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Rev. Mike Wilson was born and raised in Lake Placid, NY, in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. He was raised as a Methodist, attending the local church and growing up in a raucous and loving family of Wilsons with several uncles and aunts, and numerous cousins.
He also spent many summers with his maternal grandparents – with more aunts, uncles and cousins – in Mount Pleasant, PA, near Pittsburgh. Mike was a volunteer for the 1980 Winter Olympics and was bussing tables at Howard Johnson’s Restaurant during the Miracle On Ice.
His undergraduate degree is in music education earned at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. After college he moved to New Jersey and took a job doing computer work in Manhattan while playing in rock bands at night (he’s a drummer and percussionist and also plays ukulele and guitar). Eventually he took a computer job with a company in Princeton, NJ where he stayed for a dozen years while continuing to play in bands.
In 1990 Mike returned to practices of faith through a 12-step recovery program and that led him back to the church. As his spiritual life deepened, he also became friends with two pastors, served as a deacon and ruling elder, and worked with the youth group. Finally, Mike discerned a call to ministry which was affirmed enthusiastically by his church. He packed up a U-Haul, moved to California and began his theological studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1998.
During the first week at SFTS he met classmate Mary Louise McCullough and they gradually fell in love as they memorized their Hebrew and then Greek vocabulary words and watched “The X-Files” Sunday nights on Mike’s large TV. They were married by the seminary chaplain in 2000 and Mike became stepfather to Mary Louise’s 16-year-old son, Evan. Mike and Mary Louise were ordained in 2002 and began ministries in separate calls in Leechburg and Freeport, PA. After a few years they started separate calls in the neighborhoods of Edgewood and Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh.
When Mary Louise was called to Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, Mike felt a strong call to trust that this next phase of ministry would become clear for him as well. After settling them in their home and building a dining room table and assorted bedroom furniture, Mike got busy serving as pulpit supply for churches all around Middle Tennessee presbytery. Soon he became an interim, and then a temporary stated supply, and eventually a designated pastor. His last position before moving to Erie was serving with Mary Louise at Second as temporary stated supply associate pastor. Mike has also served on his presbytery’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry for six years and as the committee’s chair for the past four years. He was one of the presbytery’s delegates to the General Assembly in 2020.
Now back in Pennsylvania (which gave him back his old driver’s license number!) Mike is serving as a shared pastor with Emmanuel and First Presbyterian Church of Harborcreek.
Between them Mike and Mary Louise have served eleven congregations as pastors in various capacities. In addition to his theological and Biblical passions, Mike continues to be as active a musician as he can be and also enjoys woodworking, cooking, hiking, computer stuff, movies and TV, books (lots of books!), fixing things and acquiring new skills. And lately they have become enthralled by their two grandchildren, Logan (3 years) and Lola (2 years), while continuing to lavish attention on their wiener dog, Hazel.