Mike Slaughter, lead pastor at Ginghamsburg Church, is the three-decade dreamer of Ginghamsburg and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. His life-long passion to reach the lost and set the oppressed free has now made him a tireless and leading advocate for the people of Darfur, Sudan. Mike's call to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted will challenge attendees to wrestle with God and their God-destinies.When Mike arrived at Ginghamsburg Church in 1979, worship attendance hovered at 90 with 118 members and an annual budget of $27,000. Now, 4000 attendees on average worship weekly at Ginghamsburg and the multi-million dollar budget helps resource a faith community committed to serving the poor, lost and disenfranchised.Under Mike’s leadership, Ginghamsburg has become known as an early innovator of small group ministry, the Church “media reformation” and cyberministry, with the Ginghamsburg web site averaging 50,000 visits monthly from around the world. Since initiating The Sudan Project in January 2005, Ginghamsburg has invested $5.1 million into humanitarian relief in Darfur. Locally, the New Path outreach arm of Ginghamsburg Church annually serves more than 40,000 people in surrounding communities via its food pantry, car, clothing and furniture ministries.In 2005 and 2006, Ginghamsburg was named as one of the top 50 churches in the U.S. by The Church Report magazine. In 2007, The Church Report listed Mike as one of the top 50 most influential Christians in America. As a mentor, Mike travels globally to speak and uses his “gift of irritation” to equip ministry leaders to minimize brick and maximize mission so that they may fully deploy the mission of Jesus into the world. He is also the author of multiple books with the most recent being Christmas Is Not Your Birthday Experience the Joy of Living and Giving Like Jesus (Abingdon Press) and Change The World: Recovering The Message and Mission of Jesus (Abingdon Press)