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Michael Liimatta, Director of City Vision College

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Michael Liimatta has spent over thirty years in urban ministry and work with the homeless and addicted.  He has served as a pastor and educator as well as a ministry executive director, a consultant and an addiction counselor.

Since January, 2008, Michael has served as Director of City Vision College,  Kansas City, Missouri.  The college is the online distance learning program of TechMission which is based in Boston, MA.

Beginning 1990, he spent seventeen years as Director of Education for the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, a network of 300 rescue missions and other urban ministries that help the homeless, addicts and alcoholics and the needy. As part of his duties with AGRM, he oversaw the establishment of City Vision College in 1998 (first named "Rescue College)..

Before that he spent ten years as executive director of New Creation Center in Atlantic Mine, MI, which he founded in 1979.  His introduction to urban ministry was serving as a live-in counselor with Midwest Challenge during his seminary years in Minneapolis, MN.


Hear Michael's Testimony -  "Unshackled" Radio Drama courtesy of Pacific Garden Mission

 

Professional Background

During his seminary years in Minneapolis, Michael worked with Midwest Challenge as a counselor in their addiction rehabilitation program and helped to develop their prison and jail outreach.   

In 1979, he founded New Creation Ministries in Hancock, Michigan. During his tenure as Executive Director of New Creation, its programs included an outreach to correctional institutions, a professionally staffed outpatient counseling program, and a licensed Christ-centered residential drug and alcohol treatment center that served primarily indigent men.   

In his early years as Director of Education for the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, Michael spent much time helping rescue missions to develop more effective recovery programs for addicts and their families.

His major responsibility for the last ten years with the association was the development of Rescue College.  The program began as a cooperative degree program with Grace University in Omaha, NE.  Michael was responsible for overseeing the development of the curriculum and recruiting a faculty of urban ministry professionals with a heart to mentor future leaders.  He also developed acourse management system for the delivery of the courses via the Internet.

Michael led the process of obtaining accreditation with the Distance Education and Training Council.  He is continuing with many of these same responsibilities as director of TechMission's City Vision College.

Other duties while with the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions:

  • Coordinator of the Alcoholics Victorious network of 12 step recovery support groups (no longer an AGRM program).
  • Editor of the Short-term Urban Missions Directory (now a part of TechMission's ChristianVolunteering.org)
  • Lecturing, writing, and consulting in the areas of addiction recovery for the homeless and various issues related to the effective management of Christian nonprofit organizations.

Michael is a founding board member of Christians in Recovery, an online community for believers in recovery from addictions and other life problems.  He was also involved with a number of other development projects for web sites and Internet strategies for several different nonprofit organizations. 

Michael also served on the original online education committee of ACCESS  and designed the Rescue College course, "Introduction to College Study on the Internet" which won of the 1998 ACCESS/Christianity Today Online Course of the Year Award.

 

Published Works

Because he has struggled with addiction himself and grew up in a dysfunctional alcoholic family, he brings a unique perspective to the field of rescue mission counseling. Along with his theological training, Michael has many hours of training in the principles of substance abuse treatment. He has spent hundreds of hours in counseling with chemically dependent individuals and their family members.   

In 1993, AGRM has published a resource entitled A Guide to Effective Rescue Mission Recovery Programs which consists of 12 recordings from his seminars for chaplains, counselors, and program directors and a 250 page manual. While aimed at rescue missions, this resource offers many helpful resources and useful principles that can be used to develop and enhance residential recovery programs in any setting.   A follow up to this resource entitled, First Things First, was published in 2000.  

Michael also wrote a column for 15 years for RESCUE magazine.  Portions of both publications and the many of the magazine articles are available online, including the recorded lectures, and are used in various City Vision College courses.


Education

  • Bachelor of Theology, Inter-Lutheran Theological Seminary, Minneapolis, MN (now in Hancock, MI)
     
  • Master of Arts in Organizational Administration, MidAmerica Nazarene University, Olathe, KS.
     

Michael is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God.

 


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