What is your favorite thing about the First Family? Its “GNP” — and that has nothing to do with the Gross National Product. I'm talking about “Grace 'n' Power.” There is a beautiful spirit of grace at our church — that begins at the cross — and a true resurrection power that shows in joyous, celebrative worship and vibrant Christian fellowship.
What's playing on your iPod/CD player? My two favorites on the XM radio in my car, beside the “old-time radio” channel (to listen to stories I grew up with), are channels 78 and 32. Both are “close harmony music” channels. Channel 78 is easy listening, and 32 is Southern Gospel.
If given the choice, the one thing you would never taste again would be… As long as I live, I hope I never again taste the stuff I had in a village in Indonesia. I thought it was gravy — it was brown like gravy — so I soaked my rice with it. It turned out to be some hot stuff that opened every cavity in my head for the rest of the night. I think even my ears ran.
What is the most memorable quote you have heard or read recently? I was stirred recently in reading the book Revolution in World Missions by church planter K.P. Yohannan from India. He wrote, “The United States, with its 600,000 congregations or groups, is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, or one full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation. What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where more than 2 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The unreached or ’hidden peoples’ have only one missionary working for every 78,000 people, and there are still 1,240 distinct cultural groups in the world without a single church among them to preach the Gospel. These are the masses for whom Christ wept and died.”
What makes you laugh? Barney Fife always makes me laugh.
Are you a morning or night person? All through my student days, I stayed up late studying and claimed I was at my best late at night. But then as family and ministry days came on, I started getting up earlier to be alone with the Lord. So I think I'’ve become a morning person in the last forty or so years.
What is your favorite movie? I was most moved by The Passion of the Christ, but my all time favorite (regular) movie is Chariots of Fire, followed more recently by The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe from the Chronicles of Narnia.
What was your favorite book you read as a child? Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. It was about a poor but very happy widow raising her backwoods family delightfully in spite of tough circumstances.
Desk: Messy or organized? I'd say my desk is an “organized mess.” I used to say, “I
don't have a filing system, I have a 'piling' system.” But I have a pretty good idea of
what's in each pile.Pastor Mike served as senior pastor at the First Family from 1996 until his retirement in 2005. During that near-decade, the First Family experienced dynamic growth and moved out from a downtown location to its present campus on Pulaski Pike. In 2007 the church called him to become Pastor Emeritus/Counsel to the Pastors. In this role Pastor Mike preaches from time to time and serves as a “sidelines coach” (as he calls it) to our pastors.