I grew up on sand.. along the many beaches of Southern California. I was lost as a lizard chasing after gated community beach parties, after glassy waves, and after the worldly things most surfrats go after. Did we resist our fleshly nature? Nope. Didn't know about that, or even care. But in the 1970s, amid the swell of the Jesus Movement, Jesus Christ rescued me from destroying myself. He gets all the credit.
As a senior at Dana Hills High School, I made the most important decision of my life one evening in a Bible study: I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and Lord.
That decision to turn/repent and believe.. and that miracle of salvation soon took me back into the ocean at the Dana Point Harbor for my real baptism—fully immersed in that Pacific sea again on purpose. Yes, it was in obedience to the Bible, and to tell the whole world who I love most. (It was my outward declaration of the inward reality of regeneration that came from Christ!)
I look back on that So Cal Great Awakening of the 70s with deep gratitude! The Spirit of God was moving mightily from there across the entire nation now.
But until then, I didn't think I needed to be baptized again (yeah after my mandatory Catholic baby sprinkling), but doing so was only right and brought about a new season of yielding and spiritual growth for me! So exciting!
The Roman organization merely gave me a wet head, more sacraments to do, and smiley-faced lost parents, but after getting saved in '77 that full dunk in the sea put a smile on my heavenly Father! We can't earn salvation by any works, not even by sacraments!
Wanna do your will with your way, God!
I like what Jonathan Edwards said: “The Spirit of God may be moving among His people for revival at any time; our job is to yield fully to Him.”
During that time, I was attending Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, sitting under the verse-by-verse teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith. Man, I think he went through God's Book 8 times for all of us. Greg Laurie taught there on Monday nights, and all those teachings lit a fire from God inside of me. It happened for countless surfer kids like me. Even for my dad, who personally hated our long hair.
I kept falling in love with Him (Jesus), over and over, and over and over again! I still do and am in love! I fell in love with the Word of God and the God of the Word. He has changed everything.
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:36 esv
Out of that one-time manumission and biblical foundation being laid.. came a burden for the lost. (for unregenerate people headed for a real place called hell). There's not 3 destinations, only two and God wants you to join him at the other place. His home in heaven.. entering through His Son!
Jesus felt and feels that concern for lost people! You can too! Not naturally, but it can start in you supernaturally!
I couldn’t keep quiet. Had a bad case of the can't help its.. can't help but share the truth with people desperately needing Him!
I began sharing my testimony straight and simple, the Scriptures, and inviting my surfing and volleyball buddies to Jesus, Bible studies and church. By God's grace, some of them also gave their lives to Christ.
As D.L. Moody once said, “There is no better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit.”
And I simply wanted to make myself available where He wanted me to be. I still want to follow wherever.. His way. He does the work, but He totally delights to use any of us for His purpose and glory. Be and stay willing to be used of God--I dare you to be! Please be!
What a great moment being born again was.. and still is! The Greatest One makes it great! Hey, you must be born agin because Jesus said you must be born again! That was literally a time of Great Awakening in the USA here! Let's together pray in a 5th great awakening here! Americans need that more than ever before!
I did’t think I needed the Lord, or church, or to be rebaptized (by full immersion this time) but this all was biblical!
These happenings brought about some good decisions in me and a spiritual growth season too. Yes, and it was while attending Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa with Pastor Chuck Smith. Greg Laurie taught there on Monday nights. A crowd went up into the altar every single night after the altar call because Christ was working. Greg and the rest never failed to cast a hook or a net in every situation!
The out-growth of their Bible teaching was that God gave me (Kurt) a real love for the lost. That had to be from him and I believed God started using me because my surfing and volleyball buddies came to Christ when I would share Scripture, when I would share my story, when I would invite them to Christ, or I would invite them to a study or church with me.
After high school, Kurt (me) sold real estate at the Tarbell San Juan office for some years (my dad was a broker up the road at the Mission Viego office, and later he worked as a Broker for Caldwell Banker office, and at the ReMax ofice across from Salt Creek).
But I (Kurt) would often find myself respectfully questioning, inquiring about, and addressing the spiritual needs of my Sea Bright farm of homes clientele. I enjoyed living for and talking about Jesus more than anything else. Then I believed that I was called to Gospel ministry in 1980.
Kurt then drove to North Texas in his VW bus with the flowered curtains and Aloha Surf Racks to prepare for missionary outreach. He studied at a couple Bible colleges in the Dallas area during the 80’s and it was during this time that I met my beautiful wife at the City Hall.. Liney, who was also a Bible school student at my school. Separately, they were involved with the Lord and in summer mission trips.
After their marriage in August (14th) in 1982 Kurt continued to make mission trips into Western Europe and Eastern Europe (even went through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin witnessing with a German tract I made). Yes, this was an exciting time for Kurt before the wall fell in Berlin. I was there with communist solders on the streets. The East Germans would get off work daily and disapper into the unground kneipe eateries and bars to be left in peace.. but they needed the Prince of Peace!
We both participated in short-term mission trips, and I later made some trips into Western and Eastern Europe—even crossing through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. Kurt had been serving for over a the decade in the eighties as a U.S. Pastor over East Dallas home groups at the eleven-thousand-member, Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas. This place wasn't a Calvary Chapel but it seemed like the closest thing to one that I could find. The Southwestern Sem style preaching and altar calls there had many lost people coming to Jesus in their altars. There was an evangelistic gift and that church grew spiritually.. and numerically from 13 to 11K in 7 short years. The pastor was a hippie that had gotten saved due to the 70's Jesus Movement from Costa Mesa. It was God simply blessing His word expounded–Jesus alone saves! They were doing a lot of contempory concert evangelism with the Word of God in Dallas as well.In 1990 Stephan, Nathan, Christian (our three boys), Liney and Kurt von Schleicher were (not went out of the church, but were ordained and) sent out to Germany where we served as independent missionaries. We were involved in helping to establish five new local churches (basing from one in Augsburg near Munich. All glory to God--we were simply enjoying fellowship Him and his people there).
As a missionary, Kurt taught for some four years in Harvest (German) Bible School in Bavaria, he oversaw what was called “a thriving German youth ministry” and traveled extensively doing itinerant evangelism work throughout the European Union and Eastern Europe.
After the von Schleichers finally returned to America to serve under David Shibley at Global Advance in Rockwall we had to find a local church, and Kurt was then invited to be an assistant pastor at another ten-thousand-plus-member Church in Carrollton (I love local church ministry more than para-church ministry).
I enjoyed teaching through differnt Bible books and assisting new believers with water baptisms, basic foundations, basic spiritual disciplines.. but after four years (in spite of the excitement and pay), Kurt knew it was time to head back to his roots in what we discovered to be more biblically sound churches. The one where we’d been serving was drifting way off into left field and they were pressuring Kurt and Liney to come with them. No thanks, we'll stick with Christ and the Essentials!
In their travels, the von Schleicher’s have learned a lot about differnet winds of doctrine, denominational constraints, prevelent spiritual abuses related to offerings, and the good nuances of many different streams of Christendom. Bible doctrine that’s 100% sound is vitally important for us all! They (Kurt and Liney) still desired to remain non-sectarian in their attitudes and hearts and are still open to evangelistic gifts (if the bait is also clean) with in their approach, but they absolutely refused to put up with the Charismainia that has turned off so many people longing for the genuine from God.
Since April 6, 2013 Kurt started working at GMO and then teaching in small groups at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano Texas. Wonderful people. It's a spiritually healthy church.
Kurt gladly served as a Global Media Outreach Community Leader responsible for 16 Online Missionaries while coordinating some follow-up and discipleship efforts for Greg Laurie’s Harvest America that came to Dallas for three years (these groups, including Prestonwood all worked together in followup). I love Jesus most! I'll petistalize Him alone, but I enjoy helping reapers to reap.. and afterwards with the harvest (like we saw on June 6, in 2016, and June 10, 2018 here). We had 3 cost-free nationwide simulcasted events that were held in the AA Center downtown, and one in Cowboy Stadium that featured top name Christian bands (effective bait) and a very clear Gospel message given by my former California pastor, Greg Laurie. God blessed!
Yes, the last one was at AT&T Stadium—with the gospel also being presented in literally thousands of host locations, including churches, theaters, civic halls, and even living rooms.
Tentmaking too? Yes, there’s been lots of hospitality work to support the family. Kurt has done concierge work for Hilton Hotels, Marriott Int’l, Aimbridge at high-end hotels in Dallas. If I could find work that worked with churches better, I'd go with this. Liney and I didn't relocate to Texas for secular work, but for the Kingdom's sake.
The VIP Services Department was formed to better serve Hilton’s Diamond and Gold level guests when in town and I sure get to dialoge with a lot of people! The Ritz-Carlton has other ways of rewarding loyalty. I seek to make friends for life.
This type of work includes both face to face and preparatory coordination for company outings, business meetings, sporting events, the guest’s personal travel needs, Dallas shows, group dining and even ceremonies like weddings. Liney has done a lot of weddings.
A couple has got to do what it takes to pay the bills right? Liney and I are determined to be involved with our top passion. It’s for Christ, His church, and His Kingdom! (Liney has served Ken Cooper and other Dallas doctors in the medical field. We've both have these combinations of work for decades here as we've seen the moneygrubbers fall. Yes, it’s because we’ve seen too much of how TV preachers regularly fleece God’s flock rather than simply feed His flock. We don’t want any part of that weird overemphasis and fleecing.
Liney has done a lot of weddings (with the flower arrangements, big cakes, dress designs) domestically and in different countries. With Bible lesson prep, hospitality work and her medical field with doctors (work with people), it’s always been quite interesting and challenging. It's always a joy to hear the people’s own stories and to serve them.
I met my beautiful wife and fellow Bible school student friend, Liney at the City Hall in Dallas. This was the second-best decision of my entire life after receiving Jesus by faith. She's still my 2nd best friend today and we still love to pray together for our each other, for our fam, for Dallas and for the nations. God called us both separately, but He united us in mission together after August 14, 1982.
As A.W. Tozer warned, “We must not think of the Church as something that is to be dragged through the world, weak and begging for recognition. The Church must be as God intends: pure, powerful, and full of truth.”
We individuals in His Church are either evangelizing or fossilizing. Daily we must choose. Let Him be Lord more than in theory!
"..for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 nkjv
“The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men and of nations is always being decided.” ~ Billy Graham
In our journeys together, we’ve seen God doing His work through the church (Bible teaching is predominantly for the saved as He sanctifies, and Bible preaching is predominantly for the Lost as He justifies them.. yes, so we'll eventually be glorified together with Him).
We've seen firsthand the highs and lows of so-called church life (real church life as well as mere religious church business). We've seen real blessings, real spiritual abuses, and all. We want to be real blessings for the Lost and saved as God uses us. We all can be--you can be used of God too!
"God often goes to the gutter to find the recipient for His grace. He lifts him out, washes him and transforms him - making him into a child of God fit for His kingdom. That is God’s grace." ~ Chuck Smith Sr.
Still, Liney and I choose to remain committed to the Jesus of the Bible, and to sound doctrine, to open-hearted candid evangelism, and a Christ-centered life. AI and computers are good with words these days, but with no emotions, or empathic heart, or feelings for people in their need..they can't minister like that.
Do I have a ways to go spiritually? Uhh yes, I ain't there yet. I have a ways to go with Him. He ain't finished with Liney and I yet. Glad about that.
Since April 6, 2013, I've had the privilege with Global Media Outreach as a Community Leader overseeing 16 online missionaries, and then teaching at Prestonwood Baptist Church in the years followibng. I had the privilege of coordinating some follow-up and discipleship three times for Greg Laurie’s Harvest America crusades in Dallas..THRILLING TIMES.. but what matters most isn't what any of us have done, it's who we know and walk with. It's about heading home with our Lord, worshipping Him acceptably. Bringing others with us is important just like all good works are, but these are still secondary.
"Prayer and worship are the most important activities a born-again Christian can perform. They should head your list of priorities, for certainly the world around us desperately needs prayer. Prayer will open the door for God to do a glorious work in these last days. Prayer will stem the tide of evil." ~ Chuck Smith Sr.
To worship Jesus biblically is our top priority, then we like to nurture saints and win lost people. To help support our ministry life, Liney and I have worked hard like so many Christians. We're all full-time ministers if we are saved.
Where God guides, he generously provides. Where He leads, He graciously feeds. Where His finger points, His loving hand of provision opens.. just as long as we are willing to go. Where will you go?
Liney works in the medical field and in children's church, and I have as a concierge with Ritz-Carlton, but we want to be Christians first.. that are rapture-ready before all else.. before being teachers or workers. What has God called you to be?
"For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences." 2 Corinthians 5:7-11 nkjv
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last." ~ C.T. Studd
It’s been a joy to serve and hear people’s stories inside the church and outside, lost or saved. God loves us all and He has a good plan. It's been a joy to meet people where they are, to hear them, and to try and lift them up in love with the word if they are willing. Where is God leading you?
