After a three-month search, South Lansing Christian Church has extended a call to Walter Neuenschwander to become the Minister to Millennials at South Lansing Christian Church. He will begin his ministry here on January 5, 2015.
While Walter and his wife, Jamie, are originally from Michigan and attended Great Lakes Christian College and Michigan State University, for the past five years the Neuenschwanders have served on staff at Lane Christian Church just outside of Clinton, Illinois. During that time they each completed degrees at Lincoln Christian Seminary with Walter earning a Master of Divinity degree and Jamie completing a degree in counseling. The Neuenschwanders have two children. Their daughter, Adelaide, is three and their son, Simeon, is one year old.
Walter’s hiring expresses our church’s continued Next Generation commitment to helping high school and college students write the next chapters in their faith stories. According to Senior Minister, Frank Weller, “70% of young adults leave the church when they leave high school. When asked their faith preference, 30% of people – the fasting growing segment of people in our community – are the ‘nones,’ who say they have no faith preference. Our church is committed to confronting those trends by seeing that our students’ faith stories are grounded, enabling them to navigate the challenges of transitioning to adulthood. We are excited that Walter and Jamie are going to be part of the team helping us do that!” Walter’s ministry will focus on helping high school students and young adults navigate the critical transition between high school and whatever comes next by providing leadership for Modified, SLCC’s high school ministry, and by fostering a network of college / career-age small groups.
Walter was selected from a field of very highly qualified applicants with the help of a diverse search team made up of South Lansing Christian Church’s paid and volunteer staff, elders, parents and students, without whom we would not have been able to accomplish this challenging assignment in such a short time.
Walter will be joining paid staff members Frank Weller, Wally Lowman, Josh Antonopulos, and Jennifer Batdorff. He will also be partnering with the volunteer staff of Modified, our high school ministry, as well as our dynamic team of elders, deacons and ministry leaders as we help people write the next chapters in their faith stories by creating environments where they can seek, study and serve God.