A story of a politician turned pastor or a part time pastor who also used to be a politician before he was a full time pastor?
Once upon a time there was a Coatesville City Councilman named Kurt W. Schenk. His name was familiar to me back in the days of eminent domain in Coatesville against the Saha farm. He was also familiar to me as a frequent flyer topic once upon a time on Coatesville Dems blogspot. But his name REALLY rang a bell from that time the ACLU sent Coatesville City Council a letter about preaching City Councilmen….that made the papers.
Coatesville council will pray before meetings
The Coatesville City Council may have averted a constitutional issue by voting to pray before officially starting its meetings. The resolution, unanimously adopted last night, states that the prayer shall not be an agenda item and that no council member, city employee or person attending the meeting will be required to participate.
by Nancy Petersen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Published March 13, 2007, 3:01 a.m. ET
The Lord loves a good controversy and as per another Inquirer article in 2009 said Councilman Kurt and Councilwoman Patsy got the boot after the spring primary:
Then not sure what all happened. Schenk was a pastor here:
So the whole Freemont of it all, that church appears pastorless now and I found a real estate listing.
Then up pops a new church, all belonging to Pastor Kurt:
Greetings,
My name is Pastor Kurt W. Schenk. I have been married to Lori Schenk for 37 years.
We have two children Kori Haines who is married to Steve Haines and two grandchildren Emmy and Lainey, and a son Dr. Kurt W. Schenk II.
I worked for McIntyre Masonry after high school and then worked for Metal Fabricating Company. I started Metal Fab. Recycling Co. in 2009.
I was a community worker for Olivet UMC in Coatesville for several years before being licensed for pastoral ministry by Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. I served Olivet UMC as associate pastor and went on to pastor Freemont Union UMC in Nottingham, PA.
The congregation of Freemont UMC voted unanimously to leave the denomination of the United Methodist Church in 2017 due to the lack of scriptural integrity of the leadership of the UMC. We spent the next twenty months and twenty days in a rental hall in Nottingham, PA.
We were incorporated in August 2017 as New Beginnings Church of the Cross.
We are a bible believing non-denominational church.
I was ordained in 2018.
Fathers’ Day 2019 was our first Sunday in our present building at 1 Penn Ave in beautiful Christiana, PA.
In 2022 we sold our home in Coatesville that we lived for 28 years and the family business and moved 1.9 miles from the church to go into full ministry.
My favorite bible verse is Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
New Beginnings Church of the Cross’s Vision Statement is, “Love, Obey, and Proclaim Jesus Christ.”
owned by Church
Alrighty then. They seem to do normal things that uber Christian Churches do like baptize people in above ground pools and do bakes sales, youth groups, and church newsletters…and they are You Tube stars.
Full disclosure: I do not do proselytizing. I know plenty of true Christians, truly Godly people, and they don’t have to try so hard. I don’t believe in angry God messages and this guy is a yeller.
The Church is in Lancaster County in Christiana at 1 Penn Street. Their present church seems to be occupying the site of an old Quaker meeting – the old Christiana Mennonite Church. It is a historically listed structure. It was also the site of Living Truth Church (some form of Baptist or Anabaptist?) and I think originally as per a marker I saw it was a Quaker meeting?
Anyway, and yes I am burying the lede. Why? Because it’s kind of terrible.
God don’t like ugly, and I do not know where to go in my head. Jesus sends no message to me other than if this all happened, he’s got nothing.
So what the hell happened and how has this been kept quiet?
