Meet The Ridge Staff: Pastor Mike

Pastor Mike Van Rees: Lead Pastor

1.      Favorite thing about your job? I deeply believe in the value of the local church. So whether the day ahead is filled with challenge or inspiration, it’s meaningful to be able to invest myself into something that I believe in on a daily basis.

2.    Least favorite thing about your job? Being asked by people I meet “So, what do you do for a living?” That’s a conversation changer! Not ashamed, just sometimes imagine it would be nice to allow a little more relationship to develop before the faith stereotype hits.

3.  What brought you to The Ridge? I’d have to say that God did. When I was approached about the idea of starting a church in Ankeny, I was not exactly enthusiastic about it. But I did commit to praying about it with Sarah. We came to the point where we recognized that we could not start a church alone. If God was calling us to do this, then he would also be calling others. We felt prompted to ask a few of our friends to pray about it as well. As some of them were led to join, we heard God’s ‘yes’ in that.

4.    Favorite Ridge memory. I’ve got many wonderful memories. Hard to pick one. Here’s one that’s not so much of a favorite and more of a most flavorful 

Sarah getting ready to throw the pie in Mike's face

5.    Tell us about your family. My family is one of the greatest sources of joy in my life. Sarah and I will be married for 20 years this summer. Caleb (16), Olivia (14), and Lilly (11) add many layers to the Van Rees Family. We recently went on a 20 hour road trip to visit Sarah’s family and actually enjoyed the journey together. That hasn’t always been the case!

6.      If you could do anything you wanted right now, what would it be?Witness the Colts win the Super Bowl.

7.   What was your favorite activity in gym class? In elementary school, everyone in my class had the same favorite teacher. Our PE teacher, Mr. Sears. One of the things that has been such a rich blessing for me in the past years is that this beloved PE teacher is a part of The Ridge…Don Sears. It’s been a joy to get to know him as an adult as my appreciation for him has only grown. In class, I loved a game called soak-em which was really a form of dodge ball. Another thing we did was called tinikling. It’s a activity that combines music and movement as two people beat bamboo poles together on the ground to the beat of the song, while others step over and between the poles. We performed at half time shows in several venues and even took a road trip to a college in Missouri.

Would you rather…
Watch TV or read a book? Book

Go canoeing or waterskiing? Canoeing

Camp in an RV or stay in a tent? RV

Use Facebook or Twitter? Facebook

Swim in a pool or the ocean? Ocean

Travel by sailboat or cruise ship? Sailboat

Watch sports or play sports? Play sports

Play dodgeball or kickball? Dodgeball

Get up early or stay up late? Stay up late