A Game of Inches

Sep 27, 2021 | Uncategorized

I was complaining recently to my trainer that I didn’t think I was making much progress towards my health goals.  She paused a moment, and then said, “Well, what gains were you expecting?  Because, at this stage of our journey – if you are diligent and focused – you will see subtle changes that let you age well.  And may I just emphasize ‘subtle changes’ and ‘age well’?  This is a game of inches.” 

I have pondered this “game of inches” comment the past week vis-à-vis my spiritual goals.  I become frustrated there to – maybe you do not, but I do.  I keep wanting to be better at prayer (by which I mean just be able to do it longer without my attention shifting to something else!).  I want to be more willing to listen than talk.  I want to love more deeply and truthfully.  I want lots of things like that – things I think I should be by now, but suspect I am not.  I think, however, that I could be in this same “game of inches” in my spiritual journey.

The days of my confession of faith are long behind me.  I have read the scriptures enough times that I know most of the stories by heart. I have memorized (and forgotten) long chunks of scripture.  I have meditated over scripture and asked God to make it new to me —  to help me see Him anew in the pages —  because it is so familiar. Please don’t hear me suggesting that I know all scripture by rote or that I have it all stored in my heart.  I have a long way to go on both of those.  However, my early days of joyful discovery and the newness of my salvation are well behind me.  I will not have those large strides in learning that I once had.  My behavior is more steady.  I am not undergoing radical change in friends or life choices as I once did.  In short, I am doing all the things we are told we should be doing to draw closer to God and yet…it seems like my “drawing closer” is slow and in small starts and pieces.

I am in a season of my journey with God where I could so easily become complacent and coast thru my faith.  I am in the habit of doing all the things an obedient believer ought to do (read the Bible, pray,  journal, go to church, praise, serve others).  Yet still I can see my flaws so clearly and wonder if I am making any headway on this journey with God.  I would like to be more like Christ.  But am I?  Am I more like Him this year than last?  Did I handle the most recent bumpy part of life with His peace wrapped around me?  Do I lean more on Him and less on my bank account or my ability to spout Bible trivia upon command?  In short, am I changing?  Because I want to.  

In my humanity, I’d like to see big changes in me.  But in truth, it is probably a “game of inches”.  If I am diligent and focused daily on the disciplines I know I should have, then I will see subtle changes and I will  finish well.  

Honestly, I don’t love the inches.  I love the grand gesture, the joy of discovering something profound and new, the moment of life change when I turn away from sin and towards God.  Is it still possible to have large strides in my faith?  Yes.  Remember the “refining fire” in 1 Peter?  Yep, that could do it.  Or The Holy Spirit could just swoop in and remove some sin in my life.  So it is still possible to have “the grand gesture” and “the moment of life change”.  Yet I am not seeing that today.  Today I am seeing the game of inches. Perhaps this is true of you also?
If so, my fellow inch-ers, let us gather together and exhort one another to excellence and diligence in our game of inches.  Galatians 6:9 (NIV)  says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  I don’t want to give up.  Nor do I want to become complacent in my current spot.  I want to press in, press on, gain the prize!  And this means – today – being diligent and faithful, cherishing the subtle changes that will let me finish well.

Do I believe the truth? Is that enough? | Jane Minnick

Aug 5, 2021 | Uncategorized

Jane set her coffee down on the table and then sat down, folding her hands in front of her. Her usual, warm smile found its place on her face and her welcoming spirit instantly filled the space as she began to share that she became a Christian as a little girl. She shares more about her background before sharing that she married Jay 33 years ago and they had three beautiful children while Jane taught elementary school. 

After her children grew up, and after Jane retired from teaching, she entered into one of the most transformative seasons of her life. After her retirement, a trusted friend and pastor warned her that she would go through a feeling of uncomfortableness and that it would be ok to live in that feeling. He then encouraged her to read the book, “The Gift of Being Yourself”. 

At the time, Jane felt like she wouldn’t need this book. She was excitedly looking forward to the freedom that would come from retirement. 

“I taught for 30 years – right out of college. I taught third, fourth, and fifth grade the whole time, and I loved it. I loved my career. But I knew when my 30 years was done, I wanted to be done. As a teacher, you always miss out on your own children’s moments. You see a lot of other kids’ moments, but you miss out on your own kids’. God showed me right away that I could be home when Clayton would come by or Mikayla would call any time from college. Prior to that, I was available from 10:00 – 10:30 every day but Wednesday, and that’s the only time they could call me. I missed a lot, it felt like. I was done missing moments. You still get a lot of grown-up children moments that I’m glad I have.”

However, after what felt like a typical summer break, school headed back into session and Jane found herself home…and some uncomfortable feelings began to creep in. 

“In a backwards complimentary way people would tell me I was too young to stop working, what are you going to do with yourself? Even though I know they meant that in a good way, it felt really yucky.” 

She began to question her identity, her purpose, and even her value.

“I thought, ‘Where is my self worth? I’m not a teacher. I’m not a mom,’ even though I was a mom just not needed in that capacity. ‘I’m not a grandma. So, what am I?’”

The words of her friend and the wisdom he had imparted on her kept echoing in her head: “It is ok to be uncomfortable.” 

“We don’t want to sit and wrestle ever, well at least I don’t. But, it was like he gave me permission to sit and wrestle. I had time to figure it out.” 

After several months of sifting through the uncomfortable feelings and awkward questions about what she would do with her time, Jane picked up “The Gift of Being Yourself” and slowly began to read. 

“I just really wanted to hear from God. I sensed that He was saying, ‘Just read and just be quiet and I will take care of you.’ Really it was through reading, trusting, and praying that God began to speak. I prayed ‘I know You have a plan for me and it’s a good one and it’s for Your Kingdom. I’ve done school, now how can You use me even deeper?’” 

Jane’s voice became earnest and thick as she remembered the time she heard so deeply and intimately from God through the little book her friend had given her to read. 

“I remember reading, ‘You’re a child of God and that’s all you need to be,’ and that just struck me. That’s exactly right. Then I just dwelled on that for a long time. Even though you know the truth and you know the truth…” 

Jane gestured to her head and her heart as she spoke… 

“You have to decide, ‘Do I believe the truth? Is that enough?’ Even though I’m not a teacher anymore or a mom with other responsibilities is it ok to just be this?” 

Unshed tears gleamed in Jane’s eyes as she reached for a tissue and smiled… 

“It is.” 

Jane continued to share the revelation of truth she experienced reading this book.

“I had to wrestle a little with that. It was through the book I was able to grasp that ultimately, I’m a child of God and that’s my identity. Period. I don’t have to be anyone else. I’m God’s child and He’ll use me however He chooses. When I read that, it was so freeing. I’m good with that. That’s all I have to be. I don’t have to make an excuse or come up with a justification of why I do this or that. That’s who I am. And if I’m living how God wants me to live and doing what He wants me to do, there’s my identity. He showed me so clearly that’s all I need to be. All of us feel like we need to be so many other things and forget the most important thing.” 

New opportunities began to present themselves to Jane, as she carefully chose what she would do to fill her time and what areas she could best be used in. One of the first things she did upon retirement was sign up to be a mentor mom for Pleasant Valley’s “Moments” group. A gaggle of young mamas gather together monthly to eat, celebrate new births, and be encouraged in their walk with the Lord. Jane wanted to be a part of that. She knew that she’d be sharing a devotional with these women and began praying about what she was supposed to share. 

“My devotion came to me in a dream. I dreamed about all of the different hats that we wear as moms and as women. We get bogged down with all the things we do. We think that that’s who we are, when ultimately, people’s identities are stripped away, forced away, taken away, sometimes we just lose identities as we go through circles of life. But ultimately underneath all of that is who we are – a child of God. I woke up realizing that there it is. That’s what I needed to tell these women.”

It was in that dream and shortly after that Jane felt the constant and promising whisper of the Lord saying, “You have a purpose beyond teaching.” 

Jane and Jay began serving with PV’s Twentysomethings ministry and have been two of the key leaders in getting the ministry off the ground. Jane has taken time to meet with some of the group members as they’ve obtained a degree in education and prepared for their first year of teaching. She’s shared some of the wisdom she gained from 30 plus years of teaching and prays for them and their students specifically. She also began serving on the Staff Care Team at PV and has looked for other ways to serve. Her aim is to keep serving and keep her heart and hands open. 

Jane’s soft eyes sparkle with excitement, and peace radiates from within her when asked how this season was the most transformative.

“It is freeing to me. Don’t you see people in life where their whole identity is their job or being a mom? Those are super important and I wouldn’t have changed those for anything. But, when all those go away, who are you still? When we learn that, it makes us a better Christ follower. You’re God’s child and He’s going to use you how He wants to. I’ve learned that I don’t need all of the hats of identity I’ve worn over the years. Jesus is enough.” 

Continual Long-Term Faithfulness | Lake McGinty

Jul 29, 2021 | Uncategorized

Lake McGinty pulls out his chair and sits at the table, tossing his long brown curls away from his face and smiling a jovial smile. He begins to share his story, his slight accent revealing itself every so often, softening the harsh vowels of the standard American tongue. 

“The instantaneous moments are not how God spoke into my life. It has been His continual long-term faithfulness that has pulled me in.”

Lake tells of his earliest years in St. Louis, Missouri, where his family lived out the beginnings of the American dream. When he was seven, Lake found a professing faith in Jesus and just two years later, his parents’ followed God’s calling on their lives to serve as missionaries to college students in Cape Town, South Africa. 

The University of Cape Town, or UCT, is the largest university in Africa. Lake’s parents ran a nondenominational ministry for students, and Lake, his older sister, and younger brother attended public school in South Africa. 

“That was my life for the next ten years or so. Public school in South Africa is a lot more of a blend of cultures. And it was a huge culture shock, to sum it up – going from a small suburb of St. Louis to a large city in South Africa with my parents serving at a university with over 100 nations represented. I was in school with people from every background, worldview, ethnic background. It became very easy to just be the Christian kid, but the biggest struggle for me was intimacy with relationships. Being a kid who moved around a lot, I had very shallow friendships.” 

Despite Lake’s academic and athletic achievements, he often felt like he didn’t belong. 

“I always felt like the social outcast. Which is interesting because I was in the upper end of academics; I was the star of the basketball team, and played rugby for four years in high school. I was known by everyone in my year, but primarily because I was the American. But I could bound around and fool myself into thinking I was known. After high school I realized I’d never had a close Christian friend.”

Lake’s lack of deep and steady friendships trickled into how he viewed the Lord. 

“The truth that God never leaves and never wants to distance Himself was a hard one to believe.” 

As Lake began college, first at a Bible college in South Africa, then at a small, Christian college in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, and finally at Missouri S&T, he found that because of his lack of long-term friendships over the years, walls had been placed around his heart, protecting him from getting too close to someone who might be a temporary figure in his life. Through the Lord’s gentle pursuance and the deep relationship with others, those walls began to crumble.

“None of the walls coming down were my doing. There were a few key people who spoke directly into that – whether they knew they were doing it or not. One was a young man at the Bible college in South Africa. His name is Johan.” 

Johan was the first deliberate mentor Lake had in his life. He was the first person to push Lake out of his comfort zone and directly pursue a friendship with him. 

“He insisted on having deep conversations and showed up at my room at the most inopportune times. He taught me about God’s persistence and calling us back to Him, then catching us when we don’t want to be seen by Him. Johan would interrupt me when I wrote poetry. And as one who gets very vulnerable and most often uses poetry as a way to talk to God, Johan asking, ‘What’s this about? Will you read it to me?’ felt like an invasion of my privacy, but it was God showing me that inviting other people into the gifts that He has given me is a form of faithfulness.” 

While God worked through Johan to reach Lake’s heart, he didn’t grasp that he was called to do the same thing for others.

After Lake moved back to the United States to attend Covenant College, two more people began pouring into Lake’s life as well. 

“Nathaniel, who we called Nanny, was my RA. And he, independent of his actual position, led us in Bible studies and encouraged each of us to lead one during the semester. That was the first direct call to serve in teaching that I had experienced. And then Peter. He was a dear friend and accountability partner, and also a missionary kid – his parents served in China. He was the first friend of mine where I felt understood. I could talk about struggles with fitting in in the United States, and Peter understood what it was like to have a little bit of an accent. It helped me to learn that God understands our context more than anyone else because He knows. I learned that truth is a foundation in a Christ-driven friendship. You have to know each other in order to best speak into each other’s lives and best uplift one another.” 

While at Missouri S&T, Lake developed a one-on-one discipleship relationship for the first time, and finally understood the importance of pursuing a discipleship friendship himself.

“Jason was the first person to one-on-one disciple me. We went through Psalms and Proverbs throughout the course of two years. It was an intense study, but it was life-centric and ultimately, God showed me the depth His scripture and theology can apply to everything in our lives.” 

After being discipled, Lake felt the Holy Spirit leading him to now disciple others. He asked his friend, Will, and he agreed to be discipled by Lake. 

Lake and Will met weekly, studying Scripture, but also reading through C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, seeking out Lewis’ intentional inclusion of theology in his writings. 

“Throughout the course of time, God used each one of those friends to gradually reveal to me what it means to be in a friendship first, but a friendship that goes on beyond the day’s events and what you enjoy and includes hard things, like calling each other out, keeping one another accountable, and praising together. Now, I can say all of these men, in their own way, have become like brothers to me. I think there’s a new found understanding of the value of every human life in that. And discipleship is a two-way street. I think that the Lord reveals to His children the value of being helped.”

While at Missouri S&T, Lake was actively involved in their student ministry where he served as president during his last year of school, giving him many opportunities for discipleship relationships. From shallow friendships with no idea that intimacy in Christian circles is a gift the Lord has given us, to leading an entire ministry of Church community, Lake’s relationship with others and with the Lord changed drastically. He could now see how the Lord is a faithful friend who desires intimacy with us and never leaves. 

After Lake graduated, he began looking for a job and while many doors closed, the Lord made it clear that he was going to work in Kansas City. Shortly after moving, he found Pleasant Valley and began attending Twenty-Somethings, determined to find community but also get involved in leading, discipling, and serving as well. Lake’s longing for intimate friendships is a direct result of the walls God tore down around his heart. 

And while Lake now has deep and steady friendships, he has learned that Jesus is really the best friend of all. 

“Jesus is faithful and not shallow. He’s been faithful to surround me with people who love Him and then encourages me to surround myself with people I need to share His love with. It isn’t a shallow faithfulness, it is a deeper faithfulness – He knows the depth of us and chooses to give us the depths of Him. Jesus is faithful.”

Phileo 

Am I a burden to my friends? 

Am I the one clinging to a past I’ve journeyed beyond? 

Do I seem to them to grasp at fading ripples of our times, 

Never again able to create the waves that bore us hence

And look as though longing to never use the past tense? 

On the surface it seems waves don’t travel far, 

Can’t brave the miles between. 

But, underneath, I think, they span entire oceans 

And traverse the waters unseen. 

That is what I hope to be,

The connector, the tides joining the continents. 

Not hoping for times fading, 

Not expecting a splash anew, 

But joining lives together, 

seeing no need for them to drift apart

And trusting that the months and miles mean nothing to the heart. 

So I pray I’m not a riptide pulling them back to sea, 

Brought along for the ride as I drag them along, 

Nor that I come across as one who is locked and bound to distant memories. 

But, rather one who believes it is to eternity that brothers belong

And that we can endure seasons of silence amidst phileo’s song. 

A poem by Lake McGinty 

Beyond an act of Service | Mitchell Neth

Jul 22, 2021 | Uncategorized

Mitchell Neth is no stranger to the halls of Pleasant Valley. In fact, if walls could talk, they would tell of Mitchell’s boyhood, running to and fro in the nursery and preschool areas and beyond. Mitchell has called Pleasant Valley home for as long as he can remember and his parents’ involvement in the church certainly helped him feel more at ease here. 

“My dad led worship and my mom was leading K-2. All throughout elementary school my parents and their relationship with the Church had kind of a complacency. We did church and knew God was a part of our lives and could check it off of a list. For me, I thought my church experience was to reflect what they did.”

Mitchell settled into his chair, adjusted his glasses, and folded his arms on the table in front of him as he began explaining that a legalistic mindset began early on for him. He believed that he needed to serve in order to have a relationship with the Lord. 

“I needed to do something that is a part of this organization to further grow it and then it will grow me.”

Mitchell’s willingness to serve was certainly commendable, but he never knew and never practiced what it was to be a disciple. 

Mitchell never experienced community in the church. In middle school, he began attending LUMY – the local Methodist church’s student ministry – because many of his friends from school also attended. It was there Mitchell began to discover community. 

“I value that time because it turned church from being, in my mind, a service opportunity into a community opportunity, and I realized I have friends that are here for a reason because they actually care about spiritual engagement. They’re active in something other than just school.”

It was around that time Mitchell began to learn that the role of the Church is in God’s Kingdom rather than just in his own life. However, His personal relationship with God still revolved around how Mitchell could serve the Church and not on how God could change Mitchell’s heart.

While Mitchell still attended Pleasant Valley, he wasn’t involved in the student ministry. He had spent years fine-tuning his skills on the tech team and working with production for the weekend services and faithfully served in this capacity. 

Mitchell leaned back into his chair, folding his arms against his chest as he wondered if anyone ever asked: “What does Mitchell need at this time? How does the Lord want to move in Mitchell besides what he needs to learn for production? How do we challenge his heart?” 

Mitchell’s skills were exceptional and his heart bent towards serving led him to working, rather than attending, several Summerfest camps with PV’s student ministry. 

“I was blindsided to the fact that [camp] was meant for me to engage in and not serve in. I always had a separate room with leaders and wasn’t tied into general activities. That was the story of my middle school years.” 

However, a few people in the student ministry recognized that Mitchell was missing out and began encouraging him to engage more – as a student not just a servant. 

“I was blind to what happened downstairs in our church because my weekends were occupied with running cameras or graphics or helping the tech director however I thought I could. It was sad that I got drawn in too much to the service side, but I didn’t know what else to expect because that was the model my parents had painted for me.”

Then, during Mitchell’s freshman year of high school, things began to shift for him.

“My freshmen year I finally attended camp as a student. That was the first year we split Summerfest with middle school and high school. What that meant for me was that I could see what the life of a raw Christian student is like.”

High school students who also served, led for the first week of middle school camp then joined with all of the other high school students for the second week. Other students who also served in different capacities reached out to Mitchell and showed him a healthier balance of serving, engaging, and growing. 

“God intentionally put people around me who were peace in the chaos of camp. In the midst of middle school students and a lot going on, they still were able to dedicate their time as a student leader and be able to focus on the Lord effectively, really listen to His word and not always have to act.”

At Summerfest, Mitchell experienced a powerful night of worship. 

“It was the first time I actually sat in a group of people with one collective voice, no worship leader and just a few guitars. Some of the songs I didn’t actually know. I remember hearing ‘Heart of Worship,’ for the first time and the lyrics just washed over me.”

It was in that moment Mitchell prayed and surrendered to the Lord. 

“I said, ‘I want to be ready for what You have for me beyond my service. I want to be able to surrender to You in this time.’ I saw this as a short sighted time, but He wanted to carry it out a lot longer. With the teaching that week, and the community, I finally accepted Christ as my Savior. I got baptized later that week. People were shocked. They thought I was a Christian.” 

This turning point was critical and distinct in Mitchell’s life. 

“The Lord cared for a heart that was so involved in His church, but from a work level shrouding it in service. He said to me, ‘I need you to surrender to Me in this moment and for a lifetime.’ For a while I was upset with God. I felt like I’d missed something for my entire life. But He spoke to me and simultaneously revealed that what I was missing out on was Him. And I was missing out on community with other students.”

From then on, Mitchell has focused on not just stacking up service but figuring out what he’s actually good at and called to do. 

“My relationship with the Lord and love for the Word and the hope that He has provided has formed what is now the necessary overflow for service. It fuels anything production-wise way better than whatever I was doing before. There’s a lot of calling and responsibility the Lord has placed on my shoulders. I need to really surrender to the Lord and focus on Him as my core to give Him much better quality service rather than quantity.”

Mitchell doesn’t just want to serve because he thinks it would further his relationship with the Lord, or because he feels like the church might have something to offer him, he now serves because of a deep desire to glorify God in his actions – whatever way he can. 

“Surrendering to Jesus was the start of the desire. I’ve seen and tasted a glimpse of His goodness and I want to put Him at the center of that.” 

Mitchell’s relationship with the Lord has deepened as He’s learned that God didn’t put him here to do it alone. God has given Mitchell community and opportunities to be discipled by others as he continues to grow in his walk with the Lord. 

Mitchell still serves on the production team at Pleasant Valley, but he also serves as a leader for middle school boys pointing them to Jesus. Mitchell’s deep study of God’s Word has only excited him and continued to reveal to him his purpose and calling in the Church. 

“Every word in Scripture is meant to be offerings of hope for our place in His Kingdom. Jesus is the embodiment of that and His Word is that as well. Because I know that my service has a purpose and a place, Jesus is my living hope.”