After getting saved at 17 years of age, Mike Charleston soon realized that he wanted to do some sort of ministry. He started out going to Bible college at Northcentral University but then ended up in New Orleans at the School of Urban Missions. While there, he met a professor named Mike Indest who ended up having quite an impact on Mike. Indest challenged Mike, as well as all of his students to search the Scriptures to see whether what they knew of church and church practices was based on what they read and studied in the Word or simply because of tradition.
Not long after leaving Bible college, Mike, with his new wife Sarah, became part of the network of house churches which Indest had begun in the New Orleans area in the previous years. Leaving behind all that he had known of how church works, Mike was eager to begin fellowshipping with other believers in the way that he then realized was the way the church should meet together. Although the location and people have changed throughout the past 21 years, Mike has continued to strive to meet biblically and has a passion for Christians to understand more about the church, including who the church is, how they should meet together, and the purpose of the church.
Indest created the website, “Fellowship of Believers” in order to encourage others interested in “doing church” based on what the Bible has to say about the issue. In 2018, he handed it over to Mike, who has hopes of continuing to use it as a tool for other believers to go to and find the resources that they need in order to understand more about the church. Indest continues to do his radio show in New Orleans, and still teaches the “organic church.”
Because the church is such a central theme important to Mike, and because we see church so interconnected to the home, marriage and family issues are also at the forefront. Mike has seven children and understands the great need to teach others how to raise godly children and how to have a Christ-centered home. Marriage issues, family issues, church issues, and deep theological issues are all a part of what Mike hopes to address through this website as well as other platforms. His prayer is that God will use something here in order to help equip the saints to be the light in the dark world in which we live. To God be the glory!