Adventist Evangelist Leo Schreven is Dead; Directed a Ministry for Business Professionals

by AT News Team

Pastor Leo Schreven, an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister and president of All Power Seminars, is reported to have died on Sabbath, December 1. This has been announced in an Email by Pastor Stephen Carlile, senior pastor of the South Tulsa (Oklahoma) Adventist Fellowship, and on Schreven’s Facebook page.

Schreven was an evangelist for the denomination for nearly three decades and then organized an independent ministry in 1998 based on his vision for reaching secular professional and business people. He “began to feel a calling that was much broader than serving in one particular denomination,” he explained in a September 2012 commentary on Outwardbranch.com. He “felt called to serve the entire body of Christ, recognizing God has his people in all denominations.”

He created an approach modeled after motivational speakers called All Power Seminars, “a Bible-based seminar for personal growth, success and achievement” designed to help participants “learn to live up to your full potential.” His was about the only widely-visible Adventist outreach which focused on the interest many people have in becoming wealthy.

The web site for All Power Seminars offers a variety of goal-setting worksheets on finances, health, relationships and emotions, as well as DVDs and other materials by Schreven. It includes testimonials from people who say that his instruction helped them lose weight, advance their careers, get out of debt, etc.

Earlier he had tried other controversial and non-traditional tactics in evangelism. He would offer $1,000 to anyone in a community where he was preaching who could produce a Bible text declaring that the Sabbath had been changed from Saturday to Sunday. He once paid students (not members of the church) at a university in Canada to attend his evangelism event.

He was known for his rapid-fire delivery and use of humor in his presentations. The All Power ministry is headquartered in Salem, Oregon. Schreven lived with his family in Kettle Falls, Washington. Only 51, he died unexpectedly and is survived by his wife Tamara Fields Schreven, their daughter Cierra; his parents Leonardus and Johanna Schreven; his brothers John and Herman, sister Ella and their spouses and children. The family will hold a private funeral.

Calling the news shocking, Pastor Carlile said, “Leo has been a huge part of [the Tulsa congregation] over the last 13 years. He has held Prophecy Seminars, All Power Seminars and has been our television ministry lead speaker for over seven years. … Leo was a friend of mine as well; we were able to talk often and share what was happening in our ministries. … We … remember his wife Tamara as well as his little girl, Cierra in our prayers.”

The South Tulsa Adventist Fellowship has been profiled as a church growth success story among Adventist pastors. It has had an exceptional record of accessions among native-born local residents.