Platt plays vital ministry role while battling disease

For Greg Platt, bivocational minister of education at Glynwood Baptist Church in Prattville, life turns on a paradox.
   
Although muscular dystrophy (MD) has been slowly weakening his body, it has been building his faith. And the very ministry that threatens to drain his energy also helps keep him going.
   
Platt was in his early 30s when he discovered he suffered from mitochondrial myopathy, one of 40 types of MD, an inherited condition. Although he’d presented symptoms since he was a teenager, recurrent heart palpitations finally forced him to search out a diagnosis. “It was a relief to know what it was.”
   
Since then the characteristics of his form of MD have become much more pronounced. Platt’s eyelids droop so severely he wears glasses with crutches to hold them open. He also wears a neck brace to hold up his head. The muscles in his arms and legs have weakened requiring him to use a staff to keep his balance when walking. He drives around church on a scooter to save steps. His voice has grown tired, the words often so slurred that his wife, Deborah, will ask him to repeat himself. Even the simple feat of smiling proves too much for him most of the time because of the weakness of facial muscles.
   
Yet Platt, the father of two teenage sons, has continued to work as an accountant at Crystal Lake Manufacturing while maintaining his role at the church, a position he has served as staff minister for the past 10 years and as volunteer before that. Platt is a graduate of Auburn University-Montgomery and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
   
At Glynwood Platt’s major responsibility is coordinating and organizing the education ministry of the church, including overseeing Sunday School and implementing the discipleship program Body Life Journey. Until recently he also helped organize members for outreach visitation.
   
“One of his limitations is he can’t do everything,” Deborah said. So every task must be considered in terms of the energy it will require. His condition is considered “exercise-intolerant,” according to Platt, meaning no amount of exercise or weight lifting will improve his health; it will only deplete it.
   
So to conserve his energy Platt schedules all meetings he attends on Wednesdays and Sundays. He used to teach Sunday School but gave that up. Because of problems with his voice, he’s eliminated most public speaking. While he once filled the pulpit in Pastor Chip Smith’s absence, he is now the supply of last resort. Then he sits on a stool while he talks.
   
The weakness that accompanies MD has forced Platt into the hospital several times in recent months, battling problems like kidney stones, arterial fibrillation and dehydration from a viral infection. Last November he went from full-time status in his accounting job to part-time. Yet Platt calls MD a valuable faith-building experience.
   
“I would rather have the lessons that God has taught me through this than not have muscular dystrophy,” Platt said. “I don’t say that to put up a front. God has taught me a lot about patience, waiting on Him and depending on Him.”
   
It also changed his ministry focus, and Platt sees the benefit of that. A detail man, he tended to particulars himself until MD forced him to delegate. Now he concentrates on mentoring and member training, a strategy with potentially broader benefits.
   
Smith considers Platt invaluable to Glynwood’s ministry, in part because Platt helped start the church and form its infrastructure. “He’s a tremendous organizer and a great leader,” Smith said, noting that Platt has a nearly photographic memory. “Even though he is physically weak, I lean on him all the time.”
   
When Platt cannot attend a meeting, Smith said he still sends in a detailed synopsis “adding structure to it even when he’s not there.” So although he has physically weakened over the years, his role at Glynwood has remained vital. “I’m not too concerned about his physical abilities. I want his mind.”
   
When he was first diagnosed with MD, Platt said he feared because his sons, Russell, 18, and Tucker, 16, were young. “As a father you’re thinking: Am I going to be able to provide for them? Even worse, am I even going to be around?”
   
But something happened that caused Platt to regain his spiritual footing. Although he describes himself as “not one who claims to hear from God” he recognized God’s voice in a particularly poignant moment: “Don’t you believe that I can handle it?” He said.
   
It wasn’t an audible voice, but Platt knew it to be God’s just the same. It was such a sacred moment that Platt didn’t share it even with Deborah, but it was a turning point, spiritually and emotionally.
   
Because his health has deteriorated during the past five years, Platt realizes that he may be at another turning point. He is contemplating a future when he’ll have to give up one of his two jobs entirely to conserve his energy, a dilemma because he depends on one job for financial security and the other for his spiritual and emotional wellbeing. His wife also works two jobs. She drives a school bus and operates a home sewing business.
   
“With an experience like this you find: Is your faith real? Is it something you can depend on?” Platt said.
   
Meanwhile, he has discovered, like the apostle Paul who prayed that God would remove the thorn in his flesh, that grace is sufficient. “If God has foreknowledge, He’s able to do His plan for us for our good and His glory.”