in a joint study on baptism with theologians of the Roman Catholic Church.  This study resulted in the “Agreement on Baptism between the Lutheran Church in the Philippines and the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines,” in which both churches agreed to honor baptisms performed by either church as God’s action and not to be repeated, even if a baptized person became a member of the other church.  This agreement was publicly ratified by both churches in February, 1972.  Two other important events that took place while David was chairman of the CEA were its recommendations that the LCP join both the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the Lutheran World Federation.  The LCP took up membership in both organizations.

 

In 1970, while continuing his service with the CEA, David was called to teach at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Baguio City, about 150 miles north of the Manila area.  He taught different levels of Christian dogmatics; New Testament; worship; the use of music in pastoral ministry; and Asian Christian theology.  He also served as president of the LCP from 1972-74. Darlene was active in Baguio, as she participated in the Cub Scout program and school activities of the children and developed her skills as a painter. The Schneiders had another furlough in 1971, during which time David studied for and received a Master of Sacred Theology degree at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.  For this degree, his thesis was entitled “Some Theological Aspects of Roman Catholic Responses to Lowland Filipino Spirit-World Beliefs,” addressing the issue of animism (spirit belief), which affects the faith and life of many people in the Philippines and had proved to be one of the major theological issues for missionaries in their work.  Once they returned from this furlough, David resumed his teaching position at the seminary, and the Schneiders served until 1978, when they returned to the United States to serve in their home country for a period of time.

 

David’s call in 1978 was as pastor of Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gulfport, MS.  Here he served in a pastoral role, including ministry to “snowbirds” who came south in the wintertime as well as military retirees and active military members who passed through the area.  The church was largely made up of “Yankees,” but the congregation was eager for some outreach to the native Mississipians in the area; those who joined the church often appreciated the emphasis on the freedom of the Gospel that they had not perceived in their previous congregations.  Here David discovered that he really enjoyed teaching adult membership classes, and Darlene, in addition to caring for the family and working outside the home, once again put her skills to work with the altar guild, helping to create beautiful banners for the church building.  She also served with the LWML and held district-level positions with that organization.  The children found it something of a shock to leave their small school in Baguio City and enroll in a school with over a thousand students; the racial tensions they perceived during their school years were also surprising, after their good experiences as part of a diverse population in the Philippines.  Both Carolyn and Susan finished high school in Gulfport, while Stephen attended through his junior year until the Schneiders moved again.  The Schneiders’ mission experience gave them an opportunity to focus on mission as part of their service in this congregation: during David’s time as pastor, the congregation had a strong mission education program and hosted a mission festival or mission event at least once a year.  Although David’s mission-minded and ecumenical views sometimes clashed with the more traditional views of some members, the Schneiders’ time in Gulfport was fruitful and filled with the sharing of the Gospel.

 

The next call was another call to international missions, as the Schneiders were asked to serve in Guadalajara, Mexico.  By this time, both their daughters were in college, and only their son Stephen traveled with them to complete his last year of high school in Mexico before returning to the United States for college.  David’s call in Guadalajara was as a missionary-pastor for All Saints Lutheran Church, an English-speaking congregation that was one of only four in the Guadalajara area.  (The Schneiders did spend 3 months in Spanish-language training in order better to relate and get around in a Spanish-speaking country.)  This congregation was tremendously diverse, with up to fourteen nationalities and many different denominational backgrounds represented among members.  The challenge of such a place was to keep hold of the Lutheran theology on which the congregation was founded; such diversity made for great opportunities with ecumenism but necessitated a strong focus on Lutheran doctrine if the church was to remain truly Lutheran.  From a pastoral sense, the main focus was “how to help lonely ‘gringos’ (North Americans living in Mexico) find the friendly fellowship of Christ and His church.”  In addition, David writes, “we were challenged to relate in friendly, productive ways to the Mexican people around us, some of them quite sensitive to perceived U.S. imperialism of the past.”  The congregation was so scattered that meetings were difficult to schedule, so most activities happened on Sunday and were “activity-based” rather than “structure-based.”  David performed pastoral duties, and since there were 10-20 visitors each week, spent quite a bit of time reaching out to visitors.  Darlene continued her work with paraments and banners to beautify the church building.  A notable program developed at All Saints was that of Christian Service Discovery Tours, which grew out of the desire of English speakers in Guadalajara to serve and help the poor in the city.  During “snowbird” season, the church would arrange tours to observe service projects being done by Christian congregations and groups; those who attended the tours might find that they wanted to participate in one project or another.  Finally, the Schneiders were interested in Spanish-speaking ministry, and David was able to be in touch with a Mexican Lutheran pastor who helped begin Spanish worship and Bible study.

 

In 1992, the Schneiders moved yet again, to South Africa, where David taught at the Lutheran Seminary Enhlanhleni of the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (LCSA).  He taught “a lot of Greek” at the levels that the students needed, as well as New Testament, church history, and practical courses on teaching, preaching, pastoral counseling, and stewardship.  Darlene worked on a number of projects, teaching reading and writing in English to the wives of Liberian students and participating in the activities of the German Lutheran church in the area, including Bible study as well as baking and handcrafts.  Darlene also worked in the seminary library, which was quite a task, since by the end of the Schneiders’ call the seminary was working on moving to a new location in Pretoria and all the library books had to be catalogued and boxed.

 

After his official retirement in 2000, David continued to take on positions abroad, teaching theological courses through a Russian interpreter at the People of God Evangelical Lutheran Seminary (POGELS) in Kazakhstan for one year and then serving as a pastor in Kenya for 9 months.  In Kazakhstan, the Schneiders saw up close how a nation and culture were affected by having been part of the U.S.S.R. for years; the largest percentage of people were atheist, and society was very much secular, with no acknowledgment of religious festivals or holidays of any tradition.  In Kenya, David served as English language pastor at the Uhuru Highway Lutheran Cathedral in downtown Nairobi– teaching, preaching, home and hospital visits – but was challenged by difficult circumstances.  The church he was serving had recently lost its pastor and a good portion of its members to a split in which the pastor left the church to form a new English-speaking congregation.  Although David was able to work toward a healing process for those congregants who were left, there was still work to be done when the Schneiders’ term was over in 2006.  The Schneiders reside in the United States now, but their call and enthusiasm for mission remains strong, and God continues to bless them and those whose lives they have and will touch with their commitment to the Gospel and to the upbuilding of the church all over the world.

 

Nota Bene

Author of Arrows of Light: Devotions for Worldwide Christians, self-published in 2005, which remains available for purchase and use by individuals and congregations.

STM thesis and other papers

Author of congregational study materials.

Author of textbook written in programmed instruction format for Theological Education by Extension: Introduction to Theology and Scripture, LCP + TEE: Lutheran Church in the Philippines, 1978.

In 2007, David and Darlene were recognized by the LCMS as “Veteran Missionary Honorees.”

 

Phase 2 Information

 

Biggest missiological issue faced?

The biggest issue common to all the fields in which the Schneiders served was both the difficulty and reward of training lay people, and the participation of lay people in the church.  The Schneiders found that where lay people were active, the Gospel thrived; where they were not, it did not.

 

Issues specific to various fields included the following: in the Philippines the very first problem was to learn Tagalog in order to communicate well.  Theologically, one of the biggest problems encountered was animism; spirit beliefs continued to affect the faith even of Filipinos who were part of the Christian church.  Ecumenical relationships also posed both a difficulty and an opportunity; because such a high percentage of the population of the Philippines was Roman Catholic, Lutheran missionaries needed to be sensitive to their sharing of the Gospel in a helpful and positive way.

 

At the congregation in Mississippi, David’s biggest challenge was “to help a small Lutheran congregation reach out with the Gospel and grow, in a predominantly Baptist setting.”  Some tensions did develop between an ecumenically-minded pastor and some more traditional congregation members – perhaps not an unusual situation for a missionary pastor who has returned to serve a congregation in the U.S.

 

In Mexico, the challenge was to welcome and promote service to God among “gringos” from the north while remaining in good and friendly contact with Mexican denizens of the congregation and city.

 

The Schneiders’ time in South Africa saw that nation wrestling with its history of racial apartheid and with the demands of black people for equality in the life of the nation.  That big struggle appeared in smaller scope also in the life of the Lutheran seminary.  With great joy, the Schneiders had the opportunity to see the first all-racial election in 1994.  More personally, David notes that “the Zulu language pretty much defeated me!”  Theologically, the church in South Africa dealt with issues of spirit-worship, not unlike the similar challenge in the Philippines.

 

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

The Schneiders were and are blessed to participate in many forms of service in the name of Christ.  Perhaps most notably, David was given the opportunity to prepare leaders for the church at all levels: congregational, youth group, Sunday school, lay leadership, seminary students.  Even in retirement, he serves by training men in the Rocky Mountain area to become licensed as deacons.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

The LCMS maintains a presence and continues training leaders in all the fields in which the Schneiders have worked.  The Lutheran Church in the Philippines has maintained its seminary and continues to train leaders (ordained and lay) even since subsidies have been discontinued.   Training takes place both at the seminary and through the TEE program.  LCMS has also made progress with a special mission start in the Tagakaulo language region, where BMS made the good decision to restrict work to just one area where the church could survive and thrive using only local resources.

 

The Schneiders’ church in Mexico survives, though the high turnover rate makes the congregation somewhat unstable.  Its basic ministries are continuing, but it has shifted its focus from English to Spanish-language ministry and has a Mexican pastor instead of a foreigner.

 

At the seminary in South Africa, the Schneiders’ work helped to close the door at the smaller and more remote seminary and to shift to the new seminary in Pretoria, which is reaching out to half the African continent.  The Schneiders’ teaching of Liberian students helped the seminary move in the direction of training students from all over Africa, and the move to the new location has greatly helped in terms of the seminary’s outreach and training of leaders.

 

Lessons Learned

David: “We went to teach and stayed to learn.  How many important lessons were taught to us by Filipino, Mexican, South African, Kazakhstanian, and Kenyan Christians during our 34 years among them!  Especially during our early days in the Philippines, we received inestimable help in learning how to be a married couple, how to run a household, how to manage a Christian congregation, how to begin to understand an Asian culture.  Our teachers, most of them humble lay people in the church, were very patient teachers.

 

“For better or for worse, we learned to think internationally.  That way of thinking has more recently caused us to feel somewhat ‘foreign’ in the U.S. setting that is supposed to be our homeland.

 

“Through the years, God has been teaching me to repent of self-centered perfectionism and to live by the forgiveness of sin.  And He’s not finished yet because He’s working with rather rough raw material.

 

“It is impossible even to estimate the greatness of the benefits of a faithful, talented Christian wife, in the life of a missionary!  Darlene was committed to the Lord, ready to go, ready to work, slow to complain, capable of forgiving. Without her I would not have been much or done much. God be praised for such loving support!”

 

Best Practices

David: “Above all, I see the importance of teaching and training lay people to use their gifts and to lead in the life of the Church.  I’ve left behind a good number of printed Bible studies, topical study guides, and booklets that I used to implement that idea.  Whether they use my materials or develop their own, I urge those who come after me to do it.  Respect, teach, learn, empower, trust, assist God’s people to use the Gospel that frees and empowers us all to be His forgiven, confident people.”

 

Phase 3 Information

 

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

David: “Until 3 months before seminary graduation in 1960, I had no idea of becoming a foreign missionary.  At that time, challenged by Dr. William Danker, a professor at Concordia, St. Louis, I began to think about it with Darlene.  We couldn’t answer the question ‘Will you go if called?’ except to say, ‘We don’t know.  If you think we can do it, call us.’  Well they did call, and we did go, and the rest is history.  Since those days I’ve heard the principle expressed:  ‘God doesn’t call the equipped as often as he equips the called.’  At least that’s what we experienced.  And we have not regretted it. We’ve been richly blessed!”

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

Many stories can be found in David’s book, Arrows of Light: Devotions for Worldwide Christians.  He writes, “Some of the stories are humorous, some thoughtful, some tragic, some downright ugly.  God’s forgiving grace keeps shining through the darkness.”

 

Quotation: “We’ve had a good time the whole way.  Seriously blessed.”