E-mail:  mickey_sanchez@harvard.edu
Telephone:  (781) 708-3573
Address:  Harvard Chaplains' Office, The Memorial Church, Harvard Yard
Special areas of interest:  Philosophy (especially epistemology), Christian origins, comparative religion, interfaith dialogue and social justice, hermeneutics, spiritual formation, board games and some super-hero related subject matter.

I advise the Harvard Graduate School Christian Fellowship (HGSCF) and am on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), particularly their Graduate and Faculty Ministry (GFM). HGSCF has fellowships at most of Harvard’s graduate schools (for a full listing see the HGSCF Web site).

Whatever your background, feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you’d like to get connected or want to talk about anything over a meal or coffee (my treat!).  I would love to hear your story, know how you’re doing, and journey with you.  To get the ball rolling, here’s some of my story…

Personal Background:

I’m a Latino native New Yorker, born and raised in NYC (Flushing, Queens).  My family immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia in the late 60’s.  Though I grew up going to church, I was just going through the paces until I first decided to seriously doubt and leave the Christian faith during my time at the Bronx High School of Science.  Those initial doubts started me on a spiritual journey that continues today—and I haven’t stopped doubting since!

Through processing my doubt I gained a clearer understanding of who Jesus was and what he was all about. In the end, I found Jesus and his “good news” so compelling that I decided to accept his invitation to follow him and enter into a personal relationship with him.

During my undergrad years I majored in political science and lead a couple of Christian groups on campus.  Doubt had been so crucial to my spiritual journey that I decided to regularly attend the Atheist Club (now Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers) in order to foster dialogue between our groups, continue exposing myself to other perspectives and challenge my own faith.  I continued that relationship after college while I worked for New York City Council Member John Liu (now NYC Comptroller).

Interestingly, it was my relationship with the Atheist Club that helped me realize that my strongest passions were in theological and interfaith dialogue, so I enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and pursued the M.Div. and Th.M. degrees with my wife.   While in seminary, I interned at The Harvard Pluralism Project and cross-registered at Harvard Divinity School, taking courses in the philosophy of other religions.  As a chaplain, my desire is to make some contribution toward helping to foster robust dialogue, social action and relationship between different faith communities.  My dream would be to see us all come to a deeper understanding of each other while making a difference in the world and a forging a few friendships along the way—all much needed in our increasingly pluralistic world.

After seminary, and directly prior to my work with InterVarsity, I was on staff at Highrock Church in Arlington, Massachusetts.  There, I co-founded a ministry of lay spiritual direction, called the Highrock Spiritual Guides, with my wife.  This ministry was the practical culmination of our Th.M. studies in spiritual formation.  I hope to translate some of that work to our campus setting.  Lastly, I began an initiative called Xplore to help guests explore Christianity and to help Christians learn how to engage in faith conversations through listening, learning and dialogue.

My Family Circle:

My wife, Michelle, is Pastor of Christian Formation at Highrock Church.  She also worked as an Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs, before entering ministry.  Our two-year-old son, Seth, is Director of Mommy and Daddy’s Free Time.  In that capacity, he keeps us delightfully entertained and thoroughly challenged.