PNA Connect 2025 - SOAR. - Part 2
The Pacific Northwest Association of the Church of God gathers annually at rotating host churches. This year we gathered in Spokane at New Horizons Community Church. These conversations are about what we heard and experienced at PNA Connect 2025 and go beyond, listening for God's divine echoes calling to us, reminding of us of who He is and who we are because of Him. The theme this year was SOAR. out of Isaiah 40.
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Hey everyone, welcome to the Beyond Sunday podcast. Uh, this is the special edition. This is the PNA Connect edition. And so we have some friends with us, Matt and Laura Klouse, pastor in Olympia. How are you guys doing today? Doing great. Doing great. Yeah, happy to be here. Thanks for being here. Yeah. So, uh, we got to be together this last weekend, um, at our annual district conference and spend some time together. And so, we wanted to take some time today, um, just in the same way that we do every week where we're taking the conversation beyond
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Sunday. We're taking the conversation beyond connect. And so, this is a space for us to talk about what God said to us over the last weekend, some things that are still sitting with us. Um, and so we're excited to be here. Before we dive in, take a look at this short video. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. All right, welcome back. And in this um conversation, we do want to hear what God has been speaking uh to us and through us. And so again, Matt and Laura, thanks for joining us. But from whether
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it's preparation for PNA Connect, um you were one of our speakers who are offering the the piece of an Isaiah 40 to abide with God, to abide with Christ. Um and and then also too if if things that are still God is speaking to you um since PNA connect. It's been a few days um into the week after our gathering together with our PNA family. Well, I think it was an honor to be asked and then the panic began is like can we be this vulnerable? I mean, we walked through a a difficult season
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of life, a lot of challenges, never alone, and we knew God was with us, and we had a support system, but uh it was one of those things, can you put this on tape in front of people and in front of your peers? And so, we said yes immediately, which was a shock to us because ourselves saying yes, because it really felt like the Lord was in this. And we felt like God had something that he wanted to say to people about abiding through our story. And it's one of those things where you tell people all the time, your testimony can make a difference. God
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wants to speak through you. But then when it's us and it's our story, it becomes a little bit more personal. And so we had some conversation about that. I mean, how vulnerable is vulnerable? And um the on the back end of things after we spoke there were so many people who came to us and said thank you so very much for that level of vulnerability because I really connected with that we're going through things and often times we think hey we're in a room full of pastors. Are they really going through stuff? Everybody's going through stuff. It's their stuff. It's not
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our stuff but overall it's the same stuff. You know we we need the Lord. We need his presence and he offers us the invitation to abide. And so I'm so glad that a lot of people felt like they could really connect with what we shared. Yeah. Which which really set the table into Saturday, right? Our gathering all day Saturday. Uh you guys were leading us into that day. Um and and from um worship into just the the vulnerability that you that you offered to all of us into the room. And um uh uh it it set it set the table for the rest of the day where where it was like,
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okay, we're we're here to um to be together uh to be filled with the Holy Spirit uh with where wherever we happen to be with whatever situation we walked in with and like, okay, Lord, just speak to me like renew my spirit. and you guys really set the table with that because of coming in with such vulnerable uh uh position and and sharing your story because I remember hearing as you guys were speaking I'm like is that it? Well, there's more burden right and like burden for the having
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to walk through what you have walked through and continuing to do so in different in different ways. But uh all throughout the the thing the pieces that that stood out to me was just uh the the faithful and consistent walking with the Lord, seeking him. Lord, what what is it that you were inviting me into? Where are you in the midst of this? Uh and that was encouraging to me. I think what the Lord was really saying too was um you know, we are healed in community. And so just even though as we're focusing on that abide and that he did ask us to just continue to expand
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and trust him during this long season um the other thing in that invitation to come and share it was we are healed in community and we when we share our story and it gives uh people an example of what is it like to abide you know maybe I am currently kind of in my own season but I'm feeling kind of lost in it. Maybe um that disorienting sense that we were talking about um helps other people orient towards oh you know this is where up is this is where um standing you know firm and strong and letting God kind of come around me can happen now and um I was really excited to you know
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have some conversations like that where we can see that the Lord wanted to use that. Yeah. Well, I think that's even an example of um even where that invitation came from because we uh we are part of your community, right? And so we we've walked with you guys in the last couple years. And even as you guys were sharing on Saturday, um as I was listening to this story, um it was like, yeah, I remember I remember some of those moments as you guys were walking through and praying for you guys and and um hearing the way that God's shown up. And so even in that when we started
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talking and and I know we said this at connect too but we when it was very clear that God was like um tell my people about abiding and we're like who who's the right voice? I know for both of us it was like we've watched you guys abide and we've watched you do that in the hard things and we've heard your story. um maybe not even as in-depth as you shared on Saturday, but it was like uh these are the voices that have a story that's like here's what it looks like to walk through
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something really hard, but to to have abiding be the anchor in that. Um and so it was cool for me um as your friends to sit in that space um and like listen to you be that vulnerable um because there there is power in that. It lets other people kind of like like you said, it set the tone for other people to go, okay, so we're actually not going to pretend in this space. That means we're going to set some other things down and and maybe actually get to show up in a in a more real way
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than we normally would because I think when you come to just something like that, everybody's testing it out a little bit like hey for real are we going to be in this place? Um but if you start out with a like here here all of it is um yeah gives permission for the room to go okay so we're gonna we're gonna put some masks down today. Um and then that just lets the spirit move in a in a deeper more powerful way I think. I don't think we're going to have to see that. Yeah. It elicits
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more compassion in me for others because uh often times we'll hear just a a sampling of somebody's struggle or their pain in a passing comment or a prayer request. Yeah. And then we move on and we pastor our churches and our life goes on and we just think, you know, we just commend them into the care of God and think, you know, everything's okay. But their struggle is daily. And it's hourly. And sometimes I just have to be honest, it just feels like you're just sleepwalking, right?
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It's it's like, is this really real what we're going through? And you know, you put it on your life a little bit on autopilot because I still have functions. I still have things. I still have sermons to prepare prepare. We still have people to lead. We still have people to visit and all the things that pastors do. Uh meanwhile, somehow just that unseen hand of God is just carrying you through and is booing you and strengthening you. Uh the fact that it was a part of this theme with
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Isaiah 40 is just so incredible. We didn't start like, you know what, let's really study Isaiah 40 and then go into a season of despair. It wasn't it wasn't like that. And so as we're going through this and studying like oh my word now I see the unseen hand of God and that whole idea of wait on the Lord Kaba that word being linked to the root of rope and then you brought amazing things out in regards to that kind of that tension uh in life and then for us it hit just a little bit different
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like for us it was a lifeline right the Lord is here and he's never let you go. Yeah and uh that just meant so much. Uh it was really interesting again on the back end with some of the responses there was a little bit of shock like can we really be that vulnerable with each other? Is this is this safe? Yeah. But knowing that nobody's going to run out of the room and say oh my word did you hear about those guys. I think people just at a deeper level maybe emboldens them to say I'm
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going to I'm going to be a little bit more honest and a little more vulner vulnerable because the living God can take this and use this in the life of someone else. I think we always see the spirit being very active when there's just vulnerability and when we take off veneers and sometimes when we gather as a lot of leaders in one space um we can put that veneer on and maybe we just say you know I don't know if I would feel comfortable you know opening up to that level but I think we would be
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pleasantly surprised and very um you know excited to see what God will do when we do that. Um I think he likes to get down to the heart of things. I know it's in my nature, my personality to just say, you know, let's let's be authentic and let's talk let's talk about the hard things together. Um, and then there's also a nature of I thought of the book um by Eene Peterson. It's he you know that he wrote for pastors and it's called a long obedience in the same direction. And there's also
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some of that I think in what um that abide piece looks like for for pastors and leaders, you know, is like there's this long obedience of like all the different challenges and all of the hills and the valleys over a long period of time that we walk that obedience in the same direction with God so tightly knit, you know, but sometimes we can lose that sense of God being close. And um you know, pastors can go through times of burnout and struggle and not even know it. you know, you're living in it and you don't even know it. Um, so to be able to come together and say like,
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wow, you know, we're all kind of living in that. Could we open that up? And then also, what can we get rid of? You know, we've talked about like the vultures and the toxins, you know, what can we let go of today, you know, and that was kind of at the beginning of the day to say, is there stuff that God would say just like let's let go of that so that we can soar and we can fly higher and we can keep being, you know, uh where God asked us to be because I think there's always
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that sense of like well maybe it's just easier to stop or totally walk away when we get in times of discouragement. Um but really it becomes a place where God can refine us and we end up being the most usable. Yes. And that that that piece of the lifeline holding on to Jesus holding on to us and and and I think you brought up being in water and not knowing which way was up. Yeah. But the the picture that you even have the illustration of just Jesus and rising up to to the surface and and he's the lifeline carry us and holds us. that I think that was a a huge piece in the midst of
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of of being abiding and and that in the midst of the of the trial and the struggle that it's holding on to Jesus, Jesus holding on to us. It's a thing that's not throwing yourself into other ministries, not throwing yourself into other things and the distractions or um being like this is what will offer fulfillment or this is what will pick me up out of the the the depths, but it's Jesus. And you and I just kept hearing that come back around over and over again. It was Jesus who was holding on to me. It was Jesus who was giving me north, right? Pulling me
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um when I wasn't sure which direction. It was Jesus I was looking to. And that throughout was like that's abiding. That's what it looks like to abide in good seasons and in hard seasons. Well, I think that was the whisper of the Lord to you when you had that vision of, you know, pretty much brace yourself. you're going under. It's going to be like the rinse cycle in the ocean. You're not going to know which way is up. You are going to be disoriented and wonder how in the world am I
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going to survive this? And then you were really told, "Stop fighting. Stop fighting. Just just release yourself into it. You got to ride this wave." And I think about how does the God who um gives you the vision of what you're going to go through, he's the same God who carries you all the way through. And I think of, you know, Paul when he's just facing everything that he's facing and the Holy Spirit comes to him and tells him, "All I can tell you is that trouble, hardship,
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and prison await." Yes. But I'm going to be with you. Don't stop speaking. Yeah. You know, don't be afraid. I am with you. Don't be silent. So keep keep sharing, keep sharing. So the one who, uh, leads us through, kind of warns us, guards us, uh, and carries us through to the other side. And he's just so faithful. And then you're aware of his track record. He's never failed. He's never ever let us down. He's never abandoned us. And he never will. Yeah. Just powerful. Yeah. So um
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typically at the towards the end of these we like to ask the question like what's the chyros for you? So if there's one thing that God spoke to you or uh in impressed upon your heart either while we were there or since then um what's the thing God is is saying respond but what's the what's the word God saying? So I'm going to go first and think but so for me just in this conversation and with with what I'm remembering back to Peanut Connect it's surrender. Um there have been echoes
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um uh that that just now landed of like this surrendering to God, trusting him. Um and like the the the visual of just going limp, right? And and but God's holding me and trusting him, but surrender that in a surrendered soil. And this brings me back to just like driving out there and seeing this um you know the poll uh hills and and and fields and everything that are just naturally irrigated by whatever God decides to drop from the from the skies and that the crops grow. The soil is so nutrient so rich but it's a surrendered soil that when the seeds planted in there that God will
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grow. Yeah. And I want to be a surrendered soul to God. Yeah. And and and that the that the fruit will will grow. Absolutely that soil. That really speaks to me because um at our church and just kind of in what we feel like God's been saying um first was the word cultivate and that we're really needing to cultivate that soil to be ready for what's happening next. And I think personally um you know due to connect and some other things in my own life, I feel like the next thing is
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the word is activate. You know, because when you uh release those toxins, when God is taking you through this time of abiding, where in some ways, even though you're going through the hardest time of your life, you also feel the closest to God in so many ways. And so now it's like, okay, but now we're we're building into a time where, of course, God is still close, but like um we're we're ready, you know, we're ready to go. We're ready to just uh see what that next thing is that God is saying
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step into in power. Uh for me when I think of a chyros moment I think of the scripture says that evil the evil one will be overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word our testimony and it isn't just necessarily uh let me tell you how you can find faith in Christ. The testimony is how God meets us in the middle of our pain and struggle and holds us continuously, envelops us and is our lifeline and to not be um I guess afraid of being vulnerable because when you are other people connect with that and uh God receives all the glory you know he's the hero in the story you
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know and scripture says he remains faithful even when we're or not. Even when we're struggling, even when we're wandering, even when we feel like I can't go on another day, he's he's the hero of the story because he's always there and uh the Lord has promised to be with us always to the very end of the age. And so um I love that. So be be vulnerable, give glory to God, and uh let your let your story, you know, bring forth. Yeah. Yeah. for me. Um, actually when you were talking, Laura,
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one of the things that felt like, uh, God was really loud for me at Connect was I I think I had, uh, this image or this idea of abiding being like a a getting away. So, um, when we abide, this is like a, okay, I'm going to remove myself and I'm going to go and be with God and and this restfulness. And as you were talking about um the darkest night and the deepest waters and that kind of idea, it I had this sense of God asking like, okay, so what if that's where you find me? What
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if that's where I am? Will you remain in those hard things, those hard places, those dark nights, those deep waters? Will you remain there and choose to abide with me there if that's where I am? Um or are you trying to get out of those spaces and like I'll I'll find you when you're back over here. And so this invitation of like will you trust? Um, and maybe it's similar to the surrender and the going limp of like don't fight this. Um, but but even maybe more specific of like
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will you recognize that might be where I am and where you're going to find me in those places. Um, and so yeah, that question of like will you remain if that's where I am? Yeah. And it creates I think this sense of flexibility in us you know and I know we've gone through this as a community when we've met and kind of going through the practices and uh you know just learning kind of how to float almost like a surrender is like okay if you surrendered you know in the water and you
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just let God bring you to the surface you begin to be floating on the water you know in whether it's stormy seas or calm but you're kind of like ready to to move where God is moving a little bit more. you're not so stuck on um this is what I know, you know, a good thing looks like or where God is moving. Um you're not afraid, I think, of when the harder things happen then. Um and you can sort of hang with God, you know, in in those challenges a little bit better. And I think the
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word that we've learned like is like that growing capacity and the and like the definition of abide being the tolerance, you know, to be able to tolerate difficulty and not have it really throw you down to the bottom, you know, the next time. Like like we I think if we, you know, god forbid, go through anything more challenging, it would be like I don't think it would hit us like it hit us because that was kind of a new wave that we hadn't seen. Um so yeah, you're just you're ready to
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just go out of here. I'm staying with you and I'm gonna lose you. Yes. So good. So good. Well, guys, thanks for uh tuning in, checking us out, and we we hope and pray that as we have been unpacking things from DNA Connect that uh you too will get to hear some of these stories and uh that this is an ongoing process of what God is revealing uh to us and through us. So, have a blessed week. I love the PNA Connect because it's a it's a chance to reconnect and connect and hear stories of what God's been doing around our PNA family and it's good to be here.
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I love the PNA Connect because the relationships that are represented here and just the collaboration and camaraderie of the leaders in our district. I love the TNA Connect because one, free coffee. Way to go, New Horizons. I think it's important because um it's an opportunity for us to connect with other pastors and for us to know that we're not alone in this wonderful work that we get to do. And um it's just a great time to connect with other folks. PNA Connect is important because not only is it a space for us to come to to say hi to people we
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haven't seen in a while to build connection, but it's also the place that we get to come and hear collectively from God for what he's doing already, the way the kingdom's already breaking through in our district and for what he's inviting us into going forward. I love the PNA Connect because it's an awesome opportunity to reignite our plans as ministry leaders and connect as a family to get ready for the year ahead. I love the PNA Connect because I love connecting with other people.
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I love the PNA connect because it's a great way to connect with other churches in the area as well as other churches that are farther away that we don't always get to communicate with. I love the PNA connect because it is a time to connect with fellow pastors and ministry leaders and to just pause, reflect, and be inspired to continue on the work of the ministry for the sake of the kingdom. We love Frankie Boy. Woohoo. as they go back to their respective locations and regions. Father God,
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I thank you Lord that they Lord God will expel darkness in that area because they are the carriers of your glory in the mighty name of Jesus.
