Advertise on podcast: The Ministry Wives and Women Podcast with Andrea Griffith

Season 2 is coming soon! But before we turn our attention to faith, Andrea Griffith is taking a moment to look back on what God has taught us about resilience. Throughout Season 1, we've heard honest stories of hardship, unexpected rescue, and God's faithfulness. These conversations have reminded us that resilience isn't something we have to muster up on our own. It's a gift of grace, found in Jesus and strengthened as we learn to abide in Him. In this short, personal episode, Andrea shares a few favorite moments from the season, what God has been teaching her along the way, and why she's more convinced than ever that knowing God deeply is what sustains us through life's hardest seasons. And there's more to come! After a short break, we'll be back for Season 2, where we'll explore another gift God grows in us: faith. Thank you for being part of this first season. We hope these conversations have encouraged you, reminded you that you're not alone, and drawn you closer to Jesus. Follow the podcast so you don't miss Season 2! While you wait, you can continue growing in resilience with Andrea's nine-week Bible study, The Resilient Soul: Enduring Faith in Weary Seasons, available on Amazon. Find the Bible study here:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Resilient+Soul+Andrea+Griffith

What if the label you've worn the longest isn't the one God uses to name you? What if the shame you've guarded like a secret is the very thing Jesus wants to turn toward — and rewrite? In this episode, Andrea sits down with Teresa Whiting in Chicago to talk about her Bible study *Graced* and the six women in Scripture — Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and the sinful woman at Simon's house — whose stories of brokenness became stories of rescue. Teresa shares her own journey out of hiding, and how studying these women loosened shame's grip on her heart. You'll hear why identity is God's word to speak, why grace and truth always travel together, and how Jesus still turns toward the woman at His feet. You are not alone — and there's a cohort starting January 13 to walk this out with other women.

What if the season you're calling "empty" is actually the one where God is doing His deepest work? What if the ship never sails — and your yes was still obedient? In this conversation, Katie Gallo and Shannon O'Bryan return to talk about resiliency in the waiting. Shannon shares the story of moving her family to Mexico to launch a medical ship ministry — and then watching that ship sit in a shipyard for the entire length of their time there. Along the way, God rewrote the assignment: a school for missionary kids, a ministry to the missionaries, and a thousand invitations to lay her strengths down and step into weakness where His strength could show up. We talk about stones of remembrance, gratitude that reshapes perspective, and the grace that meets us in every season. Because our yes belongs to Jesus, our identity isn't in what we're waiting for, and the cross is proof He will not withhold what we truly need. You are not alone. I'll be praying that you experience the nearness of Jesus.

What if the person rubbing you the wrong way isn't trying to ruin your life — they're just wearing different lenses than you are? And what if humility, not being right, is what actually keeps you standing in ministry for the long haul? In this conversation, Andrea sits down with sisters Katie Gallo and Shannon O'Bryan to talk about resilience in relationships — the messy, ongoing work of loving people well when offense, misunderstanding, and awkwardness creep in. They share honest stories of getting it wrong, avoiding hard conversations, and the weight that finally lifts when we obey the Spirit's nudge toward reconciliation. Along the way, they open up about the parents who shaped their faith and the everyday practice of going to the Word first. At the heart of it all: because Christ reconciled us to God, we can extend that same olive branch — trusting the outcome to Him. As much as it depends on you, be at peace. Then rest in the finished work of Jesus.

What if the waiting season you're trying to escape is actually the training ground God is using to grow your roots deep? In this episode, Andrea sits down with her friend Katie Gallo to talk honestly about resilience in waiting — the kind of waiting that strips away titles, exposes false identities, and forces us back to the only name tag that matters: child of God. Katie shares from a season of being set aside, and Andrea opens up about the ruptured discs that grounded her doer-heart and reset her identity in Christ. Together they walk through Scripture — David, Joseph, Abraham, and Jesus Himself waiting in John 11 — and offer a practical FAST rhythm (Focus, Adore, Seek, Trust) for the nights your mind won't stop racing. Waiting isn't wasting. It's becoming. And you are not alone.

What happens when the people you were sent to serve alongside start holding you at arm's length? When your coworkers, your family, your friends, and the people you minister to are all somehow supposed to be the same handful of people—and your head is spinning trying to figure out where you actually fit? In this episode, Andrea sits down with Shannon O'Bryan, who spent six years as a missionary with YWAM in Mazatlán, Mexico before transitioning back to the States. Together they name what most ministry wives feel but rarely say out loud: the disorientation of joining an already-established ministry, the loneliness of not knowing who's a coworker and who's a friend, and the ache of feeling invited to the team but not to the table. Shannon shares the season God used to teach her that her worth was never about what she brought to the table. If you're wrestling with feeling unseen, misunderstood, or held at arm's length, you are not alone—and Jesus is standing with you before the only Judge whose verdict matters.

What if spiritual disciplines aren't a checklist of demands, but an invitation to a party? In this conversation, Megan Thompson returns to talk with Andrea about resilience through the disciplines—and how her thinking has been transformed from "list of things I owe God" to "the God who invites me into relationship." Drawing from Psalm 40, John 6, and hard seasons of church planting and a daughter's health crisis, Megan shares how Scripture memory, journaling, worship music, community, and lament have carried her when she didn't have the energy to open her Bible herself. Along the way, we land on this: the disciplines don't come out of who we are or what we're doing—they come out of who Jesus is and what he has already done. He is holding us fast. You are not alone. Come to the party.

What if the strength you're projecting is actually the thing keeping you from Jesus? What if the "keeping it together" you learned in church culture is the very facade Jesus called out in the Pharisees? In this episode, Andrea sits down with her friend Megan Thompson — pastor's wife at Bay Cities Fellowship in Tampa, children's director, and high school English teacher — for an honest conversation about gospel vulnerability. Megan shares how a gifted copy of *Give Them Grace* and re-reading the *Jesus Storybook Bible* began to undo decades of believing she had to be the hero of her own story. Along the way: a 7-year-old's jelly-shoe exit down the center aisle, the fear of planting a church, and the beauty of repentance as the place Jesus actually meets us. You'll hear why our righteousness is Christ's, why time and space matter before we share, and how to keep going when vulnerability gets wounded. You are not alone — and Jesus is still the only Hero and Rescuer in the story.

What if the gospel you preached to yourself at conversion isn't just the door in — but the daily water your ministry-weary soul needs to drink from again and again? In this second conversation with Luchrysta Caswell and Ashley Bennett, we open up the actual tools Parakaleo has put in our hands — the verdict is in, the gospel dance of repent, believe, love, the two-rail fence that keeps what we know from slipping out of what we experience. Luchrysta tells on herself about taunting a second grader at field day the weekend after speaking at a women's retreat, and walks us straight into God's courtroom where Jesus stands beside her. Ashley shares this morning's struggle with people-pleasing and the picture she drew to preach truth back to her own heart. If you're a ministry wife hesitant to jump in anywhere, donate a little trust and give it a click. You are not alone, and Jesus is still the anchor. I'll be praying you experience the nearness of Jesus.

What if the isolation you feel in ministry isn't proof that something's wrong with you—but proof that you were never meant to carry this alone? In this episode, Andrea sits down with Luchrysta Caswell and Ashley Bennett, two longtime pastors' wives and Parakaleo leaders, to talk honestly about the ambiguity of being married to a church planter, the crushing weight of expectations we place on ourselves, and how the gospel becomes slippery even when we say we believe it. They open up about their own rescues—stories of feeling seen at the bottom of a cliff, of eyes that never look away, of friends who count "3, 2, 1" until you can jump. You'll hear why relational space, safety, and time are where healing actually happens, and why no one arrives—not the host, not the guests, not you. Wherever you're standing today, you are not alone, and Jesus is still the guardian of your soul.

Have you ever dragged yourself into another Sunday morning with a knotted stomach, a shorter fuse, and the quiet suspicion that you should be able to handle this? What if those symptoms aren't proof you're failing — but an invitation to stop performing and come home to Jesus? In this conversation, Ashley Bennett joins Andrea to talk honestly about burnout in ministry — the physical warning signs, the shame spiral of "everyone else could do this better," and the exhausting work of trying to be everyone's little-s savior. Ashley shares how learning boundaries as a way of loving, resting in the omniscience and omnipresence of God, and doing the internal heart work (not just calendar work) has slowly reshaped how she carries the weight of loving her church. If you're burned out, barely holding on, or somewhere in between, you are not alone. Come sit with us as we point one another back to the only One whose yoke is easy and whose rest is real. I'll be praying that you experience the nearness of Jesus.

What if the most spiritual thing you did this week was take a walk, laugh with a friend, or tell your husband, "I can't hear that right now"? For ministry wives running on empty, self-care isn't self-indulgence—it's stewardship of the person God actually made you to be. In part two with Hollie Mendenhall, Andrea and Hollie get honest about the ditches on both sides of self-care, the exhaustion of trying to be someone you're not, and why Psalm 139 changes how you show up on Sunday. They swap real stories—hiding a mannequin head around the church, Styrofoam-peanut pranks on staff, Costco pizza run-ins with families who just left—because laughter and friendship are part of how the Lord sustains us. But the anchor holds deeper than any rhythm. Hollie names it plainly: resilience comes from prayer, from worship that breaks chains, from remembering that Jesus loves your people more than you do. If you're barely holding on, you are not alone. We'll be praying you experience the nearness of Jesus.

What if the pressure you feel to be everywhere, do everything, and hold it all together isn't actually coming from Jesus? What if it's coming from an image of "the pastor's wife" that no one ever asked you to carry? In this conversation, Andrea sits down with her longtime friend Hollie Mendenhall — 27 years of marriage, 23 addresses, children's ministry, executive pastor's wife, Air Force chaplain's wife, and now an operations specialist — to talk honestly about resiliency, priorities, and the day Holly sat in a church service and wept through the whole thing because she had nothing left. You'll hear how she learned to advocate for herself, protect her home as a safe place, and let her husband speak wisdom into what she says yes and no to. Whether you're thriving, barely holding on, or somewhere in between, you are not alone. Shepherd your heart, run to Jesus first, and remember that you can't pour from an empty cup — but he never runs dry.

What if the very things that make you feel like you're failing in ministry — the sullen teenager handing out bulletins, the elder critiquing your husband's jeans, the text from a family leaving the church — are the exact places Jesus wants to meet you? In this conversation, Denine Blevins returns to talk honestly about the unique vulnerabilities of ministry wives: the relentlessness of Sunday mornings, the loneliness of conflict inside the very community meant to be your safe place, and the lie that we have to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent for our people. Denine names her own near-burnout a year ago and the slow, ordinary work of counseling, safe friends, and gospel reminders that brought her back. The invitation isn't a how-to. It's an operating system shift — repenting of the omnis, embracing our limits, and trusting that God can work in, around, despite, or without us. You are not alone, and Jesus is enough.

What if the very ministry you're pouring yourself into is quietly draining the life out of you—and you've convinced yourself that's just the cost of being faithful? In this episode, Andrea sits down with Denine Blevins, Executive Director of Parakaleo, to talk honestly about the unique weight women carry in church planting. Denine shares her own story of nearly burning out while building beautiful Sunday experiences she didn't even want to attend, and how Parakaleo didn't hand her better ministry tactics—it handed her a mirror to see her own heart through the lens of the gospel. If you're a church planter's wife, a woman on a planting team, or a sister in ministry who feels forgotten in the resource pile, this conversation names the chaos, the loneliness, and the identity questions you've been carrying. You are not alone. Your heart matters to Jesus more than the institution—and there's a community ready to point you back to Him.