The Cornerstone Church in Prairie du Chien will welcome a new pastor this coming Sunday, Sept. 6, at their 10 a.m. morning service.
Pastor Richard (Rick) Schwendinger will succeed Pastor Mel Wild, who shepherded the congregation from May 2005 to February 2025.
"I feel called," said Schwendinger. "God sets you in the place where you'll flourish the best, and this is where he sent me. It's like being sent here and, at the same time, being raised up here... I want them to experience God — not just to feel him or know him mentally — it's like, 'I'm walking out different, and I have a different perspective.'"
"What makes him a great candidate is that he started out in 2013 as a volunteer — as a layperson. He just simply served wherever he was asked to serve, and those people make the best pastors because pastors serve their community," said Brad Keller, a former pastor at Cornerstone. "He's homegrown; he knows how people think and he knows the culture."
Keller has been a key guide in the transition from Wild's leadership to Schwendinger. "My wife and I were asked to oversee this succession plan of raising him up by the district office."
Schwendinger grew up around the Fennimore and Lancaster area. He attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., after graduating high school and earned a bachelor's degree in Bible with a minor in business. He went on to get a master of divinity in 2001.
Schwendinger pastored at a few smaller churches following his education and worked in construction. He then embarked on missionary work in Kiev, Ukraine, where he met his wife, Tanya. He returned to the United States but planned to go back to continue his mission work in the late 2000s.
"We were going to raise money to go back there and help out the children and orphanages, and then the 2008 crisis happened and we couldn't," he said. "So, I started pastoring part time again but also do full-time construction."
The financial crisis put a wrench in Rick's plans to work abroad, so he returned to school and earned a master's to teach history. His family began attending Cornerstone Church in 2013. In the meantime, Rick's wife, Tanya, started Precious Moments Photography, and their family grew to four children, now between the ages of 8 and 17. He picked up farming in 2017 until 2023, when he felt compelled to return to ministry work.
"I started feeling the call again... I really wanted to get back into ministry," he said. "I started preaching at local churches and filling in. Then Pastor Mel retired, and at that point, I had started my licensing process."
Schwendinger wants Cornerstone to do more community outreach in the future. "I want us to be more involved in the community... I have so many ideas I don't know how to implement them all right now."
He also wants to help his congregation mature in their relationship with God.
"I want to introduce them to Jesus's love better," he said.
On Saturday, Sept. 5, people in the community have a chance to talk to Schwendinger when the church puts on a meet and greet in the Carey's Overhead Door parking lot in Prairie du Chien (37806 U.S. Highway 18) from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5.
The Cornerstone Church, founded in 1983, is located at 38398 U.S. Highway 18 in Prairie du Chien. The Church can be reached at 608-326-4875 and through its website at www.thatchurchonthehill.com.
The church holds service on Sundays at 10 a.m. and on-site prayer on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. The church offers a variety of other programs, including Bible study sessions on Zoom. A weekly schedule can be viewed on their website.
