10/13/2026
We're so excited for our final Gospel in the Garden of the season on Sunday, October 18, at 4:30PM!
Mike Henry will be blessing us with his music. Here's more about him:
Mike Henry (a.k.a. J. Michael Henry) is an acoustic musician from Culpeper, VA. Mike started to learn guitar at 10 years old and is mostly self-taught. Early influences include James Taylor, CSN(&Y), as well as a host of folk musicians.
After meeting the Lord in 1971, music came to be an important part of his faith, playing at church, leading worship, as well as secular music that would catch his ear. The question always is how does a musician that follows Christ still listen, enjoy and play music from the mainstream?
He first heard a band bridge this gap the night after he accepted Jesus into his heart. The band was a DC area band called Sons of Thunder, and he remembers vividly hearing them perform “Killing Me Softly”. The passion that the female singer put into the song made it obvious she was singing about Jesus.
Most of Mike’s musical life has been spent as part of worship bands at church, and in some places leading a worship team. Secular music was usually performed with close friends or as part of jam sessions. There was great fun in honing musical skills by playing with musicians of all levels of talent.
In the early 2000s, Mike and his wife Mimi joined a church that would incorporate “radio tunes” as special music to support the sermon. Mike had to master a wide variety of musical genres during this time, and as the worship leader for the informal “café” service, had to learn to arrange these songs to fit an acoustic worship service. This gave Mike a wide base of music from which he was able to draw later as a solo performer.
Early on, the thought of performing solo scared him to death. He even coaxed his wife to sing with him on a Steven Curtis Chapman song at his brother’s wedding. In 2014, Mike was invited to participate in an “open mic” at a coffeehouse in Haymarket. This was the first time he formally became a solo performer. This experience forced Mike to increase his repertoire and learn to perform alone. That experience has grown from three songs a night to now performing at wineries, breweries, restaurants and private events on a regular basis.
The faith that guides his life is a filter for selecting songs to perform live. No song that would compromise that faith is included in performances. There is also the consciousness about how he can be “salt” in the places where he is invited to play. This is done through a selection of positive songs, secular songs that can be interpreted in a Christian light, and songs that are Christian but not overtly so.
For all the event details, visit our website: https://www.remingtoncommunitygarden.org/event-details/gospel-in-the-garden-featuring-mike-henry