A Messy Amen

Michelle Torrey
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Christianity

A Messy Amen welcomes you into the conversations you might not be having on Sundays. Do you ever feel like you want to get to know people more but you get the weird sense that no one can relate to your struggle? You show up to church, sing, listen to the sermon, and go home feeling forgotten, isolated, and frustrated? Here we will be sharing stories that help women of faith feel less alone. We will be honest in ways that may normally feel foreign and share how we hold on to faith and trust God in the ups and downs. 

  1. 6d ago

    A Mackinac Mission Field

    Send us Fan Mail What does it look like to say yes to God when your life is already going really well? For our first ever episode outside the studio, I'm sitting on the back deck of a parsonage on Mackinac Island with Ken and Lori Straight, pastors of Mackinac Island Bible Church. Back in 2002, their kids were nine and twelve, their church back home was thriving, and they had nothing to complain about. Then a Mother's Day weekend trip to the island turned into an invitation to speak, then a call, and their whole life got turned upside down. Twenty four years later, they're still here. 😂 We talk about what it's really like to live and pastor year round on an island with no cars, about 500 residents, and a church that has never had its own building. Grocery runs by ferry and bike cart, boats that stop when the ice gets too thick, Friday night Coffee House meals for 60 to 80 seasonal workers (51 nations in one summer!), and yes, what happens to all that horse poop after October. But underneath the fun questions is a real mission field. Workers come for six months, a lot of them lonely and away from home for the first time, and Ken and Lori have about three weeks to meet them before they find their crowd. Instead of guarding their hearts because people leave, they've chosen to seize the moment and open their home to strangers. That's their messy amen, a yes to God that was messy and still worth it. Ken shares Romans 8:9-10 and the reminder that the Spirit is life because of righteousness, so we don't have to strive the way we think we do. Lori's life verse since her senior year of high school is still Matthew 6:33, seek first the kingdom of God. If you're on the island this season, Mackinac Island Bible Church meets Sundays at 9:30 at Community Hall on Market Street. The episode is live now wherever you listen. I'm so glad you're here.

    A Mackinac Mission Field

  2. Oct 2

    Fortnite, Faith, and a Love Story Only God Could Write

    Send us Fan Mail What do you do when you've prayed the same prayer so many times you're not sure anyone is listening? This week I'm sitting down with Rae Brown, a friend from church and one of the newest faces in our Bible journaling small group. Rae grew up in Parkersburg, West Virginia, in a church that fell apart right as she left for college. She spent most of her adult life church hopping and carrying a lot of church hurt. Then COVID hit one week after a hard breakup, and she spent six months completely alone. By her mid twenties she was in the darkest place of her life. One night on her bathroom floor she prayed a prayer she had never prayed before. Change my heart, heal whatever is broken, I'm all in. Two weeks later she met David. On Twitch. They fell in love over Fortnite, both terrible at it 😂, and then God started nudging her toward Michigan, which she fought for a long time. We talk about church hurt and remembering pastors are human too, the difference between confronting someone and condemning them, why marriage is supposed to be us against the problem and not us against each other, learning to tell what's your feeling and what's your faith, and what she would tell her younger self. Rae also tells the story of how she and I actually met, and I'll just say God's timing is something else. Rae holds onto Isaiah 43:2, that when you go through deep waters He will be with you, and 2 Kings 20:5, I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. If you have ever wondered whether God hears you on the bathroom floor, He does. A heads up, Rae shares honestly about a season when she came close to ending her life. If that's where you are right now, please reach out to someone today. In the US you can call or text 988. Episode is live now wherever you listen, and on YouTube. Find every episode & the merch at amessyamenpod.com.

    Fortnite, Faith, and a Love Story Only God Could Write

  3. Sep 25

    From the Party House to the Front Porch

    Send us Fan Mail What do you do when the room you are standing in is loud, and God shows up in it anyway? This week I'm sitting down with Ashley Sprunger, someone I have known for almost twenty years through the Christian Motorcyclists Association. Ashley and her husband Nathan went down a road that cost them almost everything. Addiction, jobs they could not keep, housing they could not hold onto, CPS involvement, and close to two years without their daughter Brooklyn at home. Nathan got sober first. Ashley wasn't ready, and she told him so. Then came her birthday party. Sitting in a house full of people she had partied with for years, she looked around and felt the whole thing go hollow. She walked out that night, never went back, and nobody came looking for her. What breaks her open even now is what that moment meant. If God met her there, then God was in that house all along, with the stuck and the hopeless. We talk about what came next, which was not a tidy happy ending. They lost their place, moved back to Lansing, and had to start over from nothing. Ashley leans hard on John 13:7, where Jesus says what I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Losing everything is what put her back near her older boys, where she got to rebuild trust by telling them, don't believe my words, just watch my actions. Devin got baptized. Colin is asking questions again. Nathan is in classes at Great Lakes training to be a pastor, the calling he was told he had as a kid. And they started a small group called Anchored for the students who fall through the cracks after high school. Ashley is currently doing more Bible studies than most of us can keep up with, and her joy about the kinsman redeemer in Ruth is worth the listen all by itself. Episode is live now wherever you listen, and on YouTube. If you have been telling yourself you are too far gone, I think this one will meet you right where you're at. You are not alone here. 🙏

    From the Party House to the Front Porch

  4. Sep 18

    Watch Me: Faith, a Wheelchair, and the Joy of the Lord

    Send us Fan Mail What would you say if someone told you there was no way you could ever live on your own? My friend Rebekka Welsh has heard some version of that her whole life, and her answer has always been the same... watch me. Rebekka was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a muscle and joint disorder that kept her leg muscles from fully developing, and she has used a wheelchair since she was three or four years old. Her scary first hours of life are actually what brought her parents to Jesus. Growing up she was lonely, pitied by adults and left out by other kids, and she spent a lot of nights asking God why. Over and over, He showed her she was never alone. We cover a lot of ground in this one. We talk about the budget binder that has helped Rebekka and her husband Jeremiah pay off about $8,000 in credit card debt. We talk about the one year she walked away from God and how He welcomed her back with open arms. And we talk about the wild way God provided an accessible van with hand controls... through pop cans. Yes, POP CANS. Rebekka also shares the rude and the ridiculous things people have said to her in public, what she wishes people would say instead, and the sweet way she explains her wheelchair to curious kids at the grocery store. Rebekka is quick to say none of it happens in her own strength. Psalm 91:4 has been her verse for as long as she can remember, "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge." And on the heavy days, she holds onto Nehemiah 8:10, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Rebekka shares a daily devotional Monday through Thursday, go give her a follow at @Rebekkajean on Tik Tok. The episode is live now wherever you listen, and on YouTube. You can learn more about the show and check out the merch at amessyamenpod.com. If you need a reminder that God is not done with your story, I think this episode will meet you right where you're at. I'm so glad you're here. You are not alone here. 🙏

    Watch Me: Faith, a Wheelchair, and the Joy of the Lord

  5. Sep 11

    From Hurt to Heartfelt Worship

    Send us Fan Mail What do you do when the place that was supposed to heal you is the place that hurt you the worst? Monica Brown grew up a preacher's kid. Her mom was the Sunday school superintendent, she knew every Bible story by heart, and she remembers sitting in the pews as a little girl just bawling while her mom sang. She was six going on seven when her dad died in a boating accident, and she and her siblings were there when it happened. It was the seventies, so nobody sent them to counseling. They went back to church and healed on their own, which is really another way of saying they did not heal at all. Decades later, Monica had been through deliverance ministry, prophetic ministry, word of faith ministry, and church hurt to the uttermost. She lost a marriage, watched a ministry split, had her name dragged through the mud, and came out the other side asking God how she ended up there twice. His answer was not the one she wanted. He told her He allowed it, because He was building her character. And then He asked her the question she had been dodging her whole life. When are you going to let me be a father to you? We get into a lot in this one. Why moving in your gifts is not the same thing as having a relationship with God. Why wisdom comes with responsibility and not with age. Why there are no big I's and little you's in the body of Christ. How to pray when you never had a dad to model it. She lands on Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. She prays it almost every day. Monica sings on the worship team at GraceValley and believes God has a delivering ministry for her that He is still shaping. She is 55, and she will remind you that Moses did not start his until late either. 😍 New episodes drop weekly. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and find us at amessyamenpod.com. You are not alone here. 🙏

    From Hurt to Heartfelt Worship

  6. Sep 4

    I Need You to Survive: The Song That Stopped Everything

    Send us Fan Mail What do you do when you have been knocked down so many times that you stop expecting to get back up? Desirae Decena grew up sort of Catholic. Baptized as a baby, communion, reconciliation, all the boxes checked, and none of it ever became a relationship. She lost her daughter at sixteen after going into labor at twenty two weeks. She walked away from an abusive relationship because she did not want her son growing up watching it. She moved out of town to build a better life, moved back home when that did not work, and broke her ankle within a month of getting there. That is where she landed at the lowest point of her life, carrying a plan she had not said out loud to a single person. Then she was working third shift, alone in the back, music on shuffle, nothing about it spiritual, and one song came on. I Need You to Survive. She said everything stopped. We talk about prayers she memorized but never meant, buying a King James Bible because somebody told her that was the right one and then not understanding a word of it, and the prayer that changed everything: God, open my eyes and let me see people for who they really are. He answered it, and it cost her people. Desiree is the first believer in her family, and now her mom is asking who Jesus is, her brother has Him tattooed on his arm, and she is leading a Bible study over video call with the women in her family. John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 13 both come up. So does the fact that she says this is the loneliest season of her life and she does not feel lonely at all. One heads up before you press play. Desirae talks openly about losing her daughter and about a season where she planned to end her life. If you are sitting in that place today, please tell somebody. In the US you can call or text 988 any time, day or night. Episode is live everywhere you listen and on YouTube. If you want to keep going, there are episode guides, verse cards, and journals over at amessyamenpod.com/shop. I am so glad you are here. Thank you for being here, you're never alone.

    I Need You to Survive: The Song That Stopped Everything

  7. Aug 28

    From Drug Dealing to Discipleship: A Story God Rewrote

    Send us Fan Mail What do you do when the people who knew you back then look at the person you are now and say, who even are you? Ben Reinhart grew up in Beecher, on the north end of Flint, and by 15 he was initiated into a gang. By 16 he had figured out how to make money in it, sitting in a basement across a desk from a man surrounded by trash bags, moving about $2,500 a week. He went to college, came back, worked for GM, got married, got divorced, moved home to help his mom, and then found a whole new crowd and a whole new product. That ran from 2008 to 2012. He never used any of it. He was too scared. Drinking was his thing. And then in December of 2015, at a business conference in an arena in Arizona, a man on stage said the word God out loud, and Ben and his wife looked at each other like, did he just say that? They went to the early service on Sunday morning out of pure curiosity, and she turned to him afterward and said she had found something she didn't even know she was looking for. We talk about the six months they filled out a visitor card at a new church and nobody called them back, and how they kept showing up anyway because they knew God had put them there. We talk about April 18, 2016, and a woman they now call their church mom. We talk about Job, and Proverbs 3:5-6, and the sermon on tithing that led to a grocery run with $14 in the bank, and a Jeep sitting outside the church with a bow on it. Ben said it best. It's only God. There was no way that was him. Ben is on the discipleship team at Rock Church in Anchor Bay, Michigan, where he helped build a class called Foundational Truths. Episode is live now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Merch, journals, and the new honest prayer cards are all at amessyamenpod.com. Thank you for being here!

    From Drug Dealing to Discipleship: A Story God Rewrote

  8. Aug 22

    Faith, Fitness, Finding the Way Back to God

    Send us Fan Mail I met Ryan Hufford in the Dominican Republic on a mission trip, and it turned out he lives right here in Michigan. What are the odds, right? No coincidences with God. Ryan came into this one with a story most people would try to tidy up before they told it. A divorce, a patch on his back, years of running hard in a direction he never planned to go. He talks about how it happened slowly, one degree at a time, the way it always does. And then his oldest son showed up in his life again and everything started turning back the other way. Ryan says his son saved him. His son says it was the other way around. We got into a lot in this conversation. How good things can quietly become idols, including fitness and food and even our own routines. Why men's mental health gets pushed aside. What it means to wear the righteousness of Christ instead of leaving it hanging in the closet. Ryan's love for Ecclesiastes, which I did not see coming and now I kind of get it. We compared Bible translations, we talked about Revelation, and he read me Philippians 4:6 out of a Hawaiian Pidgin Bible, which I still cannot stop thinking about. 😂 Underneath all of it is the thing that keeps coming up on this show. The enemy wants you to believe your mess is unique and that nobody could possibly understand it. Somebody does. Especially Him. Verses we touched: 1 Timothy 4:8, John 3:3, Philippians 4:6, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Revelation 13:15 Heads up, we talk openly about suicide and mental health in this episode. If you are struggling, please don't sit in it alone. You can call or text 988 anytime. Grab a mug, a tee, or one of the digital products at amessyamenpod.com, including the new verse card deck, 52 cards across 13 categories to meet you in whatever you're walking through. If this one meets you where you're at, share it with somebody who needs it. We never know who will need to hear a story. You are not alone here. 🙏 @amessyamenpod

    Faith, Fitness, Finding the Way Back to God
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About

A Messy Amen welcomes you into the conversations you might not be having on Sundays. Do you ever feel like you want to get to know people more but you get the weird sense that no one can relate to your struggle? You show up to church, sing, listen to the sermon, and go home feeling forgotten, isolated, and frustrated? Here we will be sharing stories that help women of faith feel less alone. We will be honest in ways that may normally feel foreign and share how we hold on to faith and trust God in the ups and downs. 

Information

  • Creator
    Michelle Torrey
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 A Messy Amen
  • Show Website
    A Messy Amen