General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church
Dr. Wayne Schmidt is the General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church.
Schmidt served as a vice-president of Indiana Wesleyan University, giving administrative leadership to Wesley Seminary from 2010-2016. During those years the seminary grew from infancy to over 500 students from 34 states and 11 countries, achieving full accreditation and offering training in English and Spanish.
From 1979-2009, Schmidt was first a co-founding pastor and, then, senior pastor of Kentwood Community Church (KCC) in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area. He gave leadership to planting the church and growing it to a multiethnic church with over 2,500 in weekend attendance and seeing more than 200 people place their faith in Christ annually. KCC also took the lead role in planting 10 daughter churches during Schmidt's tenure.
He has given leadership to building strong multiethnic communities. At KCC, the congregation moved from being only two percent multiethnic to over 12 percent by 2009, and now is over 30 percent, reflecting the surrounding community. At Wesley Seminary, the same commitment to multi-ethnicity has resulted in the strong Spanish language programs and also serving other ethnicities well, with a student body that is nearly 40 percent ethnic minority.
Schmidt has been on the district boards of administration in West Michigan and Indiana North Districts (now Great Lakes Region District and Crossroads District, respectively) for 15 years and also served as assistant district superintendent of West Michigan District for seven years. He has helped lead strategic roundtable discussions in all but two North American districts and has ministered on several mission fields. He is an Indiana Wesleyan University graduate and holds a master's degree and an earned Doctor of Ministry degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
He has demonstrated seminal thinking in ministry leadership through half a dozen books, including Accountability: Becoming People of Integrity, Leading When God is Moving, Soul Management, Lead On, Power Plays, Ministry Velocity and Surrender. He has also contributed chapters to books such as The Church Jesus Builds, various articles to publications and has been a contributing editor for Leadership Journal.
Schmidt has an intense commitment to prayer which has led him to lift, by name, hundreds of pastors and leaders across the denomination in daily prayer. He and Jan have been married for 42 years and are blessed with three children and their spouses and seven grandchildren.