John 7:16-18- "Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him."
Daniel R.
Schafer has been in ministry for 47 years.
His ministry work has been referred to as “weird” and “unique,” as he
has participated in and started an extensive list of ministries that are “out
of the ordinary” for the typical pastor, including being the official “prayer”
for the NASCAR races, speaking and facilitating school assemblies, etc.
Schafer is
highly involved with local and national legal departments as a chaplain, etc.
One of the things he has been involved with includes the World Trade Center
relief. He was the head chaplain who would direct the other chaplains to where
they needed to be. When in this position in NYC, he chose to wear a priest’s
“collar” and when performing a funeral, used the symbol of the cross. This was
significant, because it opened many doors for him which were not opened
beforehand. He said that people would
come up to him requesting prayer, etc.
It was during this time, that he also started seeing a professional
therapist to help him cope with all of the traumatic sights, smells, sounds,
etc. that he was experiencing. He has
continued to attend counseling sessions to deal with the emotional stress
presented to him in his job of being the “bearer of bad news” to families of
those who have died in fatal car crashes, in school shootings, suicides, etc.
He says that eighty percent of his stress relief is through the Lord, and
twenty percent is through professional counseling. He also turns to diaphragmatic breathing to
keep his blood pressure and stress level down in those traumatic times.
When
involved in things like “helping” the families deal with traumatic
deaths/suicides, etc. in 4 Police departments, 5 Fire departments, and an EMS
squad. Dan says that just his presence is what makes the difference for the
people; not the fancy words he could say or the scriptures he could read to
them. It’s about helping people, not giving them advice. The best questions to
ask are questions which, upon answering them, they answer their own questions;
“What are you thinking?” “What are you going to do?” Get them to ventilate and then validate.
There’s nothing you can do to help the person who’s dead,
but you must do what you can to help those who are alive not only survive, but
thrive.
Schafer
reads people by looking for signals in their body language, eye movement, etc.
He says that 80% of communication is through body language.
Schafer’s
church is a small country church that stands behind him for all of his wild
outreach ideas, like Biker Sunday, Police Sunday, Racer Sunday, etc.
He says that the secret to getting a great turn out is. “If
you feed people, they will come.”
He preached
a message titled, “Tapping Into Your Natural Weirdness.” The first thing he did
when he started at his church was to join the First Aid Squad in town, squeegee
the windows of all the windows in town, etc. These were “weird” or different
approaches that he took to getting his foot in the door for ministry- creating
relationships.
“As silly
as you might feel, if the Lord’s going to bless you, He’ll bless you. “
I think the
most inspirational thing about Dan is his drive and his obviously intense love
for people. If he didn’t love the Lord’s work and people, I don’t think that he
would be able to do half of the things that he does/has done. The Lord has
specifically set him up for this job. I like that he views his “job” as more
than a 9-5, but as his life. He is
active in his community- doing anything and everything to get connected to his
community; creating relationships which is the most important thing and the
most effective method of evangelism.
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