ABOUT

MIke

lead . pastor

contact . mike@thehillsidechurch.com

Having first felt called to ministry in my junior year in high school, I have been taken under the wing of some great mentors in ministry through the rest of high school, college and through my twelve years as a youth pastor. I was blessed to marry Kim, who not only supports ministry but makes it her priority as well. We have four awesome kids (now aged 15, 13, 11, and 9) who add a lot of action to our lives. All four of them have been a part of our ministry lives since birth, and all of them are excited to be in the Northwest, close to Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins.

Through my career so far, my favorite part of youth ministry was dealing with people who were learning and growing and asking all of the tough questions. Though I thought I would be a youth pastor my whole life, God called us in the surprising direction of Church Planting. The desire to create a new kind of church for growing and questioning people in the NorthWest started as a spark and turned into a flame that we could not ignore. In 2009, Kim and I left secure jobs in the Phoenix area to follow this call and move back to the Northwest where we knew we needed to be. We have decided that all of these years of youth ministry have prepared us to be around people and families who want to ask the big questions and grow together.

The church that we are planting is going to be a church full of fun and excitement, a place where people don't have to be fake or pretend to be something that they aren't. You will quickly find that the people we are when we stand in front of the church is the same people we are when we are hanging out in our living room in the evening.

My Favorite Things

On any given day, you might find me spending time with my family at home, we love watching football together and have a ritual of watching AFV and laughing together a lot.

My favorite hobby is golf. I love to play it, watch it, practice it, putt around the house, I even fit and build golf clubs myself in my garage.

I love to read and learn on my own. Blogging has been an important tool for me to talk through ideas and issues.

What I Read.

My favorite books include: Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli. Orthodoxy by GK. Chesterton. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. The New Kind of Christian Series by Brian McLaren. Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.

Blogs like:

Out of Ur at www.outofur.com

Peter Rollins at www.Peterrollins.net

Will Mancini at clarityevangelist.typepad.com

Brian McLaren at www.brianmclaren.com

What I Watch:

My favorite movies include Anchorman, Star Wars (original trilogy), Forrest Gump, The Dark Knight.

My favorite TV: The Colbert Report, Arrested Development,

Scrubs, NFL, Golf, The Office, Psych, House, Always Sunny.

What I Listen to:

My all time favorite band is King's X. I love everything from Classical to Metal. If the 80's arena rock would come back into style I would be really happy about it. My most recent favorites are Cloud Cult, Sevendust, The Beatles, Damien Rice, Dave Matthews, and the Flight of the Conchords.

Mike also personally and professionally fits golf clubs per your specs. Prices vary per project.