Pastor Mike Hsu is forty-years-old and has been married to his wife, Tanya, since 1995.  Together they have three children: Mia, Isaac and Calvin and a much-loved foster son Darius.  Mike came to know the Lord through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ as a freshman at the University of Kansas.  Mike is also a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL. and is currently working on a Doctor of Ministry program at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

One of Mike’s great loves is reading.  To learn about some of his current reading also some of his doctoral work, you can visit his blog called “The Eudaimonia Blog” at www.hsumike.blogspot.com.  Also, Mike is an avid Kansas Jayhawk basketball fan and can talk for hours about his team’s glorious runs in 1952, 1988 and 2008.  Mike loves motorcycles (owns a Suzuki Boulevard s50), enjoys a fine handmade cigar on special occasions and loves animals.  The Hsus own a pet piranha named Gerhardus Vos, a cockapoo named Belle and will likely have a pet rat named Reepicheep before too long (this is an ongoing discussion between Tanya and Mia, with Mia begging mom and mom deliberating).  Perhaps the gift Mike enjoys the most in life is spending time with his family.  He met his wife Tanya when they were both sixteen, has know her twenty-four years and been married to her sixteen of those years.  The Hsus are deeply grateful for their children as they believed at one time they would not be able to have biological children.

Christ’s Cross and Resurrection are Mike’s greatest passions in preaching as Mike is convinced that all of Scripture speaks to their centrality in all of life.  Also, Mike is learning that the Cross and Resurrection not only holds the hope of reconciliation for God’s people, but also for the entirety of the created order as well (Colossians 1:19,20; Romans 8:19-21).

Mike continues to travel to Haiti as often as he can to serve with Grace Chapel people as well as others from Lincoln who belong to other churches.  Also, Mike has spent the last four summers with the Omaha tribal peoples of Walthill, but he also believes that it is important to reinforce with the Church that not only do we serve Christ by “going” places, but that we serve Him right where we are.  As Mike has been emphasizing a lot as a result of his doctoral work, “vocation is calling.” So one practice Mike has implemented at Grace Chapel is not only praying for the “distant missionaries” but also the “butchers, bakers and candlestick makers” and that each of us has a significant call from God as well, that vocation is integral to the mission of God in the world.  Finally, Mike is passionate to see a “Unitive Vision of Christendom” as he calls it, where Christ followers across denominational and ecclesial lines learn more and more what it is to celebrate one another, without feeling the need to minimize the importance of their particular church distinctives, at the same time.

During Mike’s journey with the Lord, there have been joys and sorrows, valleys and challenges but also tremendous blessings.  One of his favorite Scripture verses is Zephaniah 3:17: “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”