Riverside Country

Mike Purkey: Music And The Man
By: Kirk Ruchotzke

Mike Purkey has always loved Gospel music, especially Southern and Christian Country — It’s in his roots. As an Oklahoma boy growing up in a strongly Pentecostal family, church and Gospel music were everything. He would lie for hours on the floor of his home in Claremore, listening over and over again to Southern Gospel and quartet music, dreaming of the day he could begin to travel and sing the Southern Gospel circuit.

Blessed with a “gift” to sing, as a teenager he joined his parents’ group, The Journeymen Quartet, and traveled to churches and revival meetings throughout Oklahoma. He also sang in several other groups in those teen years, but his life was about take a major change. At age 18 he felt the call of God to full-time ministry and married his sweetheart, Mary (now his wife of almost 37 years). After short stints as youth pastor in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and associate pastor in Panama City, Florida, he took to the road in full-time evangelism, singing and preaching at youth camps, churches, and revival meetings all around the country with Mary (also a gifted organist in her own right) at his side. There were a few mostly forgotten LPs and 8-Track music projects produced during this time and sold at his meetings, helping to put food on the table. In between the traveling, there were senior pastorates in Nashville, Tennessee, and Evansville, Indiana, and then more years on the road.

In January of 1985 Mike took his wife and two small sons, Matthew and Jonathan, to Lenexa, Kansas, to pastor a small work of ninety people. The church began to grow, and in just a few years, he and the congregation built a new facility, Lenexa Christian Center, on the western edge of the Kansas City metro area. It wasn’t long until the church was running 700-800 people. A pivotal time in Mike’s ministry came in the fall of 1992 following a meeting in his church with Evangelist Dwight Thompson. Dwight, a regular guest on Paul and Jan Crouch’s (Trinity Broadcasting Network) Praise The Lord program, told Paul about Mike and his gift of music and preaching, and encouraged Paul to have him on the show. At the end of Mike’s first appearance on Praise The Lord, Paul remarked, “Mike, where have you been hiding all these years?” From that moment on, Mike and his music became a staple part of Praise The Lord and remained so for many years. He and Mary also appeared regularly as hosts of this program well into the late 1990s.

Mike also began to travel extensively (while continuing to pastor a growing, thriving church) following his Praise debut, taking his own brand of singing, humor, and preaching into hundreds of churches, conferences, and camp meetings around the United States. For a number of years he spent 150-200 nights per year on the road. He also began a regular TV broadcast, Visitation With Mike Purkey, seen by millions each week across the Trinity Broadcasting Network and its affiliates.

From his introduction to the world through TBN in 1992 until today, he has released fourteen music projects, four of which have moved more than several hundred thousand copies each: Let’s Have Church, The Good News Is The Bad News Was Wrong, Hallelujah Anyhow, and his newest recording in 2005, Mike Purkey Rated PG: Pure Gospel. Mike’s Let’s Have Church project sold more than 100,000 copies in its debut month. By his own admission, his most requested song wherever he goes is “Sweet Beulah Land,” which he has sung hundreds of times.

Today, Mike continues to pastor Lenexa Christian Center in Lenexa, Kansas, which has mushroomed into a multi-racial, multi-cultural church of over 6,500 attendees. His current TV program, Miracles With Mike Purkey, high-lighting his music and preaching, is seen weekly by a wide viewing audience on the Church Channel. He’s still out singing and speaking around the country on a regular basis during the year and continues to be available for ministry engagements upon request. Information is available on his website, www.mikepurkey.org.

Notably, Mike has just wrapped up recording on a new music project, Anything Through Christ, which he believes will be his greatest recording to date. A release date has not yet been determined, but it is expected to hit the marketplace in early 2008. Coming up on 37 years in ministry, Mike still continues in his passion to make music to touch the hearts of people for eternity.

This article has been reprinted by permission from Powersource Magazine.