Pastor Mitch is a native of West Virginia having grown up in Buffalo, WV and in the Buffalo Church of God and graduating from Buffalo High School. He married Rochelle Golden of Flint Michigan in 1979 and together they attended Gulf Coast Bible College. He graduated from International Bible College and Seminary with a BA in Bible Theology. He served as an associate pastor in Oak Hill, WV and then as senior Pastor of the First Church of God in Morehead, Kentucky, the Dayspring Church of God in Cincinnati, Ohio, and most recently the First Church of God in Vancouver, Washington. Pastor Mitch has developed his ministry over the past thirty two years preaching on four of the five Continents of the world and pastoring growing churches of various sizes from attendances of 150-350, 250-800, and 1,000-1,800 in his three pastorates. In coming to the office as State Ministries Pastor in West Virginia he brings a passion for the local church. Growing up in a small church of 50 people and his pastoral career gives him a broad percpective of the church. His passions iinclude preaching, evangelism, revival and church health and renewal. His burden is for clergy and congregational health and excellence. “The Church of God in West Virginia needs to focus on congregational health and renewal. We will see powerful results as pastors and churches are led into health assessments and ministry initiatives that will stimulate growth. I believe a healthy pastor will help create a healthy church which will reproduce its self by doing the Great Commnission.”

Pastor Mitch’s love for the great outdoors and his native homeland of West Virginia, often finds him in the woods, on the river or simply dreaming of those places.

He and Rochelle (Shelly) have two children. One son Andrew (His wife Jessica) serve as Associate Pastors in Edmonton, AB CAN. And one Daughter, Meagan a full-time music major at Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma