Reverend Steve M. Schlissel
In Memoriam

Rev. Steve M. Schlissel, 72, beloved husband, father, and grandfather, and pastor of Messiah’s Congregation for over 40 years, tragically passed away on the morning of Sunday, January 5th, 2025.

Born March 23rd, 1952, Steve was the youngest of four siblings in a Jewish family. He was “born, bred, and buttered,” as he liked to say, in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, he recalled having “great questions,” but “no one of whom to ask the answers.” As a teenager, he studied philosophy, intent on discovering the meaning of life. While briefly attending Kingsborough College in his early twenties, he met a beautiful Italian Catholic girl, Jeanne Notarmuzi, and they were married in 1974 in a wedding officiated by a rabbi and a priest, walking down the aisle to an organ arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”

After marriage, he continued to read philosophy, seeking earnestly to answer the question of life after death. “If you don’t know what happens after you die,” he reasoned, “how can you know how to live?” Unfortunately, no philosopher had answers to satisfy him. One day, he began reading a Gideon Bible he had “stolen” from a hotel in Massachusetts a few years before. This was the catalyst for a profound religious conversion, which culminated in his baptism, his second birth, on the 25th anniversary of his first birth. After discovering the good news of the gospel, he was on fire for the Lord. It was not enough for him to have discovered the Way, the Truth, and the Life—he wanted everyone else to discover Him, too. This newfound passion led him to accept a call as a missionary, enabling him to leave his job as inventory manager at the A&S department store and pursue his desire to teach and lead others to Christ.

His first calling was under the auspices of the American Board of Missions to the Jews at a mission station called Beth Sar Shalom. In 1979, after only six months of missionary training, he was offered the position of mission director. In February 1981, the congregation of Beth Sar Shalom became a particular church (eventually named Messiah’s Congregation in 1986), which he led until his passing in 2025. He was a natural teacher and loved his faith heritage; he spent a considerable part of his ministry evangelizing his Jewish brethren—and “Judaizing” his Christian brethren. He was committed to persuading both Jews and Gentiles that the Old and New Testaments were one book, one story of redemption: trying to understand it outside its Jewish context was as futile as trying to understand Judaism apart from the Messiah. In 1980, he was ordained as a minister at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Brooklyn. He did not attend seminary, and has been quoted as saying, “That’s why I’m still sound.”  However, in addition to being a voracious reader of theology, he was mentored by many great minds, including Rev. Paul Szto, Rev. Rousas J. Rushdoony, Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen, and Dr. Cornelius Van Til. In 1986, Messiah’s Congregation became part of the Christian Reformed Church, a continental Reformed denomination whose confessions and tradition Pastor Steve loved. He was vocal in trying to convince the CRC to hold the line against the evils of evolution and egalitarianism, which put him on the radar in the Reformed world. In 1992, Messiah’s became an independent congregation again, but Pastor Steve never stopped warning, in his bold and insightful way, the church at large about the dangers of succumbing to the world’s ways.

Pastor Steve notoriously loved New York City. He called it a “salad bowl, not a melting pot,” referring to the creation of hundreds of pockets of mini-countries as people from around the world moved to Brooklyn, seeking to live amongst their countrymen. This inspired him to start the ministry Urban Nations in 1993, which sought to “reach the world where the world’s within reach” via ESL classes, immigration assistance, and integration into the church community of Messiah’s. After all, why send missionaries to foreign countries when they’re already in our own backyard? In the wake of 9/11, Messiah’s Congregation established a special fund dedicated to bringing relief from the suffering caused by the disaster, providing help that was “up close and personal.” This led to the planting of a new church, Messiah’s Reformed Fellowship, which continues to serve Manhattan.

Pastor Steve loved bringing people together. He was not only a master networker, linking those in need with those who could provide, but also a conspirer with grace in the realm of love. He was the official or unofficial instigator in several successful marriages, and for some time even had a matchmaking service to connect like-minded Christians, “Schlissel Family Services: Shadchan to the Reformed Community.” Many families today credit him with being instrumental in bringing themtogether, directly or indirectly.

He loved “the Lord’s Day,” Sunday, and liked to create traditions to set the day apart from the others as a day God gave us to enjoy. One such tradition was to hand out candy from the front of church to all the children after every service. In His mercy and goodness, God saw fit to both bring him into he world and receive him from the world on his favorite day of the week, the Lord’s Day.

Pastor Steve kvelled in his children and grandchildren at every stage. Nothing delighted him more than to spend time with them, laugh with them, and lavish them with gifts. Grampa Steve, a.k.a “Beepaw,” was known to hand out presents wherever he went, and there were always enough to goaround, as long as they were accepted with gratitude. As the grandchildren got older, he enjoyed hearing about their interests, engaging them in philosophical discussions, encouraging them in their pursuits and talents, and giving constructive advice when they wanted his feedback. With his own hands—and no background in construction whatsoever—he built an entire playhouse in the backyard and dubbed it “Paedo Place.” It was a treasured space for the grandkids for many years.

Music was important to Pastor Steve. There was hardly a time when music was not playing in the house. He loved singing from the Psalter Hymnal both at church and at home, and often asked hisdaughters to sing songs by the Andrews Sisters and the like for him and for company. He wrote and sang his own songs—many in praise of the Lord, including meditative ballads like “Song of Devotion” as well lighthearted ditties like “Bananas.” He enjoyed jamming out with his sons-in-law and grandchildren on the guitar, and he was wont to sing loudly and operatically at family meals—sometimes startling unwitting guests at the dinner table. His knowledge of music was extensive and esoteric, his collection large and eclectic. Any time was a good time to play the music of his youth (Stones, Doors, Beatles, Dylan, and more) as well as classical works, or to burst into impromptu dance parties around the dinner table. He was known to clip newspaper articles—“all the news that NYTwits print”—and stick them to counters or kitchen cabinets, and even photograph and text them to kids, grandkids, and friends alike.  This piece is too short to expound on his many other interests—old-time radio shows, film noir, and books upon books of knowledge on every subject.

The most striking thing about Pastor Steve was how seriously he took the charge of living out the gospel. He and his wife Jeanne were true embodiments of the corporal works of mercy: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:35-36). Pastor Steve served as a Protestant chaplain at the local municipal hospital for many years. While counseling women who were still living with the effects of having been abused as children, he noticed a need to fill in the community. In 1991, he founded Meantime Ministries, an outreach to provide support and counseling for women who had been sexually abused. He and Jeanne raised several foster children (mostly Vietnamese refugees) and also adopted Anna, who was born in Hong Kong. In addition, there were several times the parsonage was opened as a home to those in need of physical or spiritual provision.

The influence that Pastor Steve had on and beyond his community—the lives he changed, the hearts he touched, the souls he reached—cannot be adequately summarized here. He delivered thousands of sermons, wrote hundreds of lectures, articles, and newsletters, published four books, and contributed to countless others. His thriving personal ministry included teaching trips to Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and all over the continental United States. He was faithful to the very end, a steadfast example of what he preached. “If you don’t have feet to your faith,” he said in one sermon on John, “you don’t have the faith.” Well, Pastor Steve’s faith certainly had feet—and he left some sizable shoes to fill in his absence. Although his loved ones might have chosen to keep him on earth a little longer, the Lord decided his work here was finished. His family can picture his Master saying now, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).
Pastor Steve was preceded in death by his parents, Irving and Estelle, whom he loved and fondly remembered, his sister, Jacqueline Marcus, and his stillborn daughter, Martha Mary. He is survived by his siblings, Theodore and Arnold; his wife of 50 years, Jeanne; his six children: Sarah Hodges (David), Rebeccah Brann (Craig), Leah Palmer (Michael), Jedidiah (Olivia), Anna Demeusy (David), and Esther; four foster children: Lana Vang (Irne Gonzalez), Phuong Huynh, Thao Quan (Phil), and Kiet Huynh (Celeste); 28 grandchildren: Miriam Westlund (Adam), Jireh Gardo (Liam), Søren, Christina, Agnes, Estella, Baruch, Phineas, Nona and Thalia Hodges, Tehilah, Irving, Verdinah and Dorothy Brann, Judah, Jadon and Levi Sosa, Maverick, Skyler and Gianni Palmer, Shiphrah, Torah and Goshen Schlissel, Canaan, Luke, Timothy, Isaac and Josephine Demeusy; nine foster grandchildren: Kevin and Karen Dang, Dana and Daniel Ngo, Justine and Nicholas Quan, Keanu, Korey and Kody Huynh; one foster great-grandchild, Chloe Dang; and one great-grandchild on the way.

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