Pastor Michael Crawford was born and raised in southern California by a single mom. After walking through a crushing disappointment, and facing abject racism, Michael had contemplated ending his own life. In a moment of desperation, he felt compelled to purchase a Bible, and was drawn to the red-letter passages of the New Testament. Halfway through the book of Matthew, Michael was moved to trust in Christ for salvation. His life was radically changed, propelling him toward eventually becoming a pastor.

Having pastored for 10 years in California, God began to shake things up in late 2008. Michael began to wrestle with the call of God on his life to plant a new church in a major U.S. city with a significantly African American population. In September of 2008, the signs began pointing toward Baltimore. Michael was invited to make his first visit to Charm City in November of 2008, and he immediately knew that God was calling he and his family to Baltimore.

In July of 2009, Michael moved with his family to the city of Baltimore to plant Freedom Church. Freedom’s first public meeting was held about a month later at the YMCA on 33rd street. 50 adults and 12 kids showed up to hear about the vision, mission and values of Freedom Church. God was clearly up to something. The next step was to locate to a more permanent facility. On September 6, 2009, Freedom began meeting at Garrett Heights Elementary School. Then in January of 2010, Freedom Church was officially launched.

Michael served as the Lead Pastor of Freedom Church, which meets at two locations in Baltimore, until 2020.  Today he leads the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware’s church multiplication team that seeks to discover, develop and deploy church planters through church planter assessment and ongoing church plant support.

Michael is a triathlete and enjoys golf and motocross. He’s also a big Star Wars fan. He and his wife, Dani, have five children.

You can learn more about Michael and his work by visiting his website at www.supermanscrystals.com.