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How did you come to faith in Jesus Christ?
Transferring to Sylvania High School from Whitmer High School two weeks
into my senior year stands out as significant in my memory. I had not
realized how insignificant those things upon which I had based my
self-esteem (being class president, for example) were until I walked the
halls day by day as nothing more than the new kid. Nobody really cared
about student government, to my adolescence surprise. Immediately
without a group of friends who were the "cool and smart" people, I
further realized the shaky ground upon which I had built my confidence.
I don't think these were conscious thoughts back then, but I must have
felt their impact. I did make some new friends, and I met several kids
who attended Young Life.
I went to my first Young Life club and could not go back. They sang
songs about Jesus and then this college guy would stand up and talk for
about 15 minutes. The talk was cool, but the songs were convicting. I
didn't really believe the words in songs such as, "He's Everything to
Me." I felt like I was lying every time I sang. So I left. Back at my
previous high school, I had met some people from a Baptist youth group.
As a result, during my junior year I had checked out Christianity
somewhat and ended up praying a prayer with their youth pastor, but had
a pretty much forgotten about it since. I decided then, at the new
school, that I should come to a conclusion about Jesus once and for all.
The main reason was that I wanted to start drinking in earnest and begin
satisfying my sexual curiosity with impunity, so I had to settle the
Jesus question once and for all.
I started going to a Bible study sponsored by Young Life. It was easy to
return week after week because there were a lot of hot girls there --
and yeah, I was learning more about the Jesus thing. Often I was the one
making snide comments. I think I made them more and more as I realized
these weren't such a weird people after all. It was just their faith
which I could not understand.
To make this long story a little bit longer, I eventually forgot the
reasons I started going to the Bible study. I just liked being with the
people. And then one summer day about two months after graduation it hit
me. Suddenly I felt like an empty jar being filled up, and I knew that
Jesus was alive. I can't
explain it. It happened internally.
Things began to change after that. The Bible suddenly made much more
sense, as if it were a letter written to me. I still had questions about
evolution, the reliability of the scriptures, the creation of the
universe, how a good God could allow suffering, etc.; but I was looking
at those questions from the other side. This conversion experience marks
the watershed of my life.
I spent most of my first year of college at Miami University in Oxford,
Ohio. During college I spent time in Young Life leadership, eventually
leading the club at Whitmer High School after I had transferred to the
University of Toledo. I thought I would go on staff immediately after
graduation, but instead spent all but one year of my vocational life
teaching English at the high-school level, working in a steel mill,
selling for a retail packaging firm, being an account representative for
an advertising agency, writing and selling for a radio station -- all
the while volunteering in some kind of Christian youth work. It was at
40 years old that I moved to Denver to complete a seminary education and
do the official ministerial trek. While here I became the pastor to
singles and young adults at Corona Presbyterian Church. It was out of
this experience that I was led to plant a church for the left out
skater/punk/raver/goth/whatevers in downtown Denver. It's called Scum of
the Earth Church. You can find the biblical reference for the name in 1
Corinthians 4:11-13.
I kind of got sidetracked onto the vocational road since I started
telling you about school, but I should tell you about my wife. I met my
wife, Mary, at Bowman Pool when I worked there as a lifeguard. Mary's
parents escaped from Czechoslovakia in 1948. I was used to the immigrant
experience from my own family, so we got along on that level. She was an
artist and an English major, having just graduated from John Carroll
University in Cleveland. She was on her way to get her master's degree
at Purdue University. She was Catholic, but had been part of a prayer
group in high-school, and we found that we had our faith in common,
also. We started dating in the fall of 1976 and were married in June of
1978 both at Gesu parish and the Greek Orthodox church in Toledo. We did
spend one year in Cleveland where I went on Young Life staff until the
money ran out there. That's when I went back to teaching (this time in
Toledo -- before I had taught in Lima, Ohio). We have four children.
How did you end up gravitating towards this "flock"?
It's almost the farthest thing away from where I was in high school. On
the practical side, that's who showed up when I was the Young Adults &
Singles Pastor at Corona Presbyterian Church in Denver's Capitol Hill
neighborhood. I began pastoring the members of the ska/punk band, Five
Iron Frenzy. A couple of the band members had a small Bible Study which
met in the house they were renting (they were, oh, 21-22 years old at
the time). After a while, they needed to move it out of the house, so I
offered the basement of the church. I became the host pastor, and got to
know almost everyone even though they led the study themselves. I felt
the group was becoming ingrown after a couple of years, and talked to
Reese Roper (the lead singer/lyricist) about opening it up by creating
an additional environment to the Bible Study. Since a traditional
Presbyterian Church wasn't going to be a culturally accessible place for
most of them, my idea was to begin an alternative service for their
friends who would never darken a church door. It was going to be under
the umbrella of Corona, but when we had a change of Senior Pastors, the
new pastor asked for my resignation (a bit of Presbyterian intrigue
which I won't go into now). So, after much soul-searching, we ended up
planting Scum of the Earth Church. If you'd like more of the story, you
can hear it on a recording of a workshop I did with Reese Roper at the
2001 "FutureGen Convention."
On the other side, I guess I always felt a bit "left out" in high
school. I remember myself as very somber -- I don't think I had ever
recovered from my mom's death the summer before seventh grade. My aunt
and uncle came to live with us and to help out, but there wasn't a real
connection at that stage of my life. My dad and I were never as close as
my mom and I had been
(although her death caused us to become closer). I always felt a bit
outside of my friends’ inner circle. Perhaps it was because I wouldn't
go drinking with them -- that's the context of where a lot of bonding
took place -- I don't know. I was afraid to get drunk with them because
I thought that if I let my guard down, they'd see me for who I really
was and I'd be teased or totally excluded. As I look back at high
school, I don't think anyone at Whitmer knew me well, even though
everyone knew me. That might be the story of almost everyone in high
school. Much to my surprise, I made deeper and more lasting male
friendships at Sylvania -- maybe because I was older or because my
family felt more normal after my father's remarriage. Anyway, I think I
can relate to this flock of mine on some level as it is a church for the
left out and a lot of them come from single parent homes and blended
families as I had. Many of them are artists, musicians, writers, actors,
dancers (I call it "a church for the left out and the right brained").
I've done some writing of songs and stories and a couple of poems, and
so we relate on that level. Also when one comes to Christ at a young
age, there usually seems to be a degree of faith for others to meet Him
at around the same age. That is probably a factor which led me in this
direction as well.
What’s your denominational background?
I grew up Greek Orthodox (very Greek Orthodox), and when my dad
remarried we began attending a Presbyterian church every other week. I
came to Christ through a para-church organization, Young Life. I'm
married to a Catholic and attended mass with her for years in addition
to teaching in a Catholic high school, spent eight years in a
charismatic church, sent my children into a Lutheran School for a time,
was on staff at a Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), and currently attend a
Conservative Baptist seminary. I'm ordained in a small fellowship of
churches called The Alliance for Renewal Churches, headquartered in
Mansfield Ohio. I receive personal pastoring and accountability through
Ray Nethery and Ned Berube, leaders of the “Rebel Alliance” (as I like
to call it in my geeky Star Wars moments). Scum of the Earth is
currently non-denominational, but we have been helped and encouraged by
a few churches in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Steve Garcia is a
very good friend, Gary Sokol has been a huge help, Peter Hiett is an
encourager. I have been blessed by Mark Brewer, Anthony Pranno, and
Robert Gelinas of Colorado Community Church. Eddie Graber and others at
the Southern Baptist Convention have been wonderful to me. Other guys on
Scum of the Earth Church staff are currently pursuing ordination in both
the Evangelical Covenant Churches and the Reformed Church of America,
which I think is wonderful. In short, I want to have a “kingdom” mindset
when relating to God’s people everywhere. Be sure to
check out Pastor Mike Sares
eDevotions!
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