By Glenna Marshall

I remember the day I sat in a coffee shop with a trusted friend and cried over my latte. While I shared how difficult the week had been ministry-wise, my phone kept buzzing with hurtful texts loaded with criticism from a church member about a decision we’d made as a family. It wasn’t a decision that had any bearing on our church members. It wasn’t immoral or unbiblical; it wasn’t even a big deal. I didn’t understand why I was being bombarded with criticisms. I was accused of being manipulative and secretive. Crushed, I silenced my phone while my friend held my hand and prayed over my tears.

By Liz Roy

Practical Shepherding Women offers mentoring services from ministry mentors. We are pastors’ wives and women in ministry who are ready to come alongside you in your time of need. You can begin meeting with one of our female mentors for 6-8 weeks. During this time we want to hear the burdens you are carrying. Each mentor has her own God-given gifting and abilities and will use the time in a way that she prayerfully considers will be beneficial to your soul. We might ask you to meditate on specific scriptures or read a passage and discuss it the next week. Your mentor will seek to step back and give a biblical perspective on your trial. A mentor commits to pray for you and with you.

By Glenna Marshall

The Lord loves His church, and He uses all kinds of people in all different ways to comfort, encourage, exhort, and serve. If your discouragement over absences or lack of involvement is coloring the way you view your church family, ask the Lord to help you look for the faithful helpers. Their presence will encourage you. The body of Christ is made up of ordinary people whose names will likely not be remembered a hundred years from now. But God sees them, and so should we. 

By Liz Roy

Experiencing the love of Christ is not a mystical or emotional experience to conjure up! Our experiences of His love will rise and fall and ebb and flow. We experience this love in different measures and at different times. We are not to seek after the experience but to seek Jesus! The love of Christ always begins with knowing and believing in who He is and what He has done for me.

By Glenna Marshall

Whether you’re looking forward to what’s next in ministry, treading the same water continuously, or fighting fear of upcoming changes, your source of security isn’t your ministry. It’s Jesus.

By Liz Roy

God’s Word teaches us how to communicate biblically so that we learn how to faithfully express ourselves without going off into either ditch of absorbing our hurts or dumping our hurts.

By Liz Roy

Hospitality is trusting in Christ’s welcome of us so that we then welcome others. It begins in your own heart and turns outward to love in action.

By Liz Roy

Seeking out friendships within the church is a lot like cultivating a garden. As we tend to the garden of our hearts, our spiritual eyes begin to open to the variety of friends God may be bringing into our lives.Here are some exhortations to keep in mind as you pray and look for the friends God may be providing in your life.

By Glenna Marshall

Maybe your weakness isn’t a physical thorn. Maybe it’s mental. Or maybe it’s your backstory, your pre-conversion tale. Maybe it’s the sin that once held you in a suffocating vise. Maybe you speak of it as often as possible so it loses its power every time you back it up against the power of the gospel. Or maybe, like me, your thorn crops up when you need it the least and you wonder how in the world you will accomplish the good work God has set before you. This is the place, friend. This is where He delights in displaying His power–right in the middle of your weakest weakness. He will not share His glory with another, but He will gladly display it in you.

By Christine Hoover

When pastors’ wives confess in survey after survey that they are lonely, I think more often than not they’re expressing the isolation they feel that is a natural consequence of their hidden vulnerabilities. By “natural consequence,” I mean there are many things that remain under the surface of our relationships because they can’t be explained in words; they can only be experienced by those in our shoes. In addition, there are some things that must remain under the surface—unsaid and unacknowledged—because this best honors God, our husband, and people in our church.

By Glenna Marshall

Just like setting New Year’s resolutions can help us make goals to focus on and work towards in the coming months, pausing to reflect on the last year can help us evaluate what God has taught us, how He has blessed us, and where He might be leading us to focus. In other words, looking back can aid us as we look forward.

By Glenna Marshall

Ministry life is guaranteed to be hard. This calling will rarely be an easy one. That’s not to say it is without joy—it absolutely brings joy that is rooted in our hope of eternity with Christ. But, we shouldn’t be surprised when suffering comes to us through the doors of the church where we serve.

By Kellye Carmack

Encourage them. Is someone serving and sacrificing their time? Encourage them. Did someone lead a small group or a Bible study? Instead of pointing out what they could have done better, encourage them. Do you want your church leaders to thrive? Encourage them.

By Glenna Marshall

After nearly two decades of walking with church members through the most memorable moments of their lives, I’ve come to believe that it is an honor to be a burden-bearer. Even when ministry has been tense because of criticism or misunderstandings, we can put those things aside in a moment of crisis and just be present with our people. Presence is what they need from us.

by Kellye Carmack

Many ministry families give up their hobbies and passions to spend more time doing ministry, but the things that bring you joy may be the exact things that God uses to minister through you. I’m not saying there won’t be sacrifices that we have to make for our church, but don’t sacrifice something that God may want to use. The same God who knit you together with your passions, called you to ministry, and He wants to use all of you for His glory.

By Glenna Marshall

God is sovereign over our lives. He has ordained all of our days, our ministries, the churches where we’ll serve, and the people who fill the pews each week. He sees the isolation that ministry families often feel. He knows about every stinging comment you’ve received, and He’s aware of the way your heart hurts. He knows that on some Sundays, church doesn’t feel like a very safe place for you. And He is with you when you walk in and offer a smile and a hug though everything in you wanted to stay home.

By Kellye Carmack

There are parameters in following Christ. Those parameters allow us to freely and safely live where we can experience true blessing. God’s commands, rightly applied, give life, joy and protection.

By Glenna Marshall

Because the Spirit lives in me (and you), we can love the church! Not perfectly, and not all the time. Sin is still a present reality in this life. But, with time and growth and the faithful, sanctifying work of Christ, the love that Paul writes about will grow in our hearts as the Spirit keeps His word to make us more like Jesus.

By Kellye Carmack

It feels easier for us to believe that Jesus rose from the dead than to believe that He will work all things out for our good. Friend, this is what I want you to remember: If Jesus really rose from the dead, then everything else He says is true. He promised he would rise from the dead, just like he promised to give you all things for life and godliness, just like He promised to never leave you or forsake you, just like He promised to provide for all your needs.

By Glenna Marshall

If you are struggling through a difficult season of ministry, I encourage you to spend some time in the middle of your Bible. Read the psalms, memorize them, study them, sing them, pray them, journal them. And follow the path that the psalmists do: lament your troubles before the Lord—but then remember His past faithfulness to you. Make a list if you must! He was faithful to you in the past, and He will continue to be faithful to you no matter what. While He may not end your trial when you want Him to, He will be with you through it. He sees. He knows.