He found himself in his junior year struggling emotionally and spiritually.  He remembers feeling very lost and very confused.  Then one afternoon, He had a dream. It was extremely real and very powerful. He interpreted the dream as a call into ministry. Although he was Methodist at the time, at the behest of his District Superintendent, he applied to Union Seminary in Richmond and was accepted in his junior year of College.

In the summer after his first year at Union, as his field experience, he chose to take one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education training. This is a program where (along with peer colleagues) one receives direct supervision as a pastoral counselor from one trained as a pastoral counseling supervisor. The program was unique in that it was stationed in an African American congregation in Petersburg, Virginia. The experience had a profound effect on Michael. He felt a strong calling toward specialized ministry in pastoral care and counseling – a calling that would be realized about thirteen years later.

In September of his second year at Union, Michael met his wife, Janet, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, playing flag football. She was just entering the Presbyterian School of Christian Education right across the street from the seminary. They fell in love, were engaged in February of 1986 and married by the next August. In his last year of seminary, he began to have trouble with the United Methodist’s system of polity. His struggle finally led him to seek ordination in the Presbyterian Church. By the time he graduated from seminary in 1987, he had joined a Presbyterian church and had passed all five of his ordination exams.

Since Janet became a certified educator in the church, they have subsequently served together in a local church on three occasions: 1. At First, Morristown, TN (1987-1990) where he was associate pastor; 2. At Westminster, Florence, AL (1990-1996) where he was the pastor (It was there that Janet felt called to work primarily with children and so had returned to the University of North Alabama in order to get her master’s in elementary education allowing her to teach in the public schools. It was also there that both of their children were born – Carl in 1992 and Grace in 1994); 3. And finally at Central, in Bristol, TN (1996-2000) as part time co-educators.  It was while at Central that he worked to fulfill that earlier calling by seeking a master’s in counseling at East TN State University (ETSU).

Michael graduated from the counseling program in May of 1999 having also completed all of his clinical requirements as a result of landing a position at the ETSU Counseling Center while working half time at the Central Church and being a full time student. He thus became licensed as a Marital and Family Therapist (LMFT) in the State of Tennessee in June of 1999. Michael is a Clinical Member of the American Association of Marital and Family (AAMFT) as well as an Approved Supervisor (someone who is certified by the state to oversee the clinical work of therapists in training).

In 2000, he was called to a dual position: the Associate Executive for the Care of Church Professionals in the Presbytery of East Tennessee (pastoral counselor to the pastors) and Pastor of the Madisonville Church.  The Stanfield family moved to Maryville and Janet landed a job teaching fourth grade at Sam Houston Elementary. While in Madisonville, the church grew to be too large for Michael to handle half time and the position with the presbytery changed. But before he could update his status as that of “Pastor seeking a call”, Sequoyah Hills came calling. Dr. Bill Barron, who had been the head of staff at the church for 24 years, was close to retirement so the church was looking for someone with Administrative experience to act as a stable bridge for the inevitable transition to a new head of staff and also to work with middle-aged and older adults.  The last five years have been a whirlwind of change. Bill retired in June of 2008, Dr. Bruce Lancaster was called as interim in September of 2008 and the new head of staff, Dr. Holton Siegling was called in January of 2011. Michael is as excited as he can be about his arrival. It is a joy for him to serve together with one with so much joy-filled energy; and it is good to have someone to support his greatest passions in ministry which revolve around pastoral care and counseling.

Michael has ample opportunity to serve in this capacity, using his counseling skills in ministering to couples, families, and individuals as well as resourcing programs like Stephen Ministry and Griefshare. His approach to counseling is spiritually centered. He is quite conscious of God’s presence. He tends to understand the people he works with in a similar way as he does his work with the Bible. The books of the Bible are multi-layered, often multi-meaninged stories – stories of God’s unfolding revelation to and relationship with humanity. He discovers who God is and who he is by learning those stories and trying to make sense out of them for his own life.

In a similar way, he believes an individual, a couple, or a family identify themselves by the stories they tell and retell about themselves. Michael views his role with those seeking help as that of a storyteller or interpreter of stories who has been called to help folks get in touch with the multiple meanings and deeper insights their stories have to offer for their lives.

Indeed, every person, couple or family he encounters is uniquely in possession of a story unlike that of any other. The story’s power and majesty is usually found, not in how it fits with everybody else’s story of what it means to be human and a child of God (which is what most of us try to do), but how it is different. In fact, it is at this point of difference where ironically both the difficulty and presence of God are usually felt the strongest. It is, as Christ told us, where one’s peculiar cross is to be found and born.

Whenever God appears directly to anyone in scripture to ask them to do something, it is because God has given them some odd gift that God now needs. But rather than rejoice at such an encounter, the witness of scripture unanimously demonstrates that the encounter results initially in fear and dread. It is not until God’s grace is felt, “Fear not.” is heard from above, and God’s call is understood that one is able to get past the dread and move in the direction of God’s call.

This is what Michael believes is often happening to people who find themselves in need of counseling. Some odd gift from God is being perceived as a threat or a burden. What is often diagnosed by our secular culture as depression, or an anxiety disorder, or trouble in a marriage or a family, may actually be God’s relentless attempt to get our attention. The trouble is we usually lack the type of faithful insight that we have something worthy to offer to a plan that is in the mind of God. The work of pastoral therapy is often coming to understand one’s peculiar pain as a possible symptom of a new, as yet, unrealized calling.