Ministry Wives Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Navigating Transitions in Ministry (an interview with Lynley Mandrell) Mar 27, 2023

Show notes

When God calls you to a new place, it won’t always be a smooth transition. There may be hurt and heartbreak over who or what you have to leave behind. Lynley Mandrell joins me today to share her story of a tough ministry transition, what she and her husband did well, what they did poorly, and how much the Lord taught them in the midst of the mess.

SHOW NOTES

Just because the Lord calls you to something doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.

Find the balance between seeking counsel and allowing too many voices to pollute what God is saying to your family.

Ministry is hard, no matter how healthy you think you are. Check-in with a Christian counselor on a regular basis.

QUOTES

“You take the things people say very heavily and then it makes you question, ‘Is that God speaking through this person? Are we doing the right thing or are we doing the wrong thing?’ This is when trust and faith in God comes in.”

-Lynley Mandrell

“There’s a sense of ownership, right or wrong, that people feel about their pastors. So it’s really hard to release them to other people or to a different kind of ministry. It’s understandable, the shock and the sadness that they feel.”

-Christine Hoover

“I think the thing that we have learned the most is no matter what, it cannot hurt to just have a check in with a Christian counselor pretty regularly. Ministry is really hard, and managing people’s opinions and perceptions is really hard. It takes its toll.”

-Lynley Mandrell

“I think the best advice is: go into transition with your hands wide open, saying, ‘Whatever you have for me in this season God, so be it.'”

-Lynley Mandrell

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

The Glass House

From Strength to Strength

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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Building Relationships with Pastors' Wives in Our Own Church (an interview with Bailey Leitch and Meredith Miller) Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

We long to have deep friendships with other pastors’ wives in our church. But how do we go about initiating and building those relationships amidst the busyness of ministry? Pastors’ wives Meredith Miller and Bailey Leitch share today how they have cultivated a deep friendship with one another by focusing on trust, honor, and Jesus.

SHOW NOTES

Cultivate a culture of honor in the way you speak to and about one another.

Building a team of ministry wives in your church requires safety, security, and support.

Center your relationship around Jesus and loving each other as friends, not the church.

QUOTES

“It is a huge blessing because there’s mutual encouragement. We are experiencing the same things as pastor’s wives, both of our husbands are on staff and there’s a uniqueness to that that we get to go through and encourage one another and pray for one another. I think having this relationship and getting to go through the seasons of ministry together has been really sweet.”

-Meredith Miller

“I definitely felt this weight of, we’re going to be doing life with these people. So Meredith needs to know all of my stuff and I need to know her stuff because we are going to be walking alongside each other in a lot of difficulty, but also a lot of joy. I think we both had the mindset of: we need to be committed to one another and that’s going to mean vulnerability to start propelling a friendship forward.”

-Bailey Leitch

“That is the huge key, right? Centering the relationship around Jesus, not the church. You’re seeking to love each other as a friend does and that has nothing to do with what your husbands do. You’re gonna understand things about each other that other people might not, but to me that’s the key.”

-Christine Hoover

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

Center Church

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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Creating Healthy Rhythms of Rest (an interview with Gregg and Kelly Matte) Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

The responsibility of ministry drains us emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Rest is a vital component for our overall health, as well as the health of our ministry. Pastor Gregg Matte and his wife Kelly explain how they have created individual and family rest rhythms through scheduling their days, Sabbaths, and sabbaticals.

SHOW NOTES

Dedicate a portion of your day to the Lord, a portion to your ministry, and a portion to family and rest.

Create an environment of peace and rest by allowing the peace of Christ to rule in your heart.

Taking time for rest moves your ministry from fatigue to fired up with renewal.

QUOTES

“Responsibility is stressful, and this is one of the challenges of having a job with responsibility, and it happens to be ministry. I’m going to blame responsibility, not God for putting me in ministry. That’s where you end up with that spiritual burnout where people are at the end of their ministry, and they don’t like their Christianity. I tell our staff all the time, don’t let your ministry ruin your Christianity. Walk with God and let that be a part of your heart and your life.”

-Gregg Matte

“I think creating a peaceful environment starts with becoming a peaceful person. I think about Colossians 3:15, ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,.’ The more peaceful we are, the more we’ll create an environment around us that’s conducive to rest. That’s not always easy, sometimes it takes wrestling with the Lord to get to a place where the peace of Christ is actually ruling our hearts. But when we let God do a deep work in us, His peace fills our hearts and overflows into our homes.”

-Kelly Matte

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

Capture the Moment

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Gregg

Facebook // Instagram

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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Working Outside the Church and Home (an interview with Macy English) Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

If God calls you to work outside the home or church, you may experience guilt or fear because you are filling a role that looks different from the traditional ministry wife “mold.” Pastor’s wife and business owner Macy English explains how she overcomes these misgivings by communicating with her husband and practicing open-handed stewardship before the Lord.

SHOW NOTES

Scripture teaches that all work is sacred, whether it’s inside the church walls or outside the church.

Don’t allow the guilt or fear of being different from the “mold” keep you from being a faithful steward of what He has gifted and called you to do.

Practice open-handed stewardship by regularly going before the Lord with your spouse, laying down your life, work and ministry before Him.

QUOTES

“When we start to look at all of work as sacred, the Lord can redeem and birth something really beautiful out of the Excel spreadsheet I’m building. In conversations around being gospel centered in our homes, there’s lots of conversation about taking the mundane, redeeming it and seeing that we’re doing a good work, whether it’s laundry or dishes, or getting kids ready for school. I wanna take that conversation and actually think about what that looks like in work as well with the tasks that the Lord has given us. How can we steward, honor and glorify Him with the skills He’s given us?”

-Macy English

“The joy is so great when we see that we’ve been good stewards of what the Lord has given us and we can’t shrink back in fear because we will stand before the Lord. We will not stand before men when we have to give an account for what we’ve done with what we’ve been given.”

-Macy English

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

Every Good Endeavor

Women and Work

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Macy

Instagram // Website

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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How To Find Fun in Ministry (an interview with Tanya York) Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

The weight of ministry can be heavy. We are often journeying with others through hardship and disappointment. But amid the hard, the Lord gifts us with sweet spots of lightness and fun. Pastor’s wife and teacher Tanya York joins the podcast today to share how she finds joy and fun even when circumstances are hard. Tanya intentionally pursues the buckets of joy and wins the Lord gives, and gives practical tips on how we can do the same.

SHOW NOTES

Take your sin seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.
You cannot change the character of people who are giving you hard, but you can change the way you perceive them. Choose to see their uniqueness and have fun with them.
Don’t use personality as an excuse to live negatively. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the wins and pursue life with a God who is as good as He says He is.

QUOTES

“I take sin very seriously, confronting sin in my own life and heart, but I don’t take myself too seriously. I’ve learned to laugh about things in ministry, and especially myself in ministry. Proverbs gives us that great verse, ‘A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bone.'”

-Tanya York

“I can’t comprehend a Christian being absent of joy. I’m not saying that you find joy in every single thing, but there has to be continual waves of that flooding through your life. That’s a uniqueness of Christianity that has to show up to draw people to Christ. In His presence is fullness of joy; I don’t leave His presence and He doesn’t leave mine. So the possibility of having a joyful heart, even in the middle of some very hard things is a choice that a Christian should make. I think it is incumbent upon the Christian to remind herself that she has the responsibility to portray the joy of Christ in her life.”

-Tanya York

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mentall Illness and the Ministry Wife (an interview with Julie Busler) Feb 20, 2023

Show notes

Mental illness can be very confusing as a Christian. We are followers of Christ, we know Scripture, so how could we feel hopeless? Today, Julie Busler candidly shares her journey through depression and PTSD. Julie has learned that medicine and faith go hand in hand, and that a mental illness diagnosis does not disqualify you for ministry.

SHOW NOTES

Being a Christian does not mean you have to be happy all the time. Joy and sorrow can coexist.

Telling someone your struggles may feel overwhelming, but until we bring things into the light, healing cannot happen.

Medicine and faith go hand in hand. You may truly need medical intervention, but you also need Jesus every minute of every day to bring your soul to life.

QUOTES

“I actually went to another missionary and told her enough that she knew I needed help. This was so important because I think sometimes in ministry it can be pretty lonely, and it’s hard to find safe friends who you can be real with, because you feel like you have to have it all together as the one who’s always encouraging everyone.”

– Julie Busler

“If you have cancer and you have chemo, I believe that’s a good thing. If you have diabetes and you have medicine, that’s a good thing. So I put mental illness in the same category. But again, nothing can give you joy and peace that is not dependent on your circumstances like Jesus.”

– Julie Busler

“Even with depression, this diagnosed mental illness, I am still His workmanship. I am created on purpose with a purpose. And it might look different than I wanted, but it’s good.”

– Julie Busler

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

Joyful Sorrow: Breaking Through the Darkness of Mental Illness

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Julie

Website // Facebook // Instagram

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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How-To Honor Your Spouse (an interview with James Roberson) Feb 13, 2023

Show notes

Marriages can be strained by attacks from the enemy and the pace of church ministry. How do we balance the demands of ministry with the proper honor God calls us to give our spouses? Pastor and husband James Roberson explains how men can uplift their wives, how wives can approach hard conversations, and how the marriage partnership is a blessing from God.

SHOW NOTES

Husbands: Slow down and consider the state of your own soul. Then you can assess and address the overall health of your wife, who is your partner and equal investor in ministry.
Spouses: You are not just a tool for one another’s ministries. God chose you for one another for your life, growth, and sanctification.
Wives: Approach your husbands with observations, not accusations. Remember that Satan would love to turn you into enemies. Saturate hard conversations with prayer.

QUOTES

“I think the navigation of my wife’s gifts is a broader holistic navigation of her mind, soul, and body. I need to budget time to assess all of that, not to just maintain a marriage that looks great for pictures. Jesus, in His sovereign vision for my life, chose my wife not for my ministry, but for my life, for my health, for my sanctification. So me investigating who she is and how she’s doing is part of me learning part of the ministry that God has given me for my life.”

– James Roberson

“I think [you] have to have an infinite amount of conversations with Jesus before [you] have a conversation with [y]our husband. Saturate those moments in prayer and don’t come to him in the flesh. Don’t try to win the conversation. I think ministry wives need to feel that need for prayer and maybe partner with other wives in that prayer, so that the deep need goes towards intercession, not resentment.”

– James Roberson

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with James

Instagram // Twitter

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Navigating Criticism in Ministry (an interview with Ann Swindell) Feb 06, 2023

Show notes

Criticism is inevitable in the life of a ministry wife, but learning to respond to it well takes patience, practice, and peace from the Lord. Author and teacher Ann Swindell joins me today to share how reframing her views of criticism and immersing herself in God’s Word allows her to navigate criticism with grace and love.

SHOW NOTES

Your job is not to fulfill what other people want. Your job is to fulfill what God wants.

Criticism always offers us an opportunity to grow, whether the remarks are valid or not.

The Word provides peace to carry us through the emotions that arise with criticism and righteous conviction.

QUOTES

“It’s hard to let people down. Behind my back, people could be saying, ‘Ann seems inaccessible or isn’t doing what I think a pastor’s wife should do.’ But my job isn’t to fulfill other people’s aims for my life. My job is to follow and walk with Christ in the season I’m in, trusting He will give me grace to do what I’m called to do.”

-Ann Swindell

“Criticism always offers us an opportunity to grow, and I want to grow in Jesus. I want to be a woman who is tendered to the Holy Spirit, who is humble, who is responsive. Two main ways I see it is either the criticism itself is valid, and there’s something in my character that needs to grow, or their criticism isn’t valid, and I have a chance to grow in how I love a difficult person.”

-Ann Swindell

“If I can get past my own defensiveness and to the heart of the person in front of me, God wants to heal them just as much as He wants to heal me. Usually I think criticism stems from a place of pain and, whether that pain is warranted or not, it can be very real for that person. We have an opportunity to shepherd and love them in that moment.”

-Ann Swindell

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

The Path to Peace

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Ann

Instagram // Website

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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Loneliness and the Ministry Wife (an interview with Rivers Partin) Jan 30, 2023

Show notes

Loneliness can be a very troubling feeling for us as ministry wives. How can we be surrounded by people and yet still feel totally alone? Rivers Partin joins me today to explain how acknowledging loneliness and its gifts has allowed her to become more connected to herself, others, and most importantly, God.

SHOW NOTES

Loneliness is a gift–our soul signaling to us that we need to make some changes.

Acknowledge the loneliness and try to identify which of the three types you are experiencing: with self, others, or God.

Sometimes God allows seasons of loneliness to drive us to Him.

QUOTES

“The answer to why loneliness exists would be that we were created for relationship. We were created for intimacy. We were created to be known and to know others. You can’t escape it because it’s what we were designed for. What loneliness does is it drives us. It’s a signal to us that we aren’t in strong, solid relationships where we’re known, where we feel like we belong. There is goodness to that.”

-Rivers Partin

“I think sometimes God allows seasons of loneliness, because He wants to teach us that relationships with other people are never going to fully satisfy the longing that we have for connection. He’s going to give us the gift of community and friendship, but ultimately we need Him.”

-Christine Hoover

“Intimacy is the opposite of loneliness. It’s mutual knowing and being known. Vulnerability begets intimacy, being known, being laid bare. ‘This is me, these are my faults, this is who I am.’ Intimacy is not saying, ‘I’m gonna stay here or you’re gonna allow me to stay here in my faults or brokenness or mistakes.’ But it is allowing another to know those things and then moving forward with grace and kindness for one another.”

-Rivers Partin

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

The Voice of the Heart

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Rivers

Facebook // Instagram // Twitter

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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Raising Teens While in Ministry (an interview with Kristie Anyabwile) Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

We want our kids to love God and the church as much as we do. But when we force-feed faith, especially to teenagers, they can wind up resenting the church and losing interest in Christ. Author, mom, and pastor’s wife Kristie Anyabwile shares how she’s learned to take a step back, giving her teens space to choose the Lord for themselves while providing spiritual opportunities that fit each child uniquely.

SHOW NOTES

Don’t try to force feed your teenagers into faith; cultivate their hearts, provide opportunities, and ask good questions.

Do what works for your family to grow spiritually together, and do what works for each individual child to grow.

When you feel fear or a need to control, take it to the Lord. It likely has nothing to do with your children, but something in you that needs addressing.

QUOTES

“We don’t want church and church activity to feel forced, to feel like something they have to do. We want to cultivate in them a desire to do it. Certain things are non-negotiable, like worshiping together. But as far as the life of the church, be intentional about finding ways to give your children freedom in terms of how much they want to participate. I think as parents, a lot of times we think, ‘They’re kids, they’re in my house, whatever we do, they’re doing.’ Then we cart our kids around so much, they start to resent church and church activity.”

-Kristie Anyabwile

“Faith doesn’t come by force feeding. It comes by the work of the Spirit and the heart. Whether that heart is a little heart that’s 5 years old, or whether that heart is a teenager or older. So we cultivate hearts and we want the habits to be such that their hearts are tuned towards it, not bent against it.”

-Kristie Anyabwile

LINKS FROM THE SHOW

Literarily

His Testimonies, My Heritage

Head over to www.ministrywivespodcast.com to check out the great content already on the site!

CONNECT

Connect with Kristie

Website // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter

Connect with Christine

Facebook // Instagram // Books

Visit How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife to access Christine’s resources for ministry wives like you!

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