The Reverend Doctor Michael Lee Bennett hails from rural southern Ohio. He grew up in Greenville, Ohio, living on a farm very near the farm where Phoebe Anne Moses (a.k.a. "Annie Oakley") was born some 90 years earlier.

Mike attended college at Capital University, a parochial university of the former American Lutheran Church. Mike matriculated in the Pre-Seminary curriculum, majoring in Ancient Classical Languages (Latina and Greek) and English. He graduated in 1970, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree.

In September of 1970 Mike entered the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary, in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated in 1974, having earned a Master of Divinity degree. Just a few weeks after his graduation from seminary, Mike was ordained into the Word and Sacrament Ministry of the Lutheran Church, at a Service of Ordination held in his home church - St. John Lutheran Church, Greenville, Ohio. The preacher for the Ordination Service was the Reverend Melvin L.H. Oehrtman, who was Mike's uncle and mentor. Pastoral Stoles were presented to the newly-ordained Pastor Bennett, and a noted Lutheran pastor and theologian.

Pastor Bennett left for his first pastoral Call the very next day after he was ordained. He drove a U-Haul truck some 1,300 miles west, to his first parish, in South Dakota. He later served congregations in Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, and, lastly, Long Island, New York.

Pastor Bennett has ministered in the venue of Clinical Pastoral Ministry in addition to being a parish pastor. He served as a full-rotation chaplain at St. Luke's Methodist Hospital, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and also as the Departmental Chaplain for the Linn County (Iowa) Sheriff's Department. In the capacity of Departmental Chaplain, Pastor Bennett served in two medium-security prisons as well as the county jail. Pastor Bennett has continued the clinical ministry venue by being the Departmental Chaplain for the Brentwood, New York, Fire Department and the Nassau County (New York) Sheriff's Department.

Pastor Bennett is married to Debbie, who hails from Michigan. The couple are parents to five children and seven grandshildren. The number of grandchildren will increase to nine in the next few months, as two of their children and expecting the birth of a baby. Mike and Debbie have a "baby" of their own, their Golden Retriever, "Sadie".