704.948.3232
Mike began his work journey as a youth minister for Young Life in NC and then as Pastor of Spiritual Growth for a two-year-old church plant in Memphis TN www.hopepres.com. In 1998, Mike partnered with Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, NC to found LFC with the original group of 42 in a skating rink, where he preached under a disco ball. Since that day, he has helped LFC grow into a family of churches that serves 3-4,000 people in four congregations, known for their mission activity in the community and around the world, while maintaining a singular focus on following Jesus. The Lake Forest Family of Churches is committed to planting a new church every 1-2 years, and partnering with several denominational church plants annually.
Mike has been married to his wife Angie, a writer and artist (check out her first novel “Flying Home”) since 1988. They have two sons, Dylan and Austin. Mike enjoys hiking and golf, reading historical fiction, sci-fi, and leadership books. He and Angie’s shared hobby is international, cultural travel. Some of his favorite past travels include circumnavigating Turkey in a rental car with Angie, a trip to Nepal with a (one day) hike on the Mt. Everest Trail, mountain biking across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia as a stress counselor for an international team of elite marathoners, and following the missionary journeys of St. Paul through Greece and Turkey.
Mike was honored to serve as Moderator (president) of our denomination from 2015-2017. He served the Evangelical Presbyterian Church those years by initiating a new position paper on biblical sexuality, prioritizing church planting (“Every EPC church a parent, partner or patron of a church plant”), and helped foster a church planting partnership with the Mexican Presbyterian Church.
As part of the Lake Forest School of Ministry (Interns, Fellows and Residents), Mike directs the LFC EPC Church Planter Residency Center. The Center offers embedded, experiential training for aspiring, qualified church planters post-seminary.
As ‘Dr. Professor Moses’ Mike teaches the master’s class “Planting Missional Churches in a Post-Christian Context” at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Charlotte campus. He also serves as an advisor to a few Doctor of Ministry students each year. Mike serves on the board of Children’s Impact Network www.CIN.org; he is a co-convener of the Lake Norman Pastor’s Fellowship; he is also a co-convener of the Charlotte Regional Network of Multiplying Churches; he is currently serving on the town of Huntersville’s Mayor’s Task Force for Affordable Housing.