Mike Guerrero
Senior Pastor
Excerpt from A Piece of my Mind
My name is Mike Guerrero and I’m the pastor of Shoreline Covenant Church.
Let me tell you something about myself.
I grew up in Southern California on a farm, but not the usual kind of farm. My
father was a flower farmer. I have vivid memories of acres of multicolor crops
as well as tedious hours of weeding and irrigating.
I was raised in the rich heritage of the Roman Catholic Church. My family,
particularly my mother, regularly went to Confession and attended Mass. I had
meaningful experiences of confessing my sins and finding assurance of
forgiveness. However, in my senior year of high school, I developed a friendship
with some kids who were part of a little community church in our area. I was
impressed with the way they spoke of their everyday faith in Jesus. Eventually
they explained to me how Jesus Christ had died for their sins and how they
sought to follow him as their Lord. What they shared with me led me to a new
understanding of, and deeper appreciation for, Jesus Christ and led me to
express and experience my trust in Him as I never had before.
Four years later in 1966 (a very long time ago) I graduated from Occidental
College in Los Angeles. While in college I gave in to the desire God had put in
heart and decided my life’s calling was to become a pastor. However, as I
finished college I realized I didn’t know much about people or life so I
enlisted in the Army and spent three years at various posts in the United
States.
When my Army enlistment was over I enrolled in Fuller Theological Seminary in
Pasadena, California. I spent three years there and also worked as youth pastor
at a local church. I did my last year of graduate work at Bethel Seminary, a
Baptist school in St. Paul, Minnesota because I thought I was going to be
serving a Baptist church.
But things didn’t work out as I’d planned and God led me to an Evangelical
Covenant Church in Los Angeles where I served for almost 3 years as assistant
pastor. It was there that I met and married my wife Judi.
We came to Shoreline Covenant Church (it was North Seattle Covenant Church back
then) in 1977. Our time with the people who are Shoreline Covenant Church has
been a blessing to us and, hopefully, to them as well.