We’re Not Alone: How Lavish HOPE Transformed Emily’s Sundays
The walk from her parsonage to the church building was something Emily Childers used to dread. Like most ministry families, it was common for her and her husband Joel to arrive at the church at different times on Sundays. “I had these feelings of anxiety,” Emily says. “I had to walk into church by myself and it was so scary.”
When Joel transitioned from youth ministry in Abilene, Texas to pulpit ministry at the Avenue Church in Glasglow, Kentucky in 2021, Emily says the pressure she put on herself only increased. “It felt like I was who other women of the church were supposed to look up to,” she says. “I’m not just their friend now; I’m the pastor’s wife.” (Read More)
Out of the Fishbowl: Finding Confidence and Community in Ministry
Growing up, Andrea Turner thought she knew what the life of a pastor’s wife would look like. “It meant dressing appropriately and serving in the nursery,” she remembers. Now, after 22 years of ministry at the White Station Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee working alongside her husband Bob, her reality is much more about teaching in the classroom at work and at church, volunteering with their foster care ministry, and helping the local homeless community.
It’s a life of service that Andrea loves and feels called to, but it is also demanding. Sundays are an additional workday on top of her full-time teaching job and cultivating deep friendships as the pastor’s wife has not been easy. (Read More)