Michael Pitts (pastor)

Michael Pitts is an American pastor, preacher and author based in Toledo, Ohio. He is the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church and oversees the Cornerstone Global Network, a network of over 120 churches throughout the USA, Mexico, South Africa and the UK. He was consecrated as a bishop by the International Communion of Charismatic Churches in 2009. He has authored several books, including Breaking Ungodly Soul Ties, Power Shifters, and Boundary Shifters.

Michael Pitts was born in south Lima in 1964 to factory workers Eugene and Brenda Pitts. His parents were raised attending Church regularly, and filled with the Holy Ghost many years ago. Brenda played guitar and sung at Quickstep Pentecostal Holiness Church in Alger Ohio, with Eugene serving in various roles of Church Governance. From an early age, Michael struggled with the unwavering, unquestioning faith of his parent's Church. A young, ornery Pitts soon became frustrated with the world, as he lacked the ability to ask questions to the confusing things that didn't make sense.

By 14 years old he had a strong sense of God's presence, and made the decision to follow Christ during youth week at the Faith Gospel Tabernacle in Lima. Soon afterwards, he was attending Mount Olivet Church of God in Christ, where he was "baptized in the Holy Spirit, and started speaking in tongues". It was during these two distinct moments in his faith journey that he began to feel a distinct purpose, to preach to all who would hear.

Pitts recounts of honing his preaching ability by preaching to "soda bottles" as props during a part-time convenient store job, imagining they were people. He would spend much of his latter teenage years traveling from Church to Church requesting an opportunity to preach from local Pastors. It was during one of these Church meetings in 1984, at a tent-revival in Defiance Ohio that a young Kathi Gamble came to hear Pitts preach. The two met, started dating, then in 1985, Michael Pitts married Kathi Gamble in his hometown of Lima, Ohio.

In June 1986, with a $1000 gift from his parents, they moved to Toledo to start a non-denominational Pentecostal church, named Cornerstone Church. The Church opened with once-a-month Thursday evening meetings at what was then the Reynolds Road Holiday Inn. They advertised on the local Gospel radio station, and on the first night, 18 people came. There was no written plan, no outreach plan, and little external funding. The original vision from God for the Church, given in 1984 - years before the Church's formation - and still written on paper, states "The plan is simply for God to have a Church that is run on His divine order and inspiration. A Church where people of all races, ethnic groups, and religious backgrounds can come together to worship God. A place where sinners will find grace and acceptance, and where they will be challenged to grow. A place where those who need healing and deliverance will find God ever present to meet their needs. A growing place - A happy place. A lighthouse to the whole city. Ministering to the whole man".

After a few successful months of Thursday night meetings, they decided to start weekend services. The first Sunday drew 35 people to a small storefront building, and due to its rapid growth, moved twice in its first four years. First to an old insurance office at the Byrning Hill Plaza, where it started holding two Sunday morning services. The Church had to move due to rapid growth, to a remodeled warehouse on Airport Highway. At the age of 26, Pitts was now preaching to over 1000 weekly members. In 1995 Pitts moved the Church to its present location, refurbishing "a sprawling former retail plaza". The Church had spent months remodeling what had been a "Bud's Deep Discount Store" into a 2500-seat sanctuary, also featuring state-of-the-art children's facilities for the more than 400 children to attend services each week. As of 2005 it became the largest church in Northwest Ohio, with 4,000 members. It was the first racially integrated Church in the region, and Pitts owes success to his preaching of "truth. Truth isn't cultural, its concrete. The Gospel transcends race...Stereotypically, the black Church has the spirit, and the white Church has the structure. My desire was to take the best of both Churches and combine them".

In 1998, Cornerstone Church purchased the WDMN-AM Radio Station, and sold it in 2012 after a successful decade of playing wholesome Gospel and contemporary Christian music.

Rather than attending seminary or theological college, he is unconventionally self-taught from tapes, cds, books and other materials he has had available over the course of his Pastoring. In an interview response that questioned his qualifications, he answered "I went through the tapes one by one, with texts, which I managed to track down, at hand. I read Augustine and the Eastern church fathers that way. And I am still teaching myself today. What I love about travel is the chance to read. I carry my “Bible bag” with me on the plane. While others are watching movies or sleeping, I am devouring the latest in theological studies or preparing a sermon.

Pitts was consecrated as a bishop by the International Communion of Charismatic Churches in October 2009 for his oversight of the Cornerstone Global Network, an expanding network of more than 120 Churches around the globe. By 2010 he had published seven books.

Pitts has had three mentors during his time in ministry. The first was Lester Sumrall, who died in 1996. The next was Carlton Pearson, who Pitts parted ways with after Pearson started preaching a doctrine of inclusivity (that all go to heaven). His current mentor is Bishop T.D. Jakes, the founder and senior pastor of The Potter's House Church, Dallas.

In 2015 he commenced monthly revival services in San Jose, California at a Church called Jubilee Christian Center. He has known Pastor Dick Bernal since first preaching at their Annual Conference "Thunder in the Bay" in 1998. The reason he is going to California regularly, is the belief that the nation is both absorbing and reliving the 1960s, while having the desire to go to the geographic source of the drug and sexual revolution to help lead a Christian revival. There, as elsewhere, he is drawing big crowds.

Michael Pitts at WOWJAM 2014

Pitts is the founder of the "Heal The World" organization, a registered 501(c)3 non-profit. The name for the organization comes from his reading of a scripture in the Bible, Revelation 22:2. Its services range from covering the cost of soup kitchen Thanksgiving meals, to collecting Bibles for US soldiers, to partnering with Mercy Ministries, to hosting the African Children's Choir, supporting Dr Patricia Bailey-Jones who ministers with Master's Touch Ministry Global, and leading a prison ministry that has reached thousands of men at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio.

His approach to charity is "wholly pragmatic", finding good non profits locally and abroad, and backing their solid work, rather than reinventing the wheel and creating his own charitable organizations. This approach to the humanitarian sector allows for increased effectiveness, where a greater percentage of donations reach their end goal, rather than being spent on overhead.

Over the past 20 years, Pitts has partnered with, and hosted annual WOWJAMs, a ministry started by Stephen and Linda Tavani aimed at reaching poorer communities around the city by utilizing music, games, dances, and prizes. Over 10,000 people have attended these WOWJAMS over the years.

Pitts has traveled extensively for his philanthropic efforts in areas effected by natural disasters and in Africa. In 2010 a team travelled to Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake with the goal of assisting in rebuilding houses. Heal The World also funds the Cornerstone Academy, an award winning school in the village of Odokono N'kwanta, Ghana, and built the well that provides fresh water to the region.

In December 2015 Pitts released the album Heal The World. This album was designed to promote a good message, into a world that seems to only promote its hurt and dysfunction. Bringing together many ministry friends for the project, the album contains songs co-written by Pitts that stretches several genres. Included on the project were six-time Grammy winner Israel Houghton, Sheryl Brady, The Katinas, Lucia Parker, Linda Green (of Peaches & Herb), Bryan Popin, and several others.

As a result of meeting with the Mayor of Toledo Paula Hicks-Hudson in early 2016, Pitts learned that several city pools had remained closed throughout the three summers prior due to lack of city funding. This conversation coincided with the release of the city's annual budget for 2016, and confirmation that six pools would remain closed without the support and sponsorship from benevolent third parties. As a result, in the Spring of 2016, Pitts pledged $52,000 to open Navarre Pool, on the East Side of Toledo, on behalf of Cornerstone Church. The pool is blocks from the Eastwood Campus, in East Toledo. In addition to opening the pool, Cornerstone provided the funding to open Savage Park Splash Pad in the inner city of Toledo. Both the pool and splash pad were opened with the intention of running Summer programs and activities, as well as adding additional sites to the Summer Meal Program partnership.

Family

Michael and Kathi Pitts

Michael is the second of four children to Eugene and Brenda Pitts. He and his siblings were born in Lima, Ohio. His wife Kathi is the younger of two children born to Jack and Janette Gamble. Kathi and her brother were born in Bryan, Ohio and spent several years in Colorado before returning to Ohio.

Michael and Kathi have two adult children, and one grandchild, born in 2015. His children were both born in the first few years of ministry at Cornerstone Church. Their first is named Meredith (married to Philip) and their second is named Stephen (married to Rosie Joy). Philip and Meredith both live in Toledo and are involved in Ministry at Cornerstone Church, and the parents to Theodore Brave. Stephen and Rosie live in Sydney, Australia where the couple met, and are pursuing careers in music.

Trials

In the late 1990s Pitts was arrested on allegations of indecent exposure and trespassing. He was ultimately cleared on all accounts of indecent exposure. His defense included numerous alibis and a statute of limitations expiration. Pitts pleaded no contest to the trespassing charge.

The events started September 18, 1997, when Pitts was arrested on charges of allegedly exposing himself to passing motorists near Oak Openings Metropark in Swanton, Ohio. In the months following, and after much media attention, additional sites in Wauseon, Toledo and Maumee were added. The public indecency charge was dropped on January 15, 1998 when Judge Francis Gorman of the Toledo Municipal Court ruled that the statute of limitations had expired for the event that allegedly occurred two years prior.

Soon after, the charges in Wauseon were dropped because Pitts had proven alibis. On April 3, 1998, the remaining eight public indecency charges were dropped due to "substantial evidentiary considerations", when Pitts' defense showed he was not in the country at the time the events were meant to have occurred. He pleaded "no contest" to two charges of criminal trespassing, which occurred while exercising in the Metropark outside of open hours, and paid a $500 fine and was sentenced to 14 days under house arrest.

Following the trial, Metroparks ranger Russell Maneval was suspended for 60 days by the Toledo Area Metroparks for falsifying information on police logs involved in the Toledo case. His report alleged that he had come face to face with Pitts on the day of the events, only to be shown evidence during the trial that Pitts was in Lima, Ohio, over 100 miles away.

The Fall of 1997 brought new prospects for Pitts, with the proposal to invest in the first minority owned TV station in Toledo. WMNT-TV, Channel 48, had barely stayed afloat for its first year of broadcasting from early 1996 and Cornerstone Church was approached to assist in covering the overhead. Over the next 8 years the Church invested over $800,000 into the station, eventually purchasing 37% ownership. Them, in 2005 the Church filed for a restraining order to halt its illegal attempted sale by then owner, Lamaree Marty Miller. This started a string of court cases that included the discovery of illegal activity and fraud by Mr Miller. In 2007 the Church severed all ties with Miller, who later filed bankruptcy and relocated.

In 1998 Cornerstone Church purchased one of the last gospel radio stations in Toledo. Immediately following the purchase, several area pastors complained that their shows had been pulled from regular programming. Pitts' response was that in line with the purchase, all programs were being evaluated, and those wanting to remain on the air were welcome to reapply.

In August 2000 Pitts was pulled over by police, and subsequently charged with a DUI. He pleaded “no contest” to the charge of driving while intoxicated and was sentenced to three days in a DWI program for first-time offenders. 6 years later, Pitts was stopped for a vehicle inspection. The trooper said he smelled alcohol and took Pitts into custody. The breathalyzer machine at the outpost was broken, so troopers say Pitts provided a urine sample that was sent to Columbus for analysis. The results confirmed he was legally over the limit. Pitts again pleaded "no contest" and the Judge sentenced him to 9 days in the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, a fine of $300, and suspension of Pitts’ driving license for one year, starting April 2007.