Getting to know Miles Reimer

Miles Reimer - director, pastoral care and education department, Wesley Medical Center

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Although it might not be obvious to everyone, there’s a difference between being a preacher and a pastor.

Reimer, who has been both, considers himself the latter.

“I don’t get up in the morning to preach,” he said. “I get up to visit and deal with people. That’s my core talent.”

Reimer, 56, is a native of Winnipeg, Canada, who came to the United States to attend Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. He moved to Kansas about 20 years ago, serving as the volunteer service program supervisor for Mennonite Church USA in Newton, and then as pastor of First Mennonite Church in Hutchinson.

He joined Wesley as a staff chaplain two years ago.

“I wanted to become a better pastor and to face the hardest parts of life where there is suffering, and to see God there, too.”

He started his current job in November. In it, he oversees two other full-time chaplains, five pastoral education residents who are seeking to become chaplains and several interns.

Wesley’s pastoral education program is the only one of its kind in the state. “It’s a graduate-level education, just like medicine,” he said.

Reimer said he still spends 25 to 30 percent of his time visiting patients, their family and staff.

“That’s the core of who I am,” he said. “I could not do the administrative part without connecting with the people and the staff here in the hospital.”

Reimer and his wife, Kathy Landis, have one child. The couple enjoys canoeing in the Boundary Waters, gardening and other outdoor activities – and a little cold doesn’t bother them. They were married on a frozen lake in Minnesota.

Joe Stumpe

This story was originally published December 31, 2015 at 7:13 AM with the headline "Getting to know Miles Reimer."