I recently had the privilege of joining Engel Jones on the #12minconvos with Jesus Believers podcast.
Twelve minutes. That’s the format. No long windup, no polished preamble—just a straight conversation about faith, purpose, and the road God has walked you down.
Twelve minutes turned out to be plenty of time to tell the truth.
Listen to the episode here → https://www.12minconvos.com/blog/podcast-19/mike-van-pelt-268
The Part of My Story Men Recognize First
I grew up in a Christian home. I was in church my entire life. Sunday mornings, serving, the whole picture.
From the outside, everything looked right.
On the inside, I was wearing a mask.
For decades there was a missing component in my faith, and I couldn’t have named it for you at the time. I could have told you plenty about God. What I couldn’t tell you was that I knew Him — or that He knew the parts of me I was working so hard to keep hidden.
Shame is patient. It doesn’t demand that you leave the church. It just quietly convinces you that if anyone saw the real version of you, they’d think less of you. So you perform. You stay active, you stay useful, you stay agreeable, and you stay alone.
That’s the part that lands with almost every man I meet. Not the church attendance. The mask.
Spring 2019: The Moment Everything Changed
Everything shifted at a men’s retreat in the spring of 2019.
There was a moment during that weekend — Josh Groban’s “You Are Loved” playing, the room quiet — when Jesus spoke directly to my heart. Not audibly. But unmistakably.
I was His beloved son.
That was it. That was the whole message. And it undid me, because it had nothing to do with my performance, my résumé, my leadership, or how well I’d been managing the image. It was an invitation into real intimacy with God — the kind I had been standing three feet away from my entire life.
I walked into that retreat as a man who attended church. I walked out as a man who had been met by God.
Why That Encounter Became a Calling
That moment didn’t just change my personal life. It reordered my business life, my marriage, my priorities, and the way I understood what a man is actually for.
It’s the reason True Man Life Coaching exists.
Because I know exactly how many men are sitting in a pew on Sunday with a mask on. Providing for everyone. Known by no one. Going through the motions of a faith they believe in but haven’t experienced.
The work I do now is simple to describe and hard to live out. I help men take the mask off. I help them trade performance-based identity for identity in Christ. I help them stop hiding, start asking for help, and model their lives after Jesus instead of after whatever version of themselves the world rewards.
That’s the whole mission underneath everything — True Man Life Coaching and American Family Renaissance alike. Build the man. Strengthen the family. Restore the nation. It starts with a man honest enough to admit he can’t do it alone.
The Question I’d Leave You With
If you’ve ever felt like you were going through the motions — active in church, respected at work, solid on paper, and quietly empty underneath — this episode is for you.
So here’s the question I’d put in front of you today:
What are you still hiding, and who have you never told?
You don’t need a retreat to answer it. You need one honest conversation with one man who’s earned the right to hear it. That’s how mine started.
Twelve minutes is enough time to begin.
Listen to the Episode
#12minconvos with Jesus Believers — Mike Van Pelt: https://www.12minconvos.com/blog/podcast-19/mike-van-pelt-268
A thank you to Engel Jones for the conversation and for the work he and his team are doing to reach believers around the world — 4,700+ conversations and counting, with a mission that spans 195 countries.
- The Podcast: https://www.12minconvos.com
- Amazel Enterprise: https://www.amazelenterprise.com
Watch and listen to more from MVP on the True Man Podcast — available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Mike “MVP” Van Pelt is the CEO and Founder of True Man Life Coaching and the Founder of American Family Renaissance, a faith-based movement built on God, Family, and Country. A men’s mentor, speaker, author of True Man True Ways: A Roadmap of Discovery to the Masculine Heart, and creator of the signature message The Power of Asking for Help, he helps Christian men reclaim their God-given identity, break isolation, and lead with authenticity. Know God. Know Yourself. Live Fully.