Our pastor is Rev. Michael Scott Bowen, from Sumter, SC. He is married to Jennifer Roberts Bowen, from Beaufort, SC. They have one child, Alley Jade Bowen, born on July 13, 2001. Pastor Mike was born on August 23, 1974 at Toumey Hospital. He graduated from Hillcrest High School in June 1992, and then from North Greenville College in May 1997, where he recieved a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion. Pastor Mike was ordained as a minister of God's Word on January 27, 1996 by Hillcrest Baptist Church, with Rev. Walter Phillips as pastor.

He has served at Shaw Heights Baptist Church, in Sumter, SC, where he was the Associate Pastor and 6 years at Pine Level Baptist Church. During that time, the church reached the top 4% in America for church growth by baptism.

The style of ministry I use is based on the five purposes of the church. I?m a firm believer in evangelism, and am a strong soul-winner. Every home I go in, I share the Gospel and always make an appeal for Salvation after every sermon. I also believe that discipleship is vitally important for Christians to grow. I believe in incorporating new members classes in the church, to help new Christians grow in their faith. I also believe in personal accountability and follow-up contacts to keep new Christians involved. A third very important purpose of the church is worship. I believe that true worship involves the attitude of the heart and not the style of the music. I think music plays an important part in the worship services, because it sets the tone for the sermon. Fellowship is also a very important factor in ministry. I think every Christian ought to have a core of Christian friends. I have found the best way to form that core is through church activities, outings, and socials. The final purpose of the church is service. I believe it is the pastor?s job to equip the saints for service. I believe in witness training, daily prayer times and personal devotions, and utilizing your spiritual gifts to help further the church for God?s glory. When all five purposes are found in a church, you are looking at a New Testament Church (Acts 2:40-47).

I believe in a church ministry that involves preaching the Word of God. I am a very conservative Southern Baptist who views God?s Word as being the inerrant, infallible Word of God. I believe in changing the method to reach people, but not changing the message. I also believe discipleship and witness training should be conducted in the church. I feel a great need to have a committed prayer life, and I encourage others to do the same. I believe that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone, but a life committed to God should be the evidence of the decision. I believe that baptism is a symbolic act of receiving Christ, and is very meaningful to a believer?s life. I also believe that one must become a Christian before joining the local church, and should use his or her spiritual gifts to help the church body grow and perform. My spiritual gifts are Leadership, Evangelism, Discernment, Teaching and Giving. My wife's spiritual gifts are Service and Helps, Giving, Exhortation and Faith.

I grew up in a non-Christian atmosphere. My parents got divorced when I was five years old because my dad beat my mother. My mother then got remarried to a compulsive gambler. That marriage fell apart many times, but the divorce actually took place when I was about 13 years old. As a result of this ungodly lifestyle, I was never encouraged to go to church by anybody except my grandmother, who was a Methodist. I attended her church on various occasions, but never became real active. One day I took it upon myself to start attending a Southern Baptist church that was near my house, because a lot of my friends attended there. I became very involved in the youth group, but never really knew what it meant to be saved. At the age of 16, after attending this church for two years, I became convicted of my sin and decided to give my heart and life over to Jesus Christ making Him my Lord and Savior.

Since May 27, 1990 I became a changed man. God has taken me from the sewer pit to the pulpit. I now experience peace, joy, and a true daily walk with God. God has done many wonderful things for me, and my life is devoted to Him. I have no life outside of Jesus Christ, for He is my life. He is my thoughts, my actions, and my goals. Since Christ died for me, I will live for Him. One goal of mine is to not let a week pass without me sharing my faith with atleast one person. Since I?ve never had a stable father in my life, God has become the best friend and Father I have ever had.

I was born in Beaufort, SC on October 31, 1977. My parents got divorced when I was 4 years old and I lived with my mother. My grandparents had visitation rights to have me stay with them every other weekend. My grandmother was always there for me, to pray with me and teach me about Godly things. She always taught me to pray for my parents no matter what they did and always told me to live by the Bible. I feel like she gave me most of my Christian background, she made sure I was always in church and taught me that everything I did should represent God.

My uncle was a Baptist Minister in Brunswick, GA. His church always did more with the youth and children than ours did, but they also had alot more people in that age group. They always went to summer church camp in NC for a week, and I was able to go with them one year. One night when we were at church, they asked if anyone wanted to get saved. I went forward to give my life to Jesus at the age of 8. When camp was over, I went back to my home church and walked the aisle to join the church and get baptized. I was baptized not too long after that on a Sunday night.

Since that day, I always tried to live for God but didn?t really know how. I was never discipled, so I tried to be the best Christian I could be, but I didn?t have a relationship with God. I knew I was saved and I always told my friends at school that they shouldn't do the things that they were doing. I tried to tell them how to live by the Bible, but half of them thought I was crazy. It's funny because even though they thought I was crazy, they all respected me because I lived what I talked about. I can't recall anyone in school really going to church and trying to live a Godly life. All of my friends were out partying and living for the world. I didn't know that I had to really study and meditate on God's Word in order to grow spiritually. I was confused because my mom only went to church on Sunday morning, and she never really told me anything about the Bible. When I got in trouble at school for talking to much, she would restrict me from going to church because that would be too much fun. She didn?t go to church on Sunday nights or Wednesday nights unless there was nothing else to do. So the only Christian influence I had was my grandmother, and church.

I graduated from High School and went to North Greenville College to pursue a Degree in Business. I knew this was God?s plan for my life, because originally I was going to go to USC. If I would have gone to USC, I probably would have gone the wrong way and became a partier. I was eager to be in a Christian environment at North Greenville, but I was roomed up with 3 other girls who were partiers, go figure. Thankfully, I met Mike not too long after getting there. He was a true Christian, who showed me how to have a relationship with God. He told me that he couldn't date me unless I was living for God. He then told me that God called him to be a preacher, and he couldn't have a girlfriend that didn't love God as much as he did. All of this came as a shock to me, because like I said, all of my friends were into the party scene. I knew I was at a Christian College, but I had no idea he was there to be a preacher. He always carried his bible, but everyone did because we had bible classes, including me.

Once we had this talk, I evaluated my life and realized that I wanted this relationship with God that he talked about. Each day we had devotions together, and he would give me verses to memorize so that I could grow spiritually. He told me that I had to pray and read my bible alone on a daily basis, so that I could have a one on one relationship with God. I started doing this and it was amazing how my life changed. I felt like I knew God better and I was understanding the bible better as well. I couldn't believe that I had wasted so much of my time not reading my bible and praying. I continued to grow and after we got married, God moved us to Mike's home church for him to become the Associate Pastor and Youth Minister. Through this, God used me to aide him in his ministry. I had to mature really fast because I was now the disciplinarian for the youth. This was a major step for me because I have always been a follower, not a leader. I was only 19 years old, not much older than the youth, but God used me as I was. This job was very rewarding for us, and it was a fun learning experience.

After two and a half years of ministering at this church, God moved us to Pine Level for Mike to be the Pastor. I felt like we were both ready for this move. I learned how to be a Godly wife and mother at this church, and I support my husband 100% in all that he does. I believe God has used both of us here to spread His Word and to show people how to live a Godly life. During the time at Pine Level, God convicted me to stay home and homeschool our daughter (Titus 2:4-5).

At first I was going to homeschool because of the area schools, but God used a sermon to speak to our hearts and change our beliefs permanently. I have homeschooled her for her first year of school which was K4, and we will be moving into Kindergarten this upcoming year. This is the most rewarding thing I think I have ever done. It is such an honor to teach your own child how to read and write, and most importantly, the ways of God. The first thing we do every morning is pray, and she wouldn't have that if she were in the local schools. She memorizes bible verses in school and all of her school work has verses printed on them. I would recommend homeschooling to all the mothers out there.

Two weeks after I got to college, I saw Mike. He was wearing a t-shirt that had Greek writing on it, and I couldn?t figure out for the life of me what his shirt said. For some reason, that bugged me to death. I don?t know why, but from that moment on, I noticed him everywhere. I didn?t know anyone there yet, but my roommate met someone that was in his class and told him that I was interested in him. We finally met and that?s how it all started. After a couple of months of me growing as a Christian, he told me that we could start dating. He wanted to make sure that I was making a change for myself and not just so that I could date him. Eventually, after a year and a half of knowing each other, we felt like it was time for us to take our relationship to the next level. He proposed to me and six months later, we were married.

I wasn't raised in a Godly home, so I didn't know how to be a Godly wife. I was raised on soap operas and I honestly thought that my marraige was going to be like a fairy tale. I had a rude awakening as you could imagine. In college, we spent every free moment together because we didn't have the stresses of house payments and other bills. When we got married, we had to get real jobs to pay all of our bills. It took a few years to get adjusted to the married life, but now I wouldn't trade it for the world. My true knowledge of being a Godly wife came from a class I took at Pine Level led by Genia Crosby, which was taught by Dr. Sam Cathey. I had never heard what I heard, and it made so much sense. I am now happier than I have ever been. I love being married, I love my husband and daughter, and I am in God's will. How much better can it get than that?