The good news of Jesus, for the lives we actually live.
I'm a chaplain, theologian, and speaker. I preach and teach in churches, schools, camps, and retreats, especially when the room needs honesty more than hype.
The work
Nearly twenty years of sitting with people.
- 20years speaking, from Texas to Kenya
- 15years teaching, from ninth grade to college
- 12years as a lead pastor
Everything I do starts and ends with the good news of the God we've met in Jesus. Here's the conviction underneath it: the divinity of Christ doesn't simply mean that Jesus is like God. It means that God is like Jesus. That gives us the freedom to be honest about pain, content with mystery, and anchored in hope.
I learned that up close. I spent twelve years as a lead pastor: weddings, funerals, baptisms, and more laughter around kitchen tables than I can count. Today I'm one of two chaplains at a Christian high school of more than six hundred students, where I shepherd faculty, lead spiritual life programming, and sit with kids in their worst weeks.
I was barely old enough to shave when a panic attack first dropped me onto the floor. Teenagers don't let you get away with tidy answers. Neither do grief, doubt, or the panic disorder I've lived with ever since. My own story has taught me to listen closely and take people seriously.
I have seen Mike counsel students through extraordinary hardships, maintaining both empathy and professional excellence.
Cruciform Hope
Bringing the good news of Jesus to the anxious and weary.
In 2022 I founded Cruciform Hope Ministries for Christians living with anxiety, depression, and other mental illness, and for the pastors, parents, and friends trying to help. It's where I write and teach most directly about faith and mental illness.
Start with these
All writingBlessed Are the Mentally Ill
Good News from Jesus for the Anxious and Weary
The Mat is the Ministry
What four friends and a torn-open roof teach us about loving someone through a mental health crisis.
Your Child's First Theology Is You
You don't have to be the perfect face of God. Attachment science and the cross agree on that, and it's good news.
Latest from Cruciform Hope: The Face That Turns Toward You
Bring me in for a Sunday, a series, or a whole weekend.
I preach Sunday sermons and series, school chapels, camps and retreats, and workshops for staff and parents. I speak across the whole Christian story: the life of Jesus, the cross and resurrection, prayer and lament, church life, and faith and mental health. I'll respect your tradition and still try to wake the room up.
Whether he is speaking to students or adults, Mike is gifted at presenting profound truths in a way that is relevant and applicable. I think it’s the way that Mike seasons his preaching with humor and vulnerability that makes him so relatable.