103. Michael Acker: When You Are Down to Nothing, God is Up To Something

The journey with Jesus is not an easy one. It takes a simple yes and a series of continual yeses; especially, in seasons of difficult trials and tribulations. The reality is when one comes to the end of their rope, the potential of the beginning of something great becomes tangible and real. In this episode, Michael shares his authentic story of "when you are down to nothing, God is up to something."

Go On The Mission

Life on Purpose: A Practical Tool for Crafting a God-honoring, Joy-producing Personal Mission Statement

https://www.michaelacker.com

Transcript

EP103 Michael Acker Final

Jack: [00:00:00] Jesus in my life, episode 103. 

Michael Acker: I got to the spot where I was lonely. I was depressed. I was resentful and I started drinking alcohol again. I hadn't been drinking alcohol for years, but every night I'm drinking one cup, two cups. I'm not waking up to read my Bible. I'm not waking up to go to the gym. I'm frustrated.

I'm mad. I'm working seven days a week in ministry. And I got to a spot where I was driving down the road in California, thinking, you know, I'm not going to pull off the side of the road off the cliff, but if someone hit me and I tumbled down the side of the cliff, I'd be okay with it.

Jack: Welcome to Jesus in my life, a podcast with Robin Jack, where we interview everyday people like me and you about their extraordinary experiences with our savior, Jesus Christ. Welcome to another episode of Jesus in my life podcast. This [00:01:00] is your host, Jack, with my co host Rob. Hey everybody, we're so blessed to be with you today.

In studio we have a new friend, his name is Michael Acker, and wow, this guy has a story. His dad was a drug dealer, his mom was a witch, and he became a pastor. You know, we'll dive into how that happened. He's also an author. of a Christian book. He even smuggled Bibles into China with YWAM, and now he's the executive director at Go On The Mission, which is a Christ focused ministry that brings Jesus to Latin America and Africa through many different ways.

And we're really honored to have you on the show, Michael. Welcome. 

Michael Acker: Hey, thank you so much. I'm looking forward to talking with you, telling my story, encouraging your audience, entertaining, but also bringing out some nuggets that just says, Hey, this is, this is how to take that next step forward. 

Jack: Let's dive into that.

What a [00:02:00] lead in, right? Your dad was a drug dealer and your mom was a witch and you became a pastor. All right. It almost sounds like a beginning of a joke, right? Like it doesn't make sense. So, so, you know, tell us a little bit about your early life. Like. How did you end up becoming a pastor with the kind of background that you came from?

Michael Acker: Yeah, absolutely. So I often do this talk when I'm in like some different circles where I talk about the decisions that you make today changes the destiny of those around you tomorrow. And really that's part of the story of just my life. Where my mom and my dad met, my dad came from a dysfunctional background.

My grandma was awful. And so he went and paid his way through college by spelling weed out of the back of his car and then realized, man, I can make some money out of this. We had to cut out the middleman, learn how to speak Spanish and fly down to Mexico, learn how to get a plane and fly the plane and became a pilot, still as a pilot and would fly down, get everything himself.

We'll bring it back. Spent a couple nights in jail here and there. This is back [00:03:00] in the pre cartel days, so there is that kind of disclaimer. So he was like, well, I wasn't really a drug dealer, more like a drug runner or drug smuggler. I was like, yeah, but then you dealt the drugs. He's like, well, yeah, yeah.

And there's some large sums of money he made, but he really, he was a hippie. He was a hippie at heart through and through selling drugs. And he was selling drugs at a party. And he met my, my mom. She only would hook up with guys who would sell the good stuff. And she was this beautiful young woman. She was running away from a boyfriend who wanted to kill her.

And she lobbed a prayer out to the universe and said, you know, what I need to do is I need to sleep with a man who has a gun underneath his pillow to protect me. So that was my dad and that's how they met. And then they fell in love together. And she had gotten into new age mysticism and really everything that Went with projections, seances, and all of those different areas of [00:04:00] being a witch.

She would call herself a white witch, so she has stories galore. She passed away when I was 25 years old. So many years ago now in a car accident. Up to that point, she would tell stories and tell her testimony. You know, it's just one of those wow moments. So. They met, then they decided they were going to start a family.

So they ended up having my sister, and they switched out of illegal drugs to legal drugs, and they started a coffee company. So now they're selling coffee. And they're doing that in like 1980, right? Right when Starbucks started out. Uh, they sold that coffee company for a whole bunch. My dad had a law degree that he had never done anything with during his whole drug smuggling, drug running career.

And they have me during that time. And so now they're running a legit company. My mom's running a preschool. They have this growing entity. They have two kids and they're still very disconnected from Christ and still [00:05:00] hippies. My mom puts us in a Christian preschool. And she's like, well, you know, kids need to go to daycare preschool somewhere.

So they put us in there and it was at a church, but it was one of those churches that doesn't really know Jesus. And yet there were some people in that church who felt like that church was their mission field. So just a little bit for everybody there. Not everybody who's at the church that you're going to know is Jesus.

And sometimes we're a missionary just to the people right around us at church. So this couple is talking to my mom and she's She's listening. She's telling them what she believes and she's telling them how she loves meditating because it makes her feel powerful. And they said, well, you should meditate on the blood of Jesus.

Well, I don't know who Jesus is. I don't know what the blood is about, but I'll try anything. You know, I'll try any drug once. Right. So she goes into this trance, meditates on the blood of Jesus. And she said, I remember this so clearly when she told me the story, she said a power course through her. Unlike anything else she'd ever experienced.

[00:06:00] She said, I always felt power when I meditated, whatever this Jesus was and whatever his blood meant, that was the true power. Everything else was just an imitation of that. 

Jack: Wow. 

Michael Acker: She goes all in. She's like, all right, I'm like going to, you know, Be about this Jesus person now, but she didn't know anything about it.

She told my dad, he's like, all right, good for you. So a few months later, we're in Hawaii and we're with the love family, which is a hippie commune. So just think about, uh, just a commune of just how much hippies doing hippie stuff and, you know, lots of marijuana being smoked and my dad had his own issues where his drug smuggling life was catching up to him.

So he goes out to the pier and he says, God, if you're real, And you rescue me from this, I'll do whatever you want. I'll do anything you want. Now he didn't expect anything to happen. He expected that he'd probably get to go to jail. Everything would catch up to him and that would be over. He's walking across the parking lot and he hears the audible voice, [00:07:00] Timothy, I'm Jesus and I'm your friend.

And then the next day he gets a letter saying, we're not going to proceed. Wow. In Hawaii. So he's like, all right. Um, and my dad can be one of those guys. He's like, all right, once I'm going to do something, I'm gonna do something. So he gets all in now we're in Kona, Hawaii. They see a flyer. For youth with a mission, Lauren Cunningham, and it was taught by Lauren Cunningham back in the early 80s.

And so he was having hands on involved. And so we go back to Washington and grab some stuff, move to Hawaii, where they jump into 3 months of, you know, Intense discipleship training right there in Hawaii. And then we go back to Washington again, grab some more stuff. And then we go on a three month mission trip to Asia, where we went into the dumps in Philippines and Manila.

We went to Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan. And then when we arrived to China, they took a whole bunch of [00:08:00] Bibles. This is 1985, 1984. And they took a bunch of Bibles and they put it, do you remember this hard case suitcases? 

Jack: We 

Michael Acker: have these suitcases and collide, right. And take no effort. But back in the day, there was not the wheeled ones and they were all hard case and you would hold them and then bang against your knee as you walked.

Remember those? Yeah. Yeah. I remember very distinctly. That was the type of suitcase we had. You open it up like a clamshell. And then you put it in a whole bunch of bibles, put clothes on top of us. We had to carry these suitcases. We're like, you know, going through, we get up to this massive X ray scanner and the mission trip leader told us to get a prey, pray that they don't see it because you're going to go to jail.

Yeah. Right. My sister and I like terrifying, put them on scanner. It goes through, find out that the rest of the family was just. So mad that my parents were doing this with us. Of course. My dad. Yeah, yeah. Right. It's so mad. And so my dad, I talked to this, about this with him when I was like 30 or so. He said, [00:09:00] ah, you know, it's all kinds of stuff, never been caught.

So I figured now God's with us, we're not going to get caught. 

Jack: And so how old are you at this time? How old are you? I'm like four years old, four or five years old. All right. You had no idea what was going on probably. 

Michael Acker: I mean enough. So you think about your life when your kids at those different ages. So I was thinking, man, that's how old I was.

So I was aware enough. I don't remember it in detail, but I remember parts of it. I remember the x ray scanner. I remember having to go to the bathroom when the holes on the train. Like I remember those kind of like very vivid moments and being in Beijing. I remember people running after me to cut my long blonde hair because in some villages in China, it was seen as a sign of good luck to touch blonde hair.

And so they ran after the scissors. So I remember some of those highlights of it, but we were there for a couple of weeks and I don't remember the majority of it, but in the moment, I mean, I would have been fully cognizant. I wasn't like two or three. I [00:10:00] was fully cognizant going into kindergarten. So it was, it was quite the, The time my sister was two years older, she remembers a lot more of it.

And it was quite a vivid time in our life. 

Jack: You know what I love about that story is the example that your parents were setting for you. They were willing to risk anything to serve Jesus, right? And I think sometimes that's one of the issues that our young people face is their parents love Jesus, but they play it safe.

And so the faith seems kind of dull. Yeah. It sounds to me like your parents were just a hundred percent in wherever the Holy spirit led, they did not have a boring Christianity and that must've impacted 

Michael Acker: you. You know, I never thought about like that, Jack, I've thought about this many, many different times and as a pastor, I would bring people down on trips and yeah, you're right.

It was all about. Are they safe? Are they safe? Are they safe? Are they safe? You know, and and my wife didn't grow up on the mission field or anything. And so there's a [00:11:00] lot more of those questions like, Hey, if we bring him down on this trip with us, is he going to be safe? And there is a whole bunch of, uh, is it going to be safe?

And yeah, my parents weren't concerned about that at all. Not only were they quite the hippies and it was a whole different age, but yeah, they figured worst thing that could happen. So now I'm actually rethinking to some different things. Like my, my mom, she was five foot one and a half. So tiny woman, and she was actually absolutely beautiful by all standards.

People would just say, well, man, your, your mom is beautiful. She would go out into poor neighborhoods when we were missionaries in Mexico, poor neighborhoods by herself and just walk around finding people to love, finding people to take care. And I mean, I know those neighborhoods today and those are dangerous neighborhoods and they were dangerous then and they're dangerous now.

And yet she never had fear and nothing ever happened. So yeah, that's, that's an interesting thing. I [00:12:00] think you're right. There's, there's an element, uh, the world is fine. And it's that whole, it's that whole paradigm of looking at heaven, like, Hey, we're in clouds wearing diapers and playing on a harp. But in hell, they're having a rock and roll concert, drinking lots of alcohol and listening to some huge music and everybody's got their shirt off and looking muscular.

And you know, what do you want to be a fat baby on clouds or do you want to be a rock and roll guy? And it's that misconception. But yeah, that's, that's interesting. I'll be thinking about that now, Jack. Nice.

Jack: All right. That's a great setup where you, your background was. I mean, I'm assuming then Christianity was just, did you always just follow in that example where you're like, Oh yeah, I'm serving the Jesus that my mom and dad are serving. What did that look like for you personally? 

Michael Acker: We came back, and my parents were all in.

So, my dad would wake up in the morning at 5am, still does, prays, and reads Bible at [00:13:00] 5am. My mom would read at night time, so I'd see morning and evening then part of it. We'd never miss church. This is the 80s. So, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. We're at church. I couldn't do select soccer because I would take away from church.

We're going to be a part of church. Church is important. Christian school. I mean, I knew all 66 books of the Bible by the time I was five years old, I was memorizing scripture, participating in contests. So as a child, I didn't know anything about that, about my parents. I didn't remember that. I didn't understand that they had not have these like intense Christian lives.

And I didn't understand where my extended family didn't know Jesus. I remember writing letters to my grandma and grandma would be like, Hey, you need Jesus. Make sure you know Jesus. So you don't go to hell. I'm sure my mom edited out some of that part. So I was all in, you know, my, my sister did a mission trip to Haiti where she was like eight years old with my dad.

So we were doing this kind of lifestyle. And loved our little Christian lifestyle in a town of 2000 going to Christian school. [00:14:00] So my dad comes home one day, he had switched over to full time while we're at this point in time. And he says, you know, I quit my job. We're going to move to Mexico. Once again, my dad would kind of all in or nothing.

My mom and dad go into the town, probably other room, have a little fight, right? A little argument, come back. We moved to Mexico in a couple months, so we arrived in Mexico and we're going to do mission work there with wire. But while we're there, my mom was doing 1 of those little trips into the outskirts of the city and finds out some kids are not in school.

She says, why aren't you in school? Well, because, you know, I'm too old. I can't go back into school. Now, she finds out that there's a problem in the Mexican school system at that point in time, where if you had left the school system and you were aged out, you couldn't get back in and without an elementary school education, you can go secondary, you can go to high school and you were, you know, You're destined for poverty.

So she's like, we got to do something about this. Now, my dad was working part time as a lawyer for some hotel chain, and then he was working [00:15:00] admissions with YWAM. He starts checking into this issue that my mom found out about, and they start working on it together. They start this project. That what they called or home of help and they're bringing kids in and they're bringing tutors They're working with the school systems there.

They're teaching Jesus to kids So meanwhile, I'm doing homeschool that first year until I went to public school and we're all all in just helping out Trying to figure out what to do kind of establish a presence Try to help kids out. So we're seeing this and that continued to do out. My parents brought in dentistry and medical teams.

By the time I was like 13 years old, I'm leaving mission trips. Teams of adults are coming down and I'm telling them what to do. Like, all right, you do this, you do this, you do this. I'm preaching. I'm doing dramas on the streets. Right. So by the 15 years old, I had led, I don't know, 10 mission trips. I had done, uh, something like, you know, A bunch of sermons and preach out on the [00:16:00] streets and new Spanish at that point in time.

So we're all in. And then my sister is going through some struggles, decides to go back to the United States. And so she's in her junior year and she stays there for six months. And so I'm all in there, staying in Mexico. My sister meets a guy there. And once she comes back to Mexico for the next part.

They end up getting pregnant, and so she ends up moving full time to the United States as a senior. My mom's going through some hardships. Some people without any clue what a missionary is going through are very critical. They have no clue that we were actually not even receiving funds for ourselves.

And they just lambasted us. My mom took it personal. So she needs to escape her mission work scene. She goes to help my sister. My dad's working more than ever now. And he's flying back and forth. And I remember this moment in time as now I'm going into my junior year. And I just felt a God, if you can't take care of the [00:17:00] people who are trying to do the work that you have called them to do, then you aren't worth following.

Wow. Wow. And my guess is there's some people who even hearing that can go, yeah. And so for me, I thought, God, I believe in you. I'm just going to go have some fun. And so I just went off and my guilt conscious didn't let me to go too far, but I went far enough out there that I would have said I was not following Christ.

And whether you believe in internal security or not, it's an interesting aspect. I believe that God still had hold of me. Mm-Hmm. . If I died, it still would've been with him. Yeah. However, I was definitely not walking with him, and it would've been by the by, by the skin of my teeth that I would've gotten into the press of the gut by his grace and not my response at all.

Not that we are saved by our works anyway, but [00:18:00] during that time, I'm going further and further away. And then my dad comes back and he goes, Hey, my, your family pretty much has gone back to Washington full time. I'm going to be there almost full time as well. Do you want to finish out your senior year here in Mexico?

Or do you want to come back now at this point in time, I'm going into my 18 years old. I'm about to turn 18 going to my senior year. I am more Mexican than I'm American at this point in time. Like I spoke Spanish extremely well, you know, my whole life was Mexico. I didn't really have friends in the United States anymore.

They'd all gone on to do other things and such, and my parents couldn't make me go to church. So I went back to the United States for the summer, for the wild, get out of Mexico and hop start dating this girl. Just a fleshly relationship. And I go back to Mexico and my dad says, what do you want to do? Do you want to stay here on your own?

Or do you want to come back to the United States with your family? Wow. 

Jack: Whoa. That's a big choice. That would have 

Michael Acker: been, yeah, a [00:19:00] huge choice. And by this point in time, I was throwing parties at my parents house where we would take all of the furniture, move it upstairs, and then we would have 150 people come into the house and to the property.

Just wild, alcohol raged parties, right? And this is in 

Jack: Mexico? 

Michael Acker: Yeah, this is in Mexico. Yeah, just, just tons of people coming in. I told my dad many years later, he laughs at it now. He wouldn't have laughed at it then. Yeah, we, we would literally, cause we had tile floors. We would literally hose the water out because of how filthy the house would be.

So I decided that I'm not going down the right road. I'm drinking and driving. I've been in an accident. I, uh, was not in a great scene. Uh, alcohol increase was a big part of my life. And so I decided I'm going to move up to the United States. And it really came down to this. Do I stay here and go down the path?

I was [00:20:00] accepted to top law school in Mexico and have an internship in Mexico city set up for after college or for during college. And do I go that route of money? And just this whole, everything I was doing, or do I reset my life by moving back to Washington? And I decided that as much as frustration as I had towards God, I still cared for him.

I still loved him and I still knew he loved me. And I could still hear his voice sometimes when I was trying to overcome a hangover saying Mike, I love you. So I decided to move and I reset my life and someone brings me to church. And this is why sometimes we think in the United States, like, how do you do evangelism?

And I would tell people the easiest way, honestly, is just to bring someone to church now. Not that, not that that excuses us from showing love, talking, knowing our faith for him, Micah. I met him through my now my [00:21:00] brother in law and he would bring me now he was a youth leader. So he'd go early and he'd stay late.

I just didn't have anything to do. So I would go and chill and try to avoid conversation with people. And then I would help set up the chairs and tear down the chairs because. Then I didn't have to talk to people. So the youth pastors look at me and go, look at this missionary kid. He's back in the United States and look at the heart of service.

He has, wow. He's got a heart for Jesus. Let's get them on the youth leadership team. So they pulled me over the bike. Do you want to be on our youth leadership team? And I'm like, Oh, well. See, I got this girlfriend thing that's happening. I got this alcohol thing that's happening. I got this party thing that's happening.

I was like, Oh man, if I'm going to be a youth leader, probably should not do all that stuff. So I had one week where I decided, what am I going to do? And I decided I was all in. So I broke up with my girlfriend, got rid of all this other stuff that I was going on in my life and dove all into the youth ministry.

A month [00:22:00] later, I was sitting with Wes and Chad. I still know him well today. Chad and I are super close and I'm sitting with him and I said, you know, it's just a month ago. I became drunk and I'm like, you know, I'm out with my girlfriend all the time and here I am at the youth theater and they look at each other.

I was like, yes and no. They said, no, we just thought you were like this missionary kid who loved to serve. So I said, wow, no, they said, we wouldn't have asked you. And I said, I wouldn't have joined. I wouldn't have made the decision I made if you hadn't asked me. Yeah. So another little takeaway right there for all of those leaders, getting people involved, sometimes getting people's skin in the game.

Jack: Absolutely. Rob's a pastor at the church we go to, and I've seen that with Rob's willingness to let people just serve, right? Like in roles that a safer church would be like, Oh no, we got to make sure your life is all put together first before we're gonna put you in any kind of role that has an influence.

But oftentimes when you put Skin [00:23:00] in the game, people get serious about it. You know, one thing that I wanted to point out about your story that just kind of rings true in my mind is that the calling on our life, we can really try to sidetrack it, but the calling is always there, right? Like you were equipped by God to do the youth leadership because you had been doing it before, right?

God's gifts are without repentance. The gift was always there. It was just in hibernation.

Michael Acker: Yeah, it was. And, and once it came out, I started getting super involved. I became one of the key leaders there for the next four years. I was lost because I had to make a change. And I have found this now to repeat itself a couple times in my life where I'm also in a sudden shift. The avenues that I was pursuing, the college I was going to was not there, so I had to take in some humble pie, ended up going to, um, [00:24:00] a community college, which was far below me in my mentality, I was going to the Ivy League school of Mexico, and now I'm going to the community college, and, um, I didn't really know what was happening.

I'm enjoying church. I was probably the highlight of everything and wanting that. I would start home groups with, you know, four kids and they would turn into these 60 to 70 person groups. Home groups where we're studying the Bible and still, I know several of those and a lot of them are involved in church and I'm baptized them and such.

And it's pretty cool. So I look at that and go, yeah, absolutely. Those gifts of rallying people together and pulling together and throwing these parties. Now I'm doing it for Jesus. These avenues of youth outreach and drama. And now I'm doing it for Jesus. So then I'm kind of trying to figure out what's going on.

I think, well, I would just go to law school in the United States. So I'm now going to college. I'm working two jobs, Starbucks in the morning. Indian restaurant at night and I'm sitting there [00:25:00] reading my Bible during the lunch break that I have between the two jobs and I'm reading John 21 and it says, Peter, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, you know that. And I remember reading that and then the Bible says, Peter, son of John, do you love me? And I'm reading that. I remember feeling like it was Mike, son of Tim, do you love me? And I've been resisting this pastoral calling. And after reading the three different requests, you love me. I felt like the Lord was saying, Mike, this is you.

I'm calling you to be a pastor. So I still fought it for a little bit and tried to go off and do a master's elsewhere, but I felt no peace in it. Once that I'm ready to. To enter pastoral role, I was speaking in front of 400 teenagers because our youth group had grown huge. I'm leading on a large scale. I thought I was God's gift to humanity.

So he put me at a church that had about 80 people. Our youth group had eight kids. I'm super pumped. I'm like, we're This is [00:26:00] awesome. Mike Acker is here now. So now everybody's going to come bring your friends, bring your friends, come and listen to Mike Acker. It's going to be awesome. So I set up all the chairs, right?

This is going to be awesome. Set up all the chairs and ready for the night. Eight teenagers come, come on, come up to the front seat. It was, it was a, but it was this really cool thing of investing in that group of people. And it did grow and actually outgrew the size of the adults. And we outside grew the size of our auditorium, then the pastor resigned.

And because half the people there were actually there because of the youth, or they were my youth who had grown into young adults, they voted me in, uh, they said, the vice president of the board comes up on stage and he goes, almost unanimously, we've chosen Mike to be our senior pastor. Four people stood up and walked out.

I'm like, wow, I now see the people who did not vote for me. Yes, the almost so that I stayed there. [00:27:00] I was there for nine years, got married while I was there. And then my wife and I took on a, another struggling church. I had 75 people in four, 4 million of debt on an old building. Wow. And God did miracles there.

It saved lots of lives, rebuilt the church, moved the church. Now I'm executive director of a mission organization called go on the mission. That church got involved in that organization. I was there. They've stayed involved in there since my departure eight years ago. And the pastor of that church that I was part of bringing in to replace me when I moved is going with me to Mexico next year.

Also now that church called city point church is just one of my favorite, just success stories of life. What God did there and what I got to be a part of while I was there. And I wish that could be the end of this conversation. And then Iceland greets instead. 

Rob: It doesn't work that way though. Just the beginning.

Yes. The adventure of it [00:28:00] all. Mike, I, what I love about your story is I know so many people who are listening right now resonates with them too. Your story is in many ways very similar to mine. You have like this. Crisis of faith. I mean, there's so many questions. Things are happening with your family. I love that in your story, this history marker, this place in your life where there was major crisis, but I see it turns you to Christ.

So crisis to Christ and good on those youth pastor leaders, those youth pastor guys that walked with you during that season because they saw something in you that you didn't see. Crisis is all part of life, trials and tribulations for sure. But would you say that looking back up to this point in your story, that in that crisis, it gave you a new version or a new level of relationship with Christ that you had never seen before?

Michael Acker: Yeah. [00:29:00] When I look at those were 18 or 20, 20 phenomenal years of going up into the right. Now it was take a few steps up, take a few steps down, take a few steps up, Yeah. Take one step down, take five steps up, take two steps down. But overall, those 20 years were mostly going up and that crisis was that turning point, that crisis of me saying, what am I going to do?

And the giving up the all in moment when I was 18 years old, the all in moment when I surrendered TV, video games, and dating for six months, just any distractions and secular music. And so I just dove hardcore. In towards church and life in Jesus. And that was a huge moment through there. There was different crisis, but because I was centered around Christian people, I was centered in my Christian disciplines.

that when those crisis came, like [00:30:00] the death of my mom suddenly when I was 25 years old and like some other difficult moments, finding out that we were most likely infertile, there was a community around me and I was centered on Christian discipline. And in fact, the next crisis that came up, I had lost both of those and I didn't have that to fall back on.

Jack: Tell us about that. How did those things fall away? 

Michael Acker: Yeah. So due to a longer story, we ended up deciding to leave set the senior pastor ministry and we left it extremely well. That's why I'm still in relationship with that church today and go back into a staff position at a mega church. So church of 8, 000 or so people in California.

And I thought, you know, I'm gonna go learn some more ministry. I'm going to go a staff position. They have a need. I love youth ministry. They have a high school student. Position. I'm going to go back in there. I'm going to learn from an [00:31:00] older pastor. I haven't been pastored for years. I'm going to go join the team.

So we moved and it brought us away from our network of people, brought us away. And what I didn't realize was I never mourned the loss, even though it was a good departure. I never mourned the loss. And it just didn't turn out to be what I had envisioned in my mind. And I ended up getting resentful at the causes that led us to that choice.

I ended up getting resentful to the people in my life. I didn't have a network of people around me. I didn't want to call on those old relationships that I had. Some didn't call on me because I was out of sight, out of mind. And so those people that I invested in for years, I would have loved, especially the denominational leaders, would have loved for them to have just called out like, Hey, Mike.

Okay. You were a presbyter with us and you were our youngest lead pastor and all these different things. How are you? But I didn't have any of that happen. So just quick note to pastors, remember to reach out and think about those different people. They [00:32:00] may have influence that are outside of your site because it could be life changing for them.

And I got to the spot where I was lonely, I was depressed. I was resentful, and I started drinking alcohol again. I hadn't been drinking alcohol for years, but I, every night I'm drinking one cup, two cups. I'm not waking up to read my Bible. I'm not waking up to go to the gym. I'm frustrated. I'm mad. I'm working seven days a week in ministry.

And I got to a spot where I was driving down the road in California thinking, you know, I'm not going to pull off the side of the road, off the cliff, but if someone hit me and I tumbled down the side of the cliff, I'd be okay with it. And that's where I was like, this is too low. I ended up going to a counselor during that season and just to talk something out within my wife and I ended up going to counselor together.

I ended up calling some semi acquaintance [00:33:00] pastor friend of mine. I felt like a safe person to talk to. And he just loved me during the season and just listened to me talk for hours. Super awesome, Jason Noble. He was actually featured in a movie. Topher Grace played him. And so that's kind of a funny little side note that was happening at the same time as I'm talking to him.

So I resigned and did a three month departure and moved back to Washington. I was there with some friends one night and I just said, you know, I think about leaving pastoral ministry. I always tell people pastoral ministry is not a good job. It's a good calling. 

Rob: Yeah. 

Michael Acker: So if you're looking for a job that pays money, do something else.

Yeah. But you're called to do it. And so I went into corporate sales, took a 800, 000 territory, turned it into 4 million in the first year. But it was during that season where now I had to find a church. I've never gone to a church. I'm hurt. I don't want to go to church. I didn't want to just sit there. I didn't want to attend.

I didn't want to serve. Ended up kind of getting through that. And, you know, I just show up. Right at time and then leave [00:34:00] and just in and out, sit in the back, leave, went to my friend's church that I knew kind of a mentor friend of mine back in Washington. So that's, that's kind of where I was at and I didn't know where I was at doing it.

So I made a change, this big, huge change when I was 38. And then I. I wrote a book during that time. I was kind of challenged to write a book. I was communication coaching on the side and it took off and became an international bestseller. Like it's, it's behind me. It's this orange book speak with no fear.

And I started coaching people. And so when COVID hit and my sales job stopped, this became what I did. This began the next several years where, and I'm just coming out of this season where it was member before I said it was up into the right. And it was like five steps up, two steps back, but it was always going up.

This became a three steps down, four steps up, two steps down. One step up, 10 steps down, seven steps up. I mean, it just became this [00:35:00] up and down where I'm trying to figure out how to make money. Who am I? We moved out of my state. We moved from my wife's home state area. I don't know the culture. I didn't have friends.

I'm off and on with my spiritual disciplines. I'm serving in kids ministry. And really the mantra of that time began to be just one step further. Just one next step, just one next step. You don't have to have it all figured out. Just the next step. Just the next step. Just next step. And that became the, the path forward.

Some highlights during that time and some lowlights. One thing that was huge for me during that entire time was the absolute prayer covering of my dad. And I don't know what I would have done without the prayer covering of my dad. Wow. And I don't know what I would have done without the need to be a role model to my son.

Those were the two anchors during that time. 

Jack: You know, what I love about your story is that [00:36:00] there's people who can't relate to the success. Right? Like your, your early life, you had a lot of success in ministry, but there are people who do. Right? But a lot of us relate to the, goodness gracious, Lord, uh, it seems three steps down, one step up, four steps down, two steps up.

I don't feel like I'm making progress, but I love what you said in the fact that it's, you just learn to take one step at a time. Yes. Right? And before you know it, you're in a place you didn't realize you were. You're out of the valley and into the mountaintop. But you just didn't realize it because you, you couldn't, you had to focus on what was immediately in front of you instead of focusing on where you used to be or where you want to be.

You just said, okay, God, one day at a time. And you've come a long way. Now you're the executive director at go on the mission. And so there was a turnaround. When did you come to realize that, okay, you know what? I, I've anchored myself here. I'm going to just take it one day at a [00:37:00] time. And when did you realize I made it through that dark season?

Michael Acker: Yeah. So I started seeing that there was more ups and downs just, just over a year ago, really. So it's been, it's a long time. I actually got to a spot where I made more money than I've ever made in my life. And I was looking and going, wow, this is amazing. And then I also realized that's not what drives me.

You know, even when I was in sales, I remember calling my boss and like, Hey, did you know people work for money? And he said, he laughed. He's like, really? What do you mean? I said, when I was a pastor, I never worked for money. I worked because I was called to be that job. And I was glad that I got paid money to, I never worked for money.

And then I'm in sales. And then I went into my own consulting business and I worked for money. Like a pastor, I would have done free, but this, I was not. Doing free I was doing for money and then I realized I'm not motivated by money. So what motivates me? And it's [00:38:00] helping people realize their God given potential and I try to weave that into my work as well, but still not the same way.

And so I remember just over a year ago, I'm at the spot where I'm coming out of the season of plenty and I'm looking at things. And at this point in time, I was kind of trending up finally, you know, kind of got a spot. There's still some steps down and alcohol was part of the steps down when I eventually happened to say no to alcohol completely.

Because I realized that had become my go to, uh, for stress looked at life and said, you know what I like to do is go back, not pastoral ministry. I don't believe that you retrace steps. You find out the new step. And now God has taught me this entrepreneurship and pastoral ministry and missions. So what I love to do is something where I'm like an executive director or spokesperson for a mission organization like go on a mission.

And so two months later, Chad. Called me who was on the board and it was a youth pastor called me [00:39:00] and said, Hey, would you be interested in applying for the executive director role of calling the mission? Nice. And so I said, yes. And God had just healed my heart towards the church. God had just healed, which needed to happen before I'm going to like go speak at churches.

Yeah. And the pastor of the church that I go to is a close friend of mine. And We met before I started there. So it's been a safe place for me and I've been serving once again, nominally up and down many times from smiling on the outside with kids, not feeling like smiling inside all those kinds of things.

So I say yes to the executive director position, come in, deal with the turmoil of changing and everything. And right now. As of June of 2024, I don't drink alcohol. We are part of a church and we're continually working on friendships. And that newness part of us, we've fully embraced the place I'm living in.

There's still doubts. There's still struggles. There's still that sense of I failed. I left pastoral [00:40:00] ministry. I left this. Then I failed entrepreneurship. I left that. So there's still those plaguing doubts that can hit me at times, but overall, there's that. Hey, I'm in the spot where God has led me. And now the work that I get to do is not just helping the CEO do better and make more millions, which was great and it was helpful and helpful to those people.

But it's also, I'm like, now the work that I do when I get a child sponsored, I am getting food in this kid's stomach. I am providing the healthcare that they need. I'm providing water. We just funded a project in Africa, which is giving water to the neighborhood. And that's directly related to the work that I've been able to do in the last six months.

Wow. So when hundreds of people are drinking water and not walking five miles, that's directly related to the work I've involved in. As well as the other people in this, it's not me. I didn't do it. I didn't do the well. I didn't give the money, [00:41:00] but that's directly related. Now that's satisfying right there.

And when I see the, the work we're doing in Pueblo, where we have these kids, I've sponsored an orphanage and 35 kids. We need about 20 more, but we have 15 kids who are sponsored. And I was there in January and saw the bear pantry. When I get to go next and see the full pantry, that's directly related to the work that I get to do and the story I get to tell.

So for me, every night when we pray for the two kids we sponsor, it's just that reminder of You know, this is a right step. It's a good step for me on. So a couple of things I've done in this last season that I've invited people to, and even to the listeners here, maybe you feel like you can't do a lot.

One of the values that we have go on the mission. We just redid our value statements is it only takes one person to make a difference. 

Jack: Amen. 

Michael Acker: And amen. That prayer that you make or that in request or sponsoring a child in Africa, [00:42:00] love for you to do that with us, go on the mission. com or just that being that person that was able to listen or those people who randomly sent me a text message just out of the blue, sent me a text message just at the right time.

So they shouldn't right now, maybe someone comes to mind and you just need to text them, pull your car over, text them because those text messages during those times or confronting. I had a friend call me and he goes, Mike, what's going on? You don't seem like yourself. And he called me on it. And it was the turnaround at one of these low crisis moments.

And so all of the small little things, it only takes one person to make a difference. It only takes one person, or maybe you're just feeling like you're a little bit lost. I've had to revisit my mission statement again and again. I created a resource. It's a kind of a colored workbook that you do. That's called life on purpose by Michael Acker.

So people can check that out [00:43:00] as well. You can actually get it for free as well. I think you go to vault. go on the mission. com and get the free PDF. But those are just ways to serve people and say, Hey. Here's a way for you to not repeat some of the low moments that I've had. 

Rob: Wow. Michael, that's so encouraging.

I just love the authentic realness of your story. And I'm so glad that you have come on here and shared the, Authentic version, and there's so many things about your story. I know we can go on for several more hours, but if you don't mind, I would love for you to speak to somebody or two or three who is listening right now, who can relate to your story.

Maybe they're in that season where you have been yourself, Michael, and talk to that particular person. If you don't mind, if you can just encourage them. 

Michael Acker: So one would be to the person who is just feeling [00:44:00] hurt by church and doesn't want to attend a church service. Because I remember clearly telling my wife, I don't know if I want to go to church anymore.

And besides that little stint when I was in junior in high school, I'd always been part of church attending, always been part of services, always been part of it. And for the first time ever, I'm in that spot. And why didn't I want to? Because of shame I felt for bad decisions, just for me, alcohol had increased.

And so I didn't want to feel that shame. And then two is people who represented the church hurt me and leaders in the church that I've been part of drove me to a spot. And so I then projected that hurt on, well, if that person is like that, then these people will be like that as well. And then just the rationalization, and I remember one speaker saying, rationalizing is just telling rational lies is rationalizing myself just that I don't need it.

And, you know, a lot of times I [00:45:00] go now, we go every Sunday. A lot of times I go and I don't learn something brand new. I'm as educated or better educated than most pastors. I don't learn something brand new, but it's the rhythm of it. It's like when you go take that job or take that walk or do that workout.

It's not that you gained a whole bunch of muscles that day, but you maintain something that was consistent. Yeah, that's good. So for me, church participation is often just a rhythm of maintenance. So maybe you're thinking, I don't really realize, think I need to go to church. Look at yourself. Is there some reason in yourself, some kind of guilt that really, if you point at it, go, man, this is me.

I applied for a job with the church in a season where I was thinking of moving and wanted to figure stuff. And he said, why did, why are you leaving this church? This mega church? And I said, well, this happened and this happened today. And he goes, no, why are you leaving this church? And I was like, Oh, I have a part to play.

So, [00:46:00] so, and in the church, I had a part to play and then also representing the leaders. They're not all like that. I can feel like they are, but they're not. And, and then the last part right there is just. Find that maintenance. Don't tell yourself rationalize. So that would be the first person right there.

It's good The second person I've speak to is this I call this someday I'll write a book on this and it's gonna be called when dreams die and Maybe you feel like your dream has died for me I do I feel like my dream of being a pastor all my life is just It's time. And people say, well, you can go back into it.

No, I feel like that season is done and plan I had for my life was over and I had planned and I had put 20 years of my life into it. And it's dead. And sometimes what we do when dreams die is we try to go chase it. We revive a dead horse. We revive a dead [00:47:00] bean. And there are times where God does that and restores, redeems, and brings, but sometimes he's leading us to a new thing.

And for me, I'm saying maybe you're listening, going, man, I just wish I wish I wish I was just listening to a song today by Forrest Frank, good day. Not the shoulda, woulda, couldas. Yes. Instead of the woulda, shoulda, couldas just go, you know, that died and that's sad. And now it's time to dream again. And look at the story of Joseph, his dream died or so I thought, and yet God put a new variation of that dream.

So I'm in a new variation of a new dream where God is doing a new thing. And for you, you feel like your, your dreams died. I understand. I get it. I've tried those tears. I would encourage you to not give up hope and also not to try to chase something. But dream again. 

Rob: Wow. 

Jack: I think you need to [00:48:00] write that book, brother.

Rob: Yeah, man. That's right there. 

Jack: Wow. 

Rob: Excellent. 

Jack: Michael, I really appreciated your time. For those that are curious about your book, we'll put a link in our show notes to Life on Purpose. We'll also put a link to your Go On Mission organization. So that people can get familiar with that. Maybe somebody stirred to sponsor a kid, or they've been looking for opportunities of a missions group to partner with check out, go on the mission.

We'll have. Yeah. 

Rob: Thank you again, Michael, Jack and I were so grateful that as we continue to do what God's called us to do and Jesus in my life podcast, we're just grateful for people like you that God connects us with and, and gives opportunity to share their story. And then what God is not done with them, what God is continuing to do in and through them.

And you're definitely one of those. So thank you again for, for being on the show [00:49:00] today. The foundation of Jesus in my life podcast comes from Luke chapter 8 when Jesus approaches a man who is a demon possessed. He's tortured He's tormented. He's cast out and Jesus approaches him and literally delivers him He saves him.

He heals him and immediately comes into his right mind and says, Jesus, I want to follow you. I want to follow you now physically. And Jesus says, no, I've got a different assignment for you. I want you to go and tell your family what I've done for you. And this man goes above and beyond. He's an overachiever.

He goes not only to his family, but the whole town, anybody that would listen, I would imagine that even those that would not listen, he would still tell them what Jesus has done in his life. So thank you, Michael, for, for sharing your story and what Jesus has done. Has done in your life and what he's continuing to do.

Uh, so thank you again for being on the show. Absolutely. Thank you so much. 

Jack: Everybody else. Stay tuned for new episodes every Tuesday. Have a blessed [00:50:00] week.