About Michael
I was raised in San Francisco during the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. As a result, I was deeply influenced by the philosophies and indulgences of that era. In 1974, while hitchhiking around the United States, I had a series of encounters with people of faith who shared their beliefs with me. As a result I made a decision to dedicate my life to God. A year later, while living with Blackfoot Indian believers on a reservation in Montana, I had a profound spiritual experience that impacted me deeply and set the course of my life.
In 1977 I returned to San Francisco as part of a non-profit organization. This provided on-the-job training for ministry while serving the poor and establishing a new local church. In 1979 I co-founded a ministry called SOS San Francisco that united dozens of churches and organizations and mobilized thousands of believers for outreach on the streets of San Francisco. It was during a ten-day SOS outreach in the summer of 1980 that I met my wife, Diane. We were married six months later and now have seven children living throughout the state of California.
After completing our training in 1984, Diane and I began to build a relationship with John Wimber. We launched a new church in the city called The Vineyard. This church grew rapidly to a thousand people and soon became one of the largest San Francisco had seen in a generation. I served as the lead pastor of this church for the next twenty-five years through many challenges and breakthroughs. We continually ministered to the poor and unreached, healed broken hearts, trained hundreds of leaders, and created opportunities for thousands of people to discover their divine design and fulfill their God-given dreams.
In 2010, after 33 years of service in the city, Diane and I received clear guidance that we should move to Redding, California and turn our congregation over to a new leader who will carry our vision into the future. After our move I began to work for Jesus Culture, a global ministry that trains youth and young adults to be world-changing leaders who influence and impact every sphere of society. When Jesus Culture moved to Sacramento to plant a church, the Lord spoke to us that we were not to go with them but rather to start the ministry that had been prophesied over our lives for many years: That we would be a leader to leaders and a pastor to pastors. In response we started PastorsCoach.com: Helping leaders build thriving ministries that maximize the mobilization of every member for ministry according to their God-given design and destinies.
To further facilitate this vision we also launched Destinyfinder.com, an online personal discovery and development system that helps individuals identify their spiritual gifts and passions, and become the person God created them to be. I am the author of the Destiny Finder book and other related materials that provide additional information and growth tools for our participants.
I am also the author of several books including Revival Culture: Preparing the Church for the Next Great Awakening (published by Regal). This book includes a chapter of profound insights from Bill Johnson, the leader of Bethel Church, and two chapters by Banning Liebscher, the Director of Jesus Culture, where I served as Director of the Culture Project: a Forty Year Mentoring Strategy to raise up tomorrow’s leaders. In addition, I teach several classes in the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, California, and provide consulting services for churches and organizations around the world.
As a result of this rich and varied history I write on personal destiny discovery, church and organizational leadership, church planting, and cultural transformation.
As I turn the corner toward this next season of life, I sense the continual prompting of the Holy Spirit to combine my life experiences, values, and energy toward implementing an apostolic strategy to establish “sage coaching relationships” with leaders, professionals, and church movements who desire to finish well and fulfill the destiny potential God has laid before them.