David Schmid has never been comfortable with the idea of his legacy. He’s a husband, father, and grandfather. He’s an entrepreneur and leader. He’s generous with his money and mentorship. And recently, he’s found a new focus for his generosity in the most unexpected place. Still, he almost bristles at the thought that the measure of his life would be about anything other than Jesus.
“I hope people know me as a Christ follower,” David says. “Because ultimately, that’s my legacy. It’s not about me; it’s about Jesus first.”
It’s this perspective that has carried David forward since he came to know Jesus as a young adult almost four decades ago.
“My transformation was radical,” he says. “I went from spiritually dead to a totally new life in Christ, and that changed everything.”
The measure of success
That change didn’t just impact David’s life and ministry; it completely transformed the way he approached his work too. An entrepreneur since his teenage years, David’s long had a knack for casting vision and starting something new.
“God’s given me a unique ability to see an opportunity and seize it,” David explains. “So, I want to honor him with that in my work.”
His passion for building and developing new businesses has pushed David into a new realm of his career with a different measure of success.
“I like to start things, get them off the ground, and then turn them over to someone else who can do more with it than I can,” David explains. “That’s why I am always on the lookout for godly people who can run a business better than me. Mentoring, training, and trusting them with something I’ve created has been the real joy – the real success – of my work.”
And David is generous with more than just his vision, knowledge, and skills. He passes on his way of weaving faith into what he does and how he leads too.
“I try to encourage these leaders to lead with faith and trust God to guide them.”
The gift of generosity
As he pours into other business leaders, he does so with the strong conviction that none of what he’s sharing belongs to him in the first place.
“I don’t own anything. All the success, all the work, all the accomplishments – none of it is for me or about me. We’re all just stewards of what God has entrusted to us.”
In terms of both stewardship and giving, David leads by example.
“I see my ability to give as a spiritual gift,” he explains. “I’m not generous because of myself or my own success; I’m generous because of God and the gifts he’s given me.”
This generosity has meant big endeavors, like supporting the work of medical missions in Romania, building a six-story hospital in Kampala, Uganda, and opening a pregnancy resource center to serve women and children in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. But it’s also meant the everyday decisions to financially support the work of other ministries and nonprofits sharing God’s heart with the world, something David and his wife, Stacey (pictured with him above), say their Giving Fund at NCF has made easier.
“Our Giving Fund at NCF gives us an opportunity to prayerfully think through where we want to give. It benefits us as givers to have a partner to help us direct our funds to the places God leads.”
The gift of generosity is part of the legacy David is comfortable talking about for his life – not because of the amount he’s given away or the impact those gifts have made. It’s because it’s a reflection of the generous God he serves.
“My wife and I are not the kind of people to hold onto much in this life,” David says. “Stacey and I are motivated to give it away because none of it is ours in the first place. Nothing ever really is in the end.”
A new ministry
In this season of his life, David is thinking about generosity with fresh eyes.
After struggling with a myriad of unexplained symptoms for more than a decade, David received a life-changing diagnosis in 2020: Parkinson’s Disease.
“It’s the hardest thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says. “It’s an incurable and progressive brain disease. I know where this ends for me. But I also know a lot of people would just give up and take this as a death sentence of sorts. I refuse to let that be my story.”
Though the disease has changed a lot for him – the way he speaks, the way he works, and even, at times, the way he thinks – what hasn’t changed is the perspective he has on the life he’s still living.
“This helped me step back and reflect on what’s important. Now, I see this as more than a diagnosis; I see it as my new ministry. It’s an opportunity to share generously with others the hope I have in Christ.”
He regularly connects with others living with the same illness to encourage them, pray for them, and share the faith he has in Christ even in the face of an incurable disease.
“I wouldn’t have picked this ministry for myself, but it’s the one God chose for me,” David says. “So, I want to steward it well too.”
Whether he realizes it or not, this is his legacy in action. As his brain and body battle against the progression of this disease, his faith has not wavered. And in the end, that’s what David wants to be known for. That’s what he truly hopes his legacy will be.
“If people remember me more than they remember my pursuit of Christ, that’s a miss for me. Ultimately, my life is about what God has done in and through me. That’s what I hope people see in me every day I’m here. And one day, I hope it’s what they remember every day after I’ve gone.”
