Mike Slaughter

Mike Slaughter, lead pastor at Ginghamsburg Church, is in his fourth decade as chief dreamer of Ginghamsburg and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. His life-long passion to reach the lost and set the oppressed free has now made him a tireless and leading advocate for the children, women and men of Darfur, Sudan, named by the U.N. as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Mike’s call to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted will challenge attendees to wrestle with God and their God-destinies.

When Mike arrived at Ginghamsburg Church in 1979, worship attendance hovered at 90 with 118 members and an annual budget of $27,000. As of 2014, 4500 guests on average worship or grow weekly at Ginghamsburg and the multi-million dollar budget helps resource a faith community committed to serving the poor, lost and disenfranchised.

As a mentor, Mike travels globally to speak and uses his “gift of irritation” to equip ministry leaders to minimize brick and maximize mission so that they may fully deploy the mission of Jesus into the world. He is also the author of multiple books with the most recent being Dare to Dream: creating a God-sized mission statement for your life, Shiny Gods: Finding Freedom from things that distract us (Abingdon Press); Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide (Abingdon Press); Christmas Is Not Your Birthday (Abingdon Press) and Change The World: Recovering The Message and Mission of Jesus (Abingdon Press). The Church Report listed Mike as one of the top 50 most influential Christians in America.

Mike lives in Tipp City, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn. Their children are daughter Kristen (Slaughter) Leavitt with husband Brendan, as well as son Jonathan with wife Stacy. Mike and Carolyn have three granddaughters, Ellie, Addison and Anna and two grandsons Luke and Caleb.