About Me
I am Michael J. Lewis. I grew up in Cedarville, Ohio where I spent nineteen years of my life. I attended Xenia Christian High School, and then Cedarville’s eponymous university (yeah. I really wanted an excuse to use that word!). Upon graduation in May 2006 I married and moved to Uijongbu, South Korea. I now serve at the International Christian School of Uijongbu. So I guess you could say I’ve been in school my entire life!
My wife and I were married on June 3, 2006 at Great Lakes Baptist Temple in Flint, MI. We maintain a website to which we post updates regarding our ministry here in Uijongbu, Korea. Please check there for updates on our family and our ministry. Alternatively, if you would like a more in-depth look into who I am, I maintain a Xanga site for those who are interested in what makes me ‘cool’!
I grew up attending a good Baptist Church - Grace Baptist Church, Cedarville Ohio to be exact. I grew up grounded in the authority of Scripture, thanks to the church and my parents. For reasons mainly pertaining to mission philosophy, as I contemplated starting my current ministry (though there were other minor issues - none of which on their own would have been a problem1.) I transfered my church membership to Grace Covenant Church. Through it all I have learned that God’s Word is to be treated with highest respect, and held as the highest authority on our lives. The interpretation of such should be done by:
- Comparing passage to passage
- The enlightenment of the Holy Spirit
- Logical reason
- Prayer
- The church
- Church history
I was always taught that the Bible was inerrant, and that it is the highest authority in all matters. Truth can be found outside Scripture, but if something claims to be Truth while in disagreement with Scripture, it is a lie.
Over the years, my philosophy has become somewhat more presbyterian, though I have not completely divorced my Baptist roots - I do still attend a Baptist Church. I do not consider myself to be a Fundamental because I personally have come to equate this term with brainwash. The Fundamental movement - for good reason at the time - made a move away from understanding and cherishing Church history, but it has done the dangerously inevitable and pendulum shifted the other way around so that there are no Intellectuals in Fundamentalism and this is a problem because when Fundamental Evangelicals attempt to ‘debate’ with anyone who is not a Fundamental Evangelical they appear to be brainwashed. I consider myself first to be a follower of Christ, but also to be an Intellectual, so I cannot consider myself Fundamental. I have also been told by a friend that (unbeknownst to me) I’m an Existential Thomist.
- These included doctrinal agreement, and preaching/teaching/counseling philosophy/style. The most major of which, is that I wanted my wife and I to receive our pre-marital counseling from Pastor Rick Wilson at GCC, and I didn’t feel comfortable attending one church while being counseled at another.