Scott Swanson
Kurt Schnabel has been involved in church pretty much all his life.
He was born in Guatemala to parents who were missionaries, grew up in Panama and in Southern California, and has assisted in pastoral ministry in two other churches before arriving in Sweet Home.
Schnabel, 35, became pastor of Cornerstone Fellowship in July, completing a process that began when he was 10.
That was when, attending a pastor’s conference in Panama, he decided God was calling him to “do what these men would do,” he said.
After spending his freshman year at Arizona State University, “life circumstances told me I might need to go to Bible college,” Schnabel said.
He transferred to Life Pacific Bible College, now Life Pacific University, in Los Angeles, which is affiliated with the Foursquare Church, where he graduated in 2007 with a major in biblical studies.
After finishing college, Schnabel was licensed as a Foursquare minister and spent nearly seven years as an assistant pastor at New Community Church in the greater Los Angeles area, working part-time at various jobs.
He and Rachel were married in June of 2013 and in 2015 they moved to Bend, where he became an online marketing specialist for AdTheory, a digital marketing and data analysis firm and volunteered in the college ministry at Westside Church in Bend for the first 2½ years.
In January, he became a part-time assistant at Daystream Christian Center in Terrebonne, the same month he became director of sales and marketing for a division of his company.
Those jobs turned out to be a “huge blessing” beyond simply providing a living, he said.
“I didn’t have the training for it, but I got hired in the job with the title of office receptionist,” Schnabel said. “There was no foot traffic, so my boss said if I want to learn as I go, ‘I’ll train you.’ I taught myself graphic design, web stuff. I did sales. I gained a whole lot of skills through it.”
Now, as pastor of a relatively small church, he said those skills have been “helping me a lot.”
He said he felt like he needed to be pastoring during his time in Bend, and last February, Schnabel approached his denomination leaders and told them he was interested in pursuing a full-time pastorate.
In May he got a call from the district supervisor.
“He asked me what I thought of Sweet Home.” Cornerstone had been without a pastor since Rick Ellingson retired a year ago.
“I told him I’d driven through there once in the dark, after I’d taken a wrong turn,” Schnabel said.
Schnabel paid an “incognito” visit to town, driving around and getting a sense of what Sweet Home was about, he said.
Then he met the congregation and leaders of the church, and by July he was in Sweet Home as Cornerstone’s pastor.
“It was quick,” he said. “There was definitely an element of praying, but there were decisions that had to be made in a certain time frame. This was a church that had been without a pastor for eight, nine months.”
The congregation has been “very welcoming, loving” to the Schnabels, he said, appreciatively.
“I’ve grown up in church long enough to know that’s not always the default.”
He said his immediate goal is “to learn our church and learn our community, because ultimately, besides being called to love God, we’re called to love people and so much of that is learning through listening.”
He and Rachel also need to find a house, which has been a challenge, he said. Also, once they get settled down, they want to adopt a child. They have none.
Schnable said when he’s not involved in church, he enjoys reading particularly, camping and hiking, “although I haven’t much (of the latter) recently.”
Schnabel said that having grown up as a missionary’s kid, he’s particularly interested in figuring out what the needs are in the community.
“I don’t assume I know what the needs are. God’s been working before I got here. What’s He been doing?”