Over the past seven months, Summit Church has been engaged in a planned succession process for our Lead Pastor position. Per the bylaws of Summit Church, the search has been led by our Governing Board. Now, we’re excited to announce the board has voted unanimously to invite Michael Hinton to be our new Lead Pastor, and he has accepted. Michael will begin his new role at Summit in March of 2023.

Michael is coming to us from Real Life Church in Valencia, California where he served as the Executive Director of Multisite as well as Teaching Pastor. Before making the big decision to go to Real Life, he got his first taste of what it’s like to be a Lead Pastor for High Desert Church’s campus in Victorville, California. Michael started in Student Ministry while at Kentucky Wesleyan College, and now holds a Masters of Arts in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Christian Ministry from Grand Canyon University.

Born in Naples, Michael was raised in Immokalee, Florida by his mother in a single parent home. It was a school teacher who eventually invited Michael to church, and he’d quickly come to love it. It would become his home away from home.

Later in 2004, on a mission trip to Mexico City, a Youth Pastor asked him to share his testimony. Michael didn’t know what to say, but the opportunity allowed him to put words to something he’d felt in his heart for a long time. God was not only the father he never had, but the good, heavenly Father who would stay by his side through to eternity. His Youth Pastor then encouraged him to consider pursuing ministry work. It was then he began to feel God’s pull on his heart.

When asked what has him excited about Summit, Michael was quick to speak about the videos and stories of transformed lives he saw while researching our church. Michael speaks often of his passion to help people “find and follow Jesus” and he’s excited to be part of a church family that shares that desire. And seeing the legacy of niceSERVE and how our church has been out in Central Florida serving the community for so long, he was deeply moved. He was amazed that even through the COVID lockdowns, Summit still sent 15% of their budget outside the walls of the church toward efforts in our community and around the world. Seeing this sincere commitment to honor God, Michael knew this was where he wanted his family to be.

Michael has a great family too. He and Erica have been married 12 years, and have three amazing children—Keira (13), Ashlyn (10), and Cohen (7). Michael and Erica made us all laugh when they described the beginning of their relationship as an “Applebee’s love story.” They met while working shifts together as Michael finished college and he let us all know it took a while to convince Erica to give him a shot.

Years later now, Erica and the kids are excited that, in a way, Michael is getting to come home to the state of Florida. It’ll be tough to move, leaving friends and California weather behind, but Michael says he’s proud of the work he’s done at Real Life, and feels confident that his old team members and mentors are rooting him on.

When asked how the kids were taking the news, Michael stressed that following God can be hard sometimes, but that he really wanted his family to be about following God wherever he wants them to go and doing whatever he wants them to do. He explained it like this, “God’s best is 100% better than our best, or the world’s best. And, when we live God’s best, we get to live the life we were meant for!”

Talking to Michael, this valued commitment to Jesus was a common refrain. His passion in ministry is to remove barriers and help people meet their Savior. Ultimately, Michael wants everyone to meet that same perfect Father he was introduced to all those years ago, and he can’t wait to call Summit “home.”