About Me
Hey, I’m Mike.
I help people understand what’s driving their reactions, their patterns, and the tension they keep running into in the relationships that matter most.
But this didn’t start as something I was teaching.
It started with me.
For a long time, things in my life looked good on the outside. I had meaningful work, a great family, and a lot to be grateful for.
And yet, something felt off.
I wasn’t unhappy, but I felt stuck, like I had gone as far as I could go with the tools I had and did not know what was missing.
Then a friend asked me a simple question:
“Mike, have you ever heard of the Enneagram?”
I hadn’t.
And honestly, I was skeptical.
But what I discovered surprised me.
For the first time, I started to see the patterns beneath the surface shaping how I interpreted situations, responded to people, handled tension, and navigated conflict.
What surprised me most was not what I saw in others.
It was what I had not seen in myself.
I started to notice the gap between my intentions and my impact.
And once I could see it, things started to change.
I was not just reacting less.
I was understanding more.
My wife and I went through this process together, and it reshaped how we understood each other. Instead of only reacting to each other’s blind spots, we could start seeing them, naming them, laughing about them, and responding with more clarity and less defensiveness.
It made a real difference in our marriage.
That experience is what led me deeper into this work.
Curious what may be driving your patterns?
What 22 Years of Helping People Navigate Life and Relationships Taught Me
Before Encouragement Minus the Sermon, I spent more than 22 years walking with people through the relationships, decisions, tensions, and questions that mattered most to them.
My path into this work was not traditional.
It involved skeptical teenagers, adults who did not want a sales pitch, volunteers who could leave anytime, donors, community partners, staff, and more than a few people who assumed I could not possibly be a pastor because I was too relatable, too easy to talk to, funnier than they expected, and genuinely interested in the conversation we were actually having.
But that was the work.
My leadership background began in ministry, serving as a youth pastor in large churches and later as the founding and lead pastor of a church created for people who would not normally consider themselves religious.
That experience shaped me deeply.
When you spend years with people who can sense immediately when your words are canned, performative, preachy, or disconnected from real life, you learn quickly that generic advice does not work.
You have to read the room.
You have to understand the person in front of you.
You have to listen for what is actually happening underneath the surface.
And you have to communicate in a way that is honest, useful, grounded, and human.
That part of my story matters because it taught me how to listen, how to read the room, and how to meet people where they actually are. Today, my work through Encouragement Minus the Sermon is practical, client-led, and never faith-based unless someone specifically asks for that.
No pressure.
No preaching.
No shame.
No pretending.
Just honest conversation, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of what may be driving the patterns you keep running into.
My Family
Our 25th anniversary vow renewal in Hawaii, 25 years in, and still learning.
My wife and I have been best friends since 10th grade.
We dated, broke up a few times, eventually figured out we were better together, and have now been married for nearly 27 years.
Today, Tanya is still my favourite person to learn alongside, laugh with, travel with, and figure life out with.
We have four incredible kids, ages 18 to 26, and we’re grateful they still choose to spend time with us.
Either we’re fun… or they’re great actors.
Either way, we’re grateful.
A Few Things About Me
Life is not all serious, so here are a few things that bring me joy.
I’m a hardcore Survivor fan, still applying, and still waiting for Jeff Probst to call.
I love CrossFit, mostly for the community, and partly for the workouts.
I’m a lifelong Toronto Blue Jays fan, and at 16, I was scouted by an MLB team as a pitcher.
I’ve spent a lot of my life on stages leading music and performing, which explains why I’m pretty comfortable in front of a crowd.
I also grew up around aviation. My dad was a pilot with Air Canada, which probably explains my lifelong interest in how things work behind the scenes.
Pixar movies tend to get me every time.
And I have a deep appreciation for sharp, slightly absurd comedy, from Monty Python to more modern stuff.
Basically, I like meaningful conversations, good stories, underdog moments, clever humour, baseball, airplanes, and people who are willing to be honest about what is really going on.
Tap or click the main photo to see the story behind each image.
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking…
Why does this keep happening in my relationships?
Why do I react this way, even when I’m trying not to?
Why does something small turn into something bigger than it should?
Why do I keep having the same conversation with different people?
Why do I feel stuck, even though I’m trying to grow?
You’re not alone.
And more importantly, you’re not stuck.
There are patterns underneath those moments.
And once you can see them clearly, things can begin to change.
Conversations feel different.
Reactions slow down.
Defensiveness softens.
And the relationships that once felt confusing can start to make more sense.