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Missionary Bio
About
Mike comes from north of Seattle and spent his first years in college working as a manager at McDonald’s. One Friday night, he sensed a clear call from God to reach the hundreds of bored and lost teens in the parking lot of his restaurant.
He attended Multnomah Bible college and began church ministry on the west coast with urban at-risk youth. After moving to study at Wheaton Graduate School and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for his Ph.D., he connected with Josiah Venture (JV) and began leading youth teams to the Czech Republic to serve at JV English camps. One of his favorite aspects was incorporating many different church leaders and youth together on his teams, as well as accidentally hiking into Poland without a passport.
After 15 years in local church ministry, Mike transitioned to preparing youth leaders to reach teens, especially teens on the margins. He now directs the ministry programs at Taylor University. Every semester he tells his students that 99% of all paid youth pastors are in the United States, and 97% of teens are not in the U.S.
Mike longs to see a movement of God to mobilize the church to reach teens in Central and Eastern Europe. Partnering with JV allows him to conduct research and training that can help set the trajectory for effective lifelong ministry for thousands of youth workers.