Mike's Testimony

Coal mining culture was the predominant influence in my family. My mother, Lola, was raised in coal camps. Her daddy had worked some 20 years in the mines of Harlan and Bell County, Kentucky, when he died at the age of 39. Mom was only 13 years old when her daddy died. She has always been proud of being a coal miner's daughter.

My father is Bob York. His dad, Walter, was a cousin of Alvin C. York, the famous World War One hero. Grandpa York owned a country store in the mining community of Arjay, KY. I was born in the home of my paternal grandparents on December 3, 1954. My dad was irresponsible and bad to drink. Fortunately he has cleaned up his act in more recent years.

My mother and dad split up and Mom moved to Detroit, Michigan, when I was four years old. She raised me, my older sister and brother, and my younger sister while working as a waitress. My brother, Jimmy, and I ran the streets a lot and learned to hustle money shining shoes in bars. Mom remarried when I was ten years old. Soon afterward twin sisters were born. My step-father was a hard working small business owner. We moved to a comfortable home in Lincoln Park, Michigan, when I was twelve.

Jimmy and my older sister, Brenda, along with my twin sisters, Barbie and Bonnie, still live in Michigan. My younger sister, Libby, lives in Florida. I have a good relationship with all my siblings. Although we don’t get to see each other as often as we would like, we keep in touch through e-mail, cards, letters and telephone calls.

Around the age of thirteen I became involved in drug use. I started with pot and pills, got into LSD, and was using heroin intravenously by age fifteen. As my dependency on drugs and alcohol increased, I searched relentlessly for purpose and peace in life. I traveled to Florida for several months in 1971. In 1972 I settled out in Santa Barbara, California, near some old acquaintances from Lincoln Park. I survived by selling drugs and communing with several hippie groups.

The ten years I spent in the drug culture were a miserable time in my life. I wanted to get clean but I couldn't seem to break oldties. Fortunately, my family in Michigan and Kentucky never gave up praying for me.

After nearly two years of self-effort in quitting drugs I began to associate with some friends at a Christian coffee house. I met people who had a peace and contentment that didn't come from dope or booze. I learned that their happiness came from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I was beginning to grasp the reality of Christ’s death on the cross as punishment for my sins. My friends told me that if I would repent of my sins, believe in Jesus as Lord, and ask Him to forgive me and become my Savior, He would give me a brand new life now and a home in heaven when I died. All this sounded too good to be true, but also too good to refuse. On December 3, 1977, I trusted in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord. That date was also my 23rd birthday.

A great sense of gratitude accompanied my conversion experience. I had an intense desire to serve God more devotedly than I had served sin, self and Satan. But the hold that the drug culture had on me was incredible. On January 6, 1978 I went to the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission and sought rehabilitation. I made a commitment to their 90 day program and stayed there for nearly six months. Daily Bible study and learning to care for the least, the last and the lost helped me realize the meaning of serving Christ through serving others. God’s call to ministry was as intense and real as my salvation experience.

In late June of 1978 I left the Mission, got a job, moved in with some Christian friends, took and passed the General Equivalency Diploma (G.E.D.) test and united with Temple Southern Baptist Church (now Grace Baptist) in Santa Barbara through believer’s baptism. My pastor encouraged me greatly in my calling and suggested I attend a Baptist college in California. I was, however, extremely homesick for my family and felt the need to be reunited with them. The Lord opened the door for me to return to my birthplace, Pineville, KY, and enroll in Clear Creek Baptist Bible College in late August 1978. Here I met Carolyn Mowdy, the Christian woman who was to be my wife. We were married August 3, 1979. God has blessed us with three wonderful children and given us the joy of serving him together. Carolyn and I have a committed marriage. Because I came from a broken home, I entered marriage with the determination not to continue the cycle.

I was ordained and called to my first pastorate, First Baptist, Ewing, Virginia, in 1981 while still in Bible college. It truly is amazing grace that God could save and use a wretch like me. My early ministry experience was obtained while pursuing college and seminary degrees. Most of my pastoral experience has been in single staff positions where much of the administrative responsibility has been taken care of by myself. This has allowed me to see the big picture and bottom line clearly.

I believe the local church is Christ’s primary means of manifesting His presence and ministering to His people. Participation in what Christ is doing is important to me. Working shoulder to shoulder with fellow Christians is a means of fulfilling my obligations as a child of God and expressing my gratitude to the Lord who saved me. I am currently Associational Missionary/Church Planter Strategist for the Tug Valley Association of Southern Baptists in Southwest West Virginia. I am familiar with this region known as the coalfields. I have a love and calling to minister to mountain people. I’ve pinpointed several towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people or more in the area with no established Southern Baptist work. Mountain people are suspicious of outsiders and by nature are hard to get to know. God has gifted me with the background and ability to relate to the people of Appalachia. I have dream and desire to help start 20 new churches over the next 20 years.

My most direct experience in church planting was during my years as a student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. My wife and I joined Elysian Fields Avenue Baptist Church when we moved to New Orleans in March of 1985. I found employment at the same time with Lutheran Social Services as a night watchman at a senior citizens apartment building. I began teaching a weekday Bible study there right away and learned that Elysian Fields Church had an outreach ministry to that area of East New Orleans as well. East New Orleans is over 70% African-American and ethnically mixed.

Through survey work and door to-door-visitation we established a home Bible study with an African-American family we met in 1986. This became the starting point of Eastview Baptist Mission. As a member of the missions committee at Elysian Fields we sought an African-American pastor for the proposed new work but was unable to find anyone interested. I was chosen for the task and continued with the work until after graduating from seminary in May of 1988. The great experiences we had there were some of the most satisfying of my life. I learned a lot about mission sponsorship, relating to the local association and home board, utilizing volunteer help, flexibility , creativity, etc.

Carolyn and I thought seriously about applying as home missionaries when I finished seminary. We both felt a call in this area. However, our son, Jonathan, had been diagnosed as autistic and we decided to try and get settled in an area where we could find help for him and get more ministry experience before pursuing missions careers.

In June of 1988 I was called to pastor in Michigan. The prospects of working in a pioneer area were very appealing. The six years we were in Michigan gave us more valuable experience. It also gave me the opportunity to reestablish a redemptive relationship with many of my family and some old friends.

My wife and I never forgot our call to home missions work in general and church planting in particular. We have been open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and teaching us in these matters. The pastorates I’ve served and the ministries I’ve been involved with have deepened my understanding of what God wants me to do. I am at a place in my life where I’m seeking to settle into a long term ministry where I can put down the roots and develop the strong relationships to have an effective ministry. The Lord has awakened a sense of expectation in my heart for what He wants me to do. The exciting challenge of forsaking all for God’s glory is my ambition and aim. Philippians 1:6 is my life verse.

I've posted this account of my conversion and calling in hopes that it may encourage others to know God and join Him in His work. If you don't yet know for certain that you have eternal life and that you will go to heaven when you die, please go back to my home page and click on the "Eternal Life" link.