Pastor Mike Gehl is our full-time staff member.
He grew up in southeastern Wisconsin, attending Good Shepherd Lutheran Grade School in West Bend and Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School in Jackson. He immediately went on to attend Northwestern College in Watertown, WI to prepare for the pastoral ministry and graduated in 1994 with a B.A. degree. Four years later, in 1998, he graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, WI with a Master of Divinity degree. As a part of his seminary training, he served a year of internship (a.k.a. vicar year) under Pastor Bill Meier at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Phoenix, AZ.
Pastor has served in the full-time ministry for over 28 years. He was assigned out of the seminary to start Victory of the Lamb congregation in Katy, TX (a growing western suburb of Houston). He then served at Our Savior, Arlington, TX; Grace, Charlotte, NC; and St. John, Wrightstown, WI before coming to be the pastor of Cross of Christ in Kingman in the summer of 2024.
During his college years, Pastor met his future wife at the dining establishment where they both worked, and he and AuraLee got married after his first year at the seminary. They have three adult children - Zaine, Miranda, and Matteah - who all live out-of-state. Pastor and AuraLee hope to call Kingman "home" for many years to come!
Pastor enjoys reading (especially Tom Clancy books and Louis L'Amour westerns), on and offroad sightseeing around the desert southwest in their Jeep, watching movies and TV shows, golfing (when it's not too hot), droning (that means piloting a small unmanned aircraft, not going on and on and on and on and on in his sermons!), and spectator sports. Having grown up in Wisconsin, he's a die-hard fan of the Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers. But don't let that deter any of you Bears, Vikings, Lions, Cubs, Diamondbacks, or Cardinals fans from attending church - he'll be nice to you!
Of all the different areas of ministry, Pastor especially enjoys worship, preaching, and teaching Bible classes. "There's no better time spent - whether privately and individually or publicly and with all of God's people - than in and around the Word of God!"