Micah, Pastor/Elder
My name is Micah, and I serve as a pastor/elder at Steel Valley Church. I was born in California and raised in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains before serving in the United States Navy as a machinery repairman, where I attained the rank of Petty Officer Second Class. After completing my military service, I worked as both a machinist and a stationary engineer, operating and maintaining equipment essential to electrical generation and power plant operations. I pursued my theological education at Sacramento Bible Institute and Spurgeon Baptist Bible College in Mulberry, Florida, where I met my wife, Melissa; we were married in 1988. Together, we have been blessed with four adult children and two grandchildren. After relocating to Northeast Ohio in the early 1990s, I have served as head pastor in two churches and have provided pulpit supply for many others. Over time, I have come to embrace Particular Baptist orthodoxy as expressed in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, along with the four major ecumenical creeds: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon. My passion within the church is to see God glorified through our worship, biblical preaching, the discipleship of His saints, and the fulfillment of the Great Commission as we preach of the good news of the Gospel to a world in desperate need of God’s redeeming grace.
Fun Facts:
Hobby List: Coffee, Reading, Old Tractors.
Favorite Author List: John Piper, James M. Renihan, James E. Dolezal, Richard C. Barcellos, Matthew Barrett, Sinclair Ferguson
What is the Gospel? The gospel is the good news of salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Although humanity was created in righteousness, Adam willfully sinned against God, bringing sin and death upon all who came from him. As a result, we are born separated from God by our inherent sinfulness and naturally live in rebellion against Him. But God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to live in perfect obedience to the law of God and to willingly give Himself to suffer and die as the full punishment for our sins on the cross. He rose from the grave in victory over death, ascended into heaven, and now sits at the right hand of God the Father as our advocate. Faith in this gracious good news is absolutely necessary for our salvation and for the enjoyment of everlasting life with Him.