Somewhere Between the Mountain and the Valley
KALI Dinner at General Assembly 2025
By Daniel Jung
“My faith is strengthened by all that I see
You make it easy for me to believe up on the mountain
Oh, up on the mountain”
……
These lyrics are from an old Steven Curtis Chapman song called, “The Mountain.” I listened to this song after every summer youth retreat as a newly converted teen in the 1990s. The song’s significance has a familiar missiological imperative. Retreats create an environment where faith is buttressed by a healthy dose of ascetic-driven sobriety. But the isolated views of the retreat mountaintop are different from the valleys of the “real world.” Downward we must return, back to the drudges of the valley floor with the hopes that God will go with us. We anticipate our newly filled spiritual gas tanks to be depleted until the next time we traverse the summit to have them filled once again. The valley, replete with its heartaches and frustrations, is supposed to be our home. But like Steven Curtis Chapman sings, “I would love to live up on this mountain, and keep the pain of living life so far away.”
Those lyrics resonate even more today. We know we can’t live on the mountain, but do we necessarily have to live in the valley? To live in a state of ceaseless discomfort, scrutiny, and for some, abuse. What if there is another option, a third space? Hinds Feet in High Places aside, I believe there is a place—between the valley and the mountain—where the pain of living the denominational life needn’t be draining enough to necessitate a repeated and habitual return to the peak.
The Korean American Leadership Initiative (KALI) Dinner at the 52nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) offered a glimpse of what this third-space might embody.
On Wednesday, June 25th, on the heels of a disparaging day of business on the assembly floor, KALI hosted its annual dinner at Hope for the Inner City—a non-profit community center and ministry in conjunction with New City Fellowship Church in Chattanooga. The ethnic-based ministries of the PCA gathered for the first time in our denomination’s history and, together, we caught the faint lullaby of the Song of the Foothills.
Eight ministries within Mission to North America (MNA)—upheld by the missional pillars of church vitality and church planting—were represented and highlighted as the centerpiece of the dinner’s program.
African American Ministries (Charles McKnight), City Lights Chinese Ministries (John Chua), Native American and First Nations (Jeb Bland), Brazilian Ministry (Renato Bernardes), Haitian American Ministry (Dony St. Germain), ESL Ministry (Nancy Booher), Refugee & Immigrant Ministry (Angela Pacey), and Hispanic Ministries (Hernando Saenz, not in attendance). One by one, we heard a brief testimony of what God was doing in their respective corners of the PCA. One by one, the ministry directors received intercessory prayers in one unified voice. And one by one, an Elijah-esque revelation akin to 1 Kings 19 swept through the room like a holy whisper. Though we have all been operating in various degrees of isolation, we realized we were not alone. God has steeled our collective hearts.
If the night started with a faint lullaby, by the end of the dinner, it crescendoed into a chorus of jubilee, beckoning us toward respite and unity.
Respite and unity marks the space of the foothills and for those in attendance, the space was a sweet release. From the foothills, the Lord offered us respite from the haze of the valley. From the foothills, we stood united in cause and purpose without needing to sacrifice our respective missions on the altar of lesser trivialities. It’s from the vantage point of the foothills where we could remain engaged in the business of the valley without falling into its gorges. The foothills, in short, offered a happy-medium between the picturesque summit and the exposed chaos of the valley and it was a long-awaited sigh of relief.
Candidly speaking, many of us doubt our futures in the denomination. We don’t know with great certainty if our ministries will exist in the PCA a decade from now. But we know our call for today hasn’t changed since yesterday. As ministries within Mission to North America, we exist to provide expertise with excellence to all churches in the PCA, and that is what we will continue to do. The KALI Dinner at GA simply gave us a hopeful vision of providing it from a third space, somewhere between the mountain and the valley.
Daniel Jung is a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary and a teaching elder in the Korean Northwest Presbytery. He lives in Northern California, where he serves as an associate pastor at Home of Christ in Cupertino. In his spare time, Daniel loves the 49ers, good coffee, and writing about the intersection between faith and pop-culture. You can find more of his work here.
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