Dr. Wayne Schmidt Named Vice President of Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University

Dr. Wayne Schmidt, who has spent his entire ministerial career at Kentwood Community Church in Michigan, has been named Vice President of the newly formed Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Schmidt will serve as the chief operating officer of the Seminary. His appointment - and the official name for the Seminary - were approved Friday by the IWU Board of Trustees.

He will begin work at IWU in January 2010.

“I’m very honored to have the opportunity to serve in this role,” Schmidt said. “I think it is very significant that IWU sought a local church pastor for this leadership role.

“IWU leaders have said in their documents and in their planning, ‘We want this to be a pastor’s seminary.’ So, from conception to implementation, it really is going to be a seminary for pastors. I am excited about that.”

Schmidt received his B.A. degree in pastoral ministry from Indiana Wesleyan University in May of 1979 and began work a few weeks later as the assistant pastor and co-founder of Kentwood Community Church, near Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He has served as senior pastor of Kentwood Community Church since 1981. Kentwood is a Wesleyan Church.

Schmidt began his 30-year pastorate at Kentwood by going door-to-door to reach prospective worshipers for the new church. He will leave a congregation that averages almost 2,700 people in weekend worship services.

Kentwood has played a lead role in planting 10 churches and partnered with those daughter congregations to plant three other churches.

During the first 15 years of his pastoral life at Kentwood, Schmidt attended two seminaries while maintaining his full-time ministry. He earned an M.A in Church Education in 1988 and a Master of Divinity equivalency in 1989, both from Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids.

Schmidt earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in 1994 from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois.

He has been an adjunct professor at both Indiana Wesleyan University and Bethany Bible College in Canada and has written five books.

Schmidt and his wife, Jan, have three grown children. The Schmidts plan to move to Marion in January.

Since leaving IWU as a graduate in 1979, Schmidt has returned to receive practically every honor that the University bestows on alumni. He received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the IWU Alumni Association in 1988. He also received a Presidential Citation in 1990 and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 2006.

Houghton College honored Schmidt in 2006 as Pastor of the Year.