Michael was born and raised in Mount Shasta until the age of 12 when his family moved to Idaho to follow the timber industry.  After graduating high school, he went into the Navy and was stationed on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier after training.  During this time, he married and had his first son, Michael Jr. Unfortunately, also during this time, Michael was not nearly as smart as he thought he was and started making a series of bad life choices.  In the short span of 5 years Michael went from top of his class in boot-camp, to being discharged from the Navy, losing good job after good job, along with a failed marriage and a drug abuse problem. Needless to say, God was not a major part of Michael’s life during this time.  

After realizing just how bad his situation had gotten, Michael decided to start over the only way he knew how.  Two days later he stepped off the Greyhound bus in Mount Shasta, broke, broken, and not knowing when he would see his two children, Michael and Devin, again.  Michael was taken in by his parents who had moved back into his childhood home. In retrospect, Michael will tell you that it was this moment when he had been brought to a point where God could start working on him, although it would still be a number of years before he even walked into a church.

Soon after moving back to Mount Shasta Michael was reacquainted with a girl that he had known since infancy, really.  Michael will still tell you that Lacey was the answer to the prayer that he didn’t know he was praying. It did not take Michael long to realize that Lacey was someone he wanted to be better for, someone who inspired him and supported him.  With her help and encouragement Michael was able to live a life that allowed him to get full time custody of his two boys in 2008. Michael and Lacey married in 2010 and had a daughter, Cara, in 2012.  

It was Lacey’s family, her mother and aunt, specifically, who can be credited with bringing Michael and Lacey’s new family to the Lord.  They encouraged Michael Jr’s curiosity about God and brought them to church with them, first, while Michael and Lacey found excuses not to attend.  Eventually Michael found himself sitting alone at home on Sundays while the rest of his family was attending church and coming back happy. Finally, just to support his family he would tell you, not because he thought that he needed God, Michael began attending church.  It did not take long before God used that church to show Michael just how much he did need Jesus in his life.

It did not take long after Michael decided to let God use him that God did just that.  From playing bass on the worship team, to becoming a board member, to preaching and eventually pastoring the small Nazarene church, God gave Michael plenty of opportunities to say “Here I am, God.”  After a year of pastoring the Nazarene church, Michael found himself struggling with burnout and needing to step down. He and his family decided to explore the other churches in the area and decided The Gathering would be their first stop and it ended up being their only stop.  They realized that The Gathering was the church they had been longing for, and devoted themselves to helping in any way that God called them to