into a mentee’s journey into community shaped by faith and intentional relationships. This story traces how one man’s life began to take root.

Michael Wekall had all the markers of success. As a video director at Johnson Ferry Church, he was telling amazing stories and doing meaningful work. By most standards, he was thriving.

But beneath the surface, something was missing.

“Even though I made some of my best friends in my life working at the church, I still didn’t have anything or anybody that was really pouring into me,” Michael recalls. “Working at a church was work. It wasn’t being in community or worshiping. It was work.”

Michael was working in ministry, but he wasn’t living in community. Without intentional investment, even meaningful work became hollow. Burnout came gradually through spiritual dryness and creative exhaustion. Eventually, he left his position and spent years drifting, struggling with depression and anxiety.

Then a friend invited him to a Friday morning Bible study. That simple invitation became a turning point in his story. For the first time in years, Michael felt spiritual healing and reinvigoration. He was moving in the right direction, but he knew he needed more. He needed intentional mentoring from men further along in their faith journey.

The Transformation Begins

Pete Buhls, the men’s minister at Johnson Ferry, approached Michael about Radical Mentoring, and the timing felt right. “I knew I wanted something challenging. I knew I wanted something tough,” Michael explains.

The transformation began early in the Radical Mentoring journey. During the story retreat, Michael examined his life and discovered a critical pattern. His highest moments were always connected to Biblical community, helping him name what he had been missing all along.

As he walked through his Radical Mentoring year, Michael encountered Tim Keller’s teaching on identity. “We aren’t our gifts. We’re given our gifts.” As a creative, he’d built much of his identity around what he could produce. Now, he reordered his priorities:

1. Son of God
2. Husband
3. Father
4. Creative/Story Teller

The Fruit of a Year of Mentoring

Over time, the effects of mentoring began to show up across Michael’s life. As his priorities shifted, he became more attentive to his faith, his marriage, and the relationships closest to him. Simple rhythms practiced throughout the year helped bring greater clarity, presence, and intentionality to the way he showed up at home and in community.

“One of the most key things we do is intentional prayer with our wives,” Michael shares. “When we’re doing that, our marriage is wide open in the best ways possible. When we aren’t, it just feels like something’s missing. I can see the difference clear as day now.”

Those changes did not stay private. Michael fell in love with his church again, not as an employee, but as a servant. He began showing up with renewed humility and purpose, rooted in who he was becoming. Recently, he was ordained as a deacon, a role that reflects the growth and faithfulness taking shape in his life.

What unfolded over the year was more than personal growth. It marked a mentee’s journey into community, clarity, stability, and renewed faith.

“To have those experiences of people pouring into you for a year,” Michael reflects, “it’s absolutely one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had.”

An Invitation to Be Rooted

This is what Radical Mentoring does. It’s not a self-help program or another Bible study. It’s intentional community where younger men are transformed by older men who genuinely invest in their spiritual formation.

Michael’s story points to the kind of impact this process can have when mentoring is lived out with intention. Over time, men grow more rooted in their faith, their relationships, and their sense of purpose.

The question isn’t whether mentoring makes a difference. The question is are you ready to begin a mentoring journey in your church or in your own life?

Click here to learn more and start your mentoring journey!