Rob Schenck
Reverend Rob Schenck (pronounced SHANK) is the President and co-founder of Faith and Action, a Christian outreach to elected and appointed officials in Washington, DC. From the Faith and Action headquarters directly across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court building, his mission on Capitol Hill is to bring the Word of God to bear on the hearts and minds of those who make public policy in America.
As part of his ministry, Dr. Schenck has met and spoken personally with President George W. Bush, former and current Speakers of the House, Senate Majority Leaders, numerous members of Congress and all nine Justices of the US Supreme Court and frequently appears on major television networks and radio programs.
In July 2006, Dr. Schenck successfully defended a granite display of The Ten Commandments in the garden of the Faith and Action building against a demand for its removal by the Washington, DC city government at the risk of fines and property seizure.
Dr. Schenck has been involved in defending public displays of the Ten Commandments as well as other Christian symbols around the country. Also in 2006, he assisted local leaders in preventing the removal of a cross from a war memorial on Mt. Soledad in San Diego.
Rev. Schenck is president of the National Clergy Council, a network of pastors and denominational leaders who work together to bring Christian moral principles into the conversation and debate surrounding national policy. He currently serves on the boards of the Evangelical Church Alliance, the Exchange Club of Capitol Hill, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the National Clergy Council and the National Pro-Life Religious Council.
Rev. Schenck is a trustee of Gospel of Life Ministries and a member of the American Academy of Ministry, the American Academy of Religion, the Center for Bio-ethics and Human Dignity, and the National Association of Evangelicals.
Rev. Schenck holds ministerial affiliation with both the Evangelical Church Alliance and the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ordained by the New York District Presbytery in 1982 and has been given authority to administer the ordinances of the Church (including Baptism, Committal, Communion, Marriage, Preaching and Pastoral Counsel) by the Evangelical Church Alliance. Rev.Schenck received his diploma in Bible and theology from the Buffalo (New York) School of the Bible, his certificate in ministerial studies from Berean College and his Master of Arts in Christian Ministry from Faith Evangelical Lutheran Seminary.
Since 1976, Rev. Schenck has been engaged in full-time Christian service. As a Bible college student, he worked as a resident counselor for Empire State Teen Challenge, a church-sponsored home for troubled young men. Following graduation, he became a local director, then Upstate New York state director for the same program. Later, he served in two yearlong posts on staff with two churches, one in suburban Rochester, New York, and one in New York City.
In 1982, Rev. Schenck launched into full-time missionary evangelism; in the process founding a Christian humanitarian relief agency he named Operation Serve. Now called Operation Serve International, this thriving organization deploys hundreds of volunteer physicians, dentists, and other health care and aid workers to serve the poor in developing countries on several continents. Rev. Schenck has traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada and to 37 countries including Russia, Israel, and Lebanon at the height of its civil war.
In 1994, Rev. Schenck accepted an assignment to organize a new church congregation on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Early on, he saw the need for a larger, personal and public ministry to the highest levels of government personnel and founded Faith and Action together with his twin brother Paul. In order to focus on the new ministry, Schenck handed his pastoral charge over to a younger minister and is today the National Community Church, an exciting, expanding congregation.
Rev. Schenck frequently provides commentary on matters of faith to both the national secular and Christian media. His candid and personal insights on Capitol Hill activities have put him at the center of many Washington news conferences. Rev. Schenck has been seen on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, CNN, C-SPAN, and the 700 Club and is often a guest on live talk radio talk shows from coast to coast including the Sean Hannity Show. Magazines including Life, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and Christianity Today have all carried reports of his evangelistic efforts. Rev. Schenck has also been the focus of feature stories in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. His biography in the Baltimore Sun was one of the largest features ever published in that newspaper. The Washington Post printed a front-page article about his views on homosexuality.
Rev. Schenck has been married to Cheryl Elizabeth (Smith) Schenck since 1977. Mrs. Schenck is a schoolbased occupational therapist. They have two adult children.
