Greg Schenk, shown here at the pulpit at Ten Mile Community Church in south Meridian, gives sermons in the same style as his “radio hero,” Paul Harvey, used to deliver the news. Schenk is a lay minister who occasionally substitutes for the church’s lead pastor; and when he does, congregants enjoy his Paul Harvey-like delivery.
By Steve Bertel
Greg Schenk and his four older sisters grew up on their parents’ farm in the little town of Rupert, in rural southcentral Idaho. His father and mother tirelessly worked the land – as did their children because, as Greg put it, “That’s the way it was done back then.”
“Back then” being through most of the 1970s.
And the family who worked together also worshipped together. “Both of my parents were strong believers, so my siblings and I were all raised in the Paul Congregational Church in the little town of Paul, Idaho, about five miles from where we lived,” he says. “It was a little country church. We had only one pastor. No associate pastor. And maybe only about 125 people in the whole congregation.”
Worshipping came natural for Greg, since he came to know the Lord – surprisingly – when he was only five or six years old. “I became interested in spiritual things at that very, very young age,” he recalls. “My mother had bought me a set of Bible study records. And I absolutely consumed them! I loved listening to them. I loved hearing the Bible stories. And I loved going to Sunday school, and learning about the Lord.” In fact, Greg attended Sunday school for some twelve years, until he was eighteen years old.
Not only has Greg always had a deep-rooted love for the Lord, he’s also always had what he calls “a speaking ability combined with a certain level of creativity. In fact, when I was a kid, I used to practice delivering sermons to my mom.”
Then, “When I was old enough to start working, my parents asked me, ‘Would you be interested in working at the radio station? We know you love to talk, and you speak very well.’ Even at that young age, I spoke well,” he says.
In those days, Rupert was a small, tight-knit farming community where everyone pretty much knew everyone else. His parents not only knew the owner of KNAQ/KAYT (Rupert’s only two radio stations at the time), they also knew the woman who was the station’s administrative assistant. KNAQ was an automated FM rock station which broadcasted until 1 a.m. every day; KAYT was an automated/live AM country station, a “daytimer” that broadcasted from sunrise to sunset.
So, intrigued by the idea – and, helped by his parents’ “ins” with the station – Greg interviewed with the program director.
And was soon offered a job. As a part-timer. “I was helping my dad farm and still going to high school at the time, so I would do the radio job whenever it fit with my schedule,” he remembers.
But one part of the job didn’t fit with his schedule; taking the job meant he had to work the early-morning Saturday/Sunday shifts, which also meant he had to make a big decision. “I loved going to church. I loved going to Sunday School. But I thought long and hard about it, and decided to take the radio job,” he recalls. “Our church’s youth group met on Sunday evenings so, of course, I could still attend those meetings. In my mind, that was the trade-off. Then, about six months after I was hired, I was assigned a different shift, and was then able to go back to Sunday School.”
Working the early shifts meant he had to arrive at the stations no later than 5:30 in the morning. “I remember one time, the snow was so deep and the weather conditions were so bad – Rupert can get some really bad storms, especially during the winter – that my dad drove me to work on his tractor, because it was the only vehicle we had that would get through the snow!”
Once at work, he was immediately busy: firing up the transmitters, taking the FCC-required meter readings, programming the automation computers, and checking the teletype for any overnight news stories, to be ready to go on the air live with the first-of-the-day local newscast at 6:05 a.m. “The national news aired at the top of the hour for about five minutes, then I would frequently follow that with our local news, which would go for about another five minutes or so. Then into music,” he says. With both stations being automated, he also had to keep a watchful eye on the computer systems, to make sure they didn’t malfunction anytime during his shift. So he had his hands full.
Both KNAQ and KAYT were typical small-town radio stations. They had a combined staff of only about a dozen people; the popular disc jockeys would host live afternoon shows or, during the summer, ongoing “remotes” from the Minidoka or Cassia County Fairs; they’d often run on-air contests where listeners could win record albums or T-shirts; and they’d air Christian programs on Sunday mornings. “The Methodist Church would buy an hour of time and we would broadcast the services live,” Greg explains. “We also ran a few national Christian programs which would be sent to us on vinyl records, so all we had to do was play the record.”
At an age when most teenagers are known for lazily mumbling or going through age-related voice changes, Greg was very articulate … and had a distinctive “radio” voice. “I’d be shopping at a grocery store, for example, and a clerk or someone would recognize my voice. They wouldn’t recognize my face, of course, but they would certainly know my voice. And they would tell me how much they appreciated the way I delivered the news, that I did it so well!”
Prior to his first getting the job, Greg and his family had often listened to the radio – and to the commanding, articulate, yet folksy voice of one very famous and nationally-syndicated newscaster.
“Hello, Americans! This is Paul Harvey. Stand by … for NEWS!”
Greg says Paul Harvey soon became one of his “early radio heroes.” “I studied his delivery a lot. I was intrigued by his voice, his inflections. I always listened to his News and Comment noon show on the ABC Radio Network, but I really loved his The Rest of the Story segments – true, human-interest stories that always had surprise endings. I remember he ended each show with ‘And now you know … the rest of the story’ – with his famous, trademark pregnant pause in-between,” Greg says. “I also studied the delivery of our pastor, Vince Frank, of the Paul Congregational Church. He was a great orator, too; in fact, Pastor Frank taught me a lot about public speaking.”
At eighteen, Greg moved to the Treasure Valley and attended Boise State University, returning home during the summer months to be with his family and “dabble at” working a few shifts at the radio station.
Following graduation, he moved to Highland, Michigan – a suburb of Detroit – where he met the woman who would become his wife … and attended the Highland Congregation Church. “It was even smaller than our church in Paul!” Greg exclaims. Using his deep biblical knowledge, he began teaching Sunday school there. “And honestly, I was pretty good at it. I enjoyed it,” he admits. When the church’s only pastor decided he needed a “relief pitcher” so to speak, he tapped Greg. “And that’s when I started lay preaching.”
Of course, given his broadcasting experience, Greg was not at all intimidated to now be speaking in front of a full, live congregation. “In fact, when I stood up in front of the folks for the very first time, I told them, ‘You know, I’ve spent a lot of time in front of microphones. They do not intimidate me’.”
He goes on, “Of course, to step up to the pulpit and address a congregation, you have to have a certain level of confidence, almost a certain level of swagger, or else you are not going to succeed. You’re up there by yourself. What’s more, I’m absolutely convinced that, when I speak before any congregation, it’s God speaking through me. It’s the spiritual gift God has given me.”
Years later, Greg and his family moved to Boise, and he began attending the Ten Mile Community Church in south Meridian, serving first as a deacon, then on a small team of lay ministers in the congregation who occasionally step up to the pulpit and substitute for the church’s lead pastor, Ben Day.
Some feel watching and listening to one of Greg’s sermons is much like watching a painter create a masterpiece; each word, each phrase is another beautiful brush stroke … his timbre is eloquent, gentle, yet direct … with each sermon emphasizing Bible points by purposely including at least two or three of those strategically-placed, Paul Harvey-like pauses for effect. In fact, Greg usually begins his sermons lightheartedly, retelling one of his favorite Paul Harvey The Rest of the Story stories. Of which there are many. “I’ve always liked the idea of starting my sermons with an icebreaker. It’s just my personality. I may use the first few minutes telling some inspiring Chicken Soup for the Soul story, maybe even a Mike Lowe story, before getting into the Word. But most of the time, I’ll retell one of Paul Harvey’s stories that I find online,” Greg explains. “To me, it’s a way of bringing the congregation together, and enjoying that fellowship of togetherness. There’s a real value in that.”
Greg is also known for dropping a few pop culture references into his sermons here and there; for example, pointing out The Byrds’ well-known 1965 song “Turn! Turn Turn!” was inspired by verses of Ecclesiastes 3: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot …”
Why does he do that? “Well, if you look at Jesus’ teaching and His parables, He related a lot of what He said to the culture of the day, to the people around Him, and to the way they lived. Of course, Paul did that to a certain extent, as well. A church cannot be entirely separated from its culture.”
Given his speaking gifts and the fact that he’s equally comfortable sitting in front of a radio microphone or standing at a pulpit, Greg admits he’s “thought a lot about” perhaps starting his own radio or podcast ministry someday. “Maybe when I retire,” he chuckles.
And now you know – as Paul Harvey used to say, with that trademark pregnant pause – the rest of the story.
You can watch some of Greg’s past sermons on the Ten Mile Community Church website: https://tenmilechurch.org/sermon-speaker/greg-schenk/
Steve Bertel is a multi-award-winning professional radio, television, print media, and social media journalist, who retired after a 30-year broadcasting career. Now a busy freelance writer, he released his debut suspense novel, “Dolphins of an Unjust Sea”, available on both Amazon and Kindle. Steve and his wife of 41 years live in Meridian, Idaho. He can be reached at [email protected].
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