Monroe pastor Mike Weeks ministered straight from the heart

Published 10:27 pm Saturday, April 19, 2008

MONROE — Charles “Mike” Weeks was a family man, a man of compassion and action, who ministered faithfully to the people of Monroe and the Sky Valley.

He did so the only way he knew how: with love.

Weeks was the associate family pastor at Heritage Baptist Church in Monroe. As the family pastor, his passion was to unify and strengthen not only families but particularly to equip husbands as the spiritual leaders of their home.

“He was a tremendous inspiration as a spiritual leader and as a father,” pastor Thomas Minnick said. “He raised four outstanding sons and was an inspiration to families in the church. He was an example to everyone.”

Before he was a pastor, Weeks was an athlete and an educator.

Weeks, who was born on June 19, 1949, in Wichita Falls, Texas, was an avid student and a gifted athlete. After graduating from Palo Duro High School and Amarillo College, he signed on to the Atlanta Braves as a pitcher and joined their farm team for three years.

It was during this time that his interests shifted, and Weeks was offered a slot at the United States Air Force Academy.

He decided to join the Navy instead.

After a four-year term of service, Weeks moved to Arizona where he married his wife, Patricia.

“Both of us were going to school at the University of Arizona, then we both taught high school in the Mesa public school system,” Patricia Weeks said.

Mike Weeks decided to get a degree in physical therapy from the University of Washington and in 1981 moved to Seattle. It was during this time that he felt the call to ministry and in 1983 became the administrator of Shorecrest Baptist Church, where he also taught part time.

He began ministering to families at Heritage Baptist Church.

According to son Nathan Weeks, his father’s job at Summit Rehabilitation in Sultan was a ministry as well.

“I got a chance to work with him at the clinic and I think he saw physical therapy as a form of ministry,” Nathan Weeks said. “It spoke to his ability as a pastor, to be able to reach into the church and the world and help people.”

Mike Weeks also was an avid golfer, enjoying the game almost as much as the quality time it afforded him with his sons.

“Dad would get up early — as in so early it should still be dark outside. It was during these times that he would spend time with us, talking about what it meant to be a man and talk to us about real maturity, spiritual maturity,” Nathan Weeks said.

Timothy Weeks said that his father impressed upon his sons to model themselves after Jesus Christ.

“He wanted us boys to be there in the ministry, and we were. From when the church doors opened until they closed,” Timothy Weeks said. “He wanted us to grow up in the church and continue to be a part of it throughout our lives.”

Mike Weeks died March 31 from cancer. He was 59.

He is survived by his wife Patricia; four sons, Stephen, Nathan, Seth and Timothy, of Sultan; his father, Charles and mother, Jeanne, of Amarillo, Texas; brother, Mark and his wife, Gayle, of Elkhart, Kan.; and two sisters, Janet, of Amarillo, Texas, and Sheri and her husband, Sam, of Edmond, Okla.

Reporter Justin Arnold: 425-339-3432 or jarnold@heraldnet.com.