Pastor Thomas Schaller was named Presiding Elder and Overseeing Pastor of Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore in April 2005. Since 1971, when he came to Christ while a student at the State University of New York in Plattsburg, Pastor Schaller has shown a commitment to learning the Scriptures and living by them to the glory of God.

In 1975, Pastor Schaller was a member of the first graduating class of Northeast School of the Bible in Maine. Shortly after his graduation, he led a missionary team to Finland, where he served as pastor for six years, overseeing a work that established the Scandinavian School of the Bible. Graduates from this school have planted churches in Finland, Sweden, Israel, Azerbaijan and Turkey. Other graduates labored in church-planting teams in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, China, Thailand, India, Argentina, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the USA. Others have been participants in short-term missionary efforts in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Slovakia, Spain, Kenya, Malawi, and Honduras.

In 1981, Pastor Schaller spent a short season as pastor in Stockholm, Sweden, where another Bible college was begun, and then returned to America. During the next six years, he was Missions Director for The Bible Speaks World Outreach and a teacher at Stevens School of the Bible in Lenox, Mass. This period saw Stevens School students travel extensively as part of Summer and Winter Harvest short-term missions programs.

Pastor Schaller moved to Baltimore in 1987 and became the Missions Director for Greater Grace and an instructor at Maryland Bible College and Seminary. In late 1989, the world saw the Iron Curtain collapse as communist governments fell throughout Eastern Europe. This event excited pastors, teachers, students, and workers to the opportunities in countries they had prayed for, visited, and labored in quietly for several years.

In February 1990, an internationally diverse team quickly settled in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Pastor Schaller and his family joined this team that same summer. A Bible college – Central European Theological Academy – was established in the Fall of that year. Graduates of this school have gone on to serve in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, Moldova, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Turkey.

The fruitfulness of Body life and the spiritual health allowed many gifted men and women to grow in the Budapest ministry.  Pastor Schaller credits the spiritual gifts and the faithfulness of team members to the development of many important projects, including the development of international and Hungarian Christian schools and affiliated churches in other cities in the country. The missions-minded church has also made forays into Serbia, Croatia, Ukraine, and Romania.

During the 1990s, after establishing the ministry in Hungary, Pastor Schaller traveled and conducted conferences and services in the former communist bloc countries. This was also a time of frequent visits to Baltimore and the United States. In October 2003, he was named to the GGWO Board of Elders by the ministry’s founding pastor, Carl H. Stevens Jr., and in April 2005, he was elected Presiding Elder of GGWO by a unanimous vote of the board of elders.

He and his wife, Lisa, are the parents of two daughters, Bethany and Amy, and two sons, Justin and Kyle.  Bethany is married to Jonathan Odahara and they have three children, Mika, Jon-Jon and Lulu.  Amy is married to Walter Fenner and they have two children, Emma and Thomas. All live in the Baltimore area and participate in the ministry of Greater Grace Church in Baltimore, Md.

Message From Pst. Schaller	Media Player	Real Player
Be a Field, Be Sown and then Sow Dec. 31, 2006 - Tape # 9092