Lifework Podcast

Brandon Green never set out to move his family from West Virginia to Arkansas. But a bluegrass competition, an unexpected connection, and weeks of prayer opened the door to a new calling at Williams Baptist University. In this episode of Lifework, Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Brandon to trace a journey that began with his grandfather’s banjo and grew into a life of performing, teaching, and serv...

A new assignment doesn’t always mean a new calling . Sometimes it means serving the same mission in a different way. Dr. Brett Cooper joins Dr. Stan Norman, president of Williams Baptist University, to reflect on more than three decades at Williams and the new responsibilities God has placed before him. After helping launch and lead Williams Works, Cooper is turning his attention to making prayer...

What does it mean to steward a team, not just chase a winning record? Dr. Stan Norman welcomes Justin Dee, head volleyball coach at Williams Baptist University, for an honest conversation about following God’s call and caring for the people He places in your life. Coach Dee shares how his plans for a career in mathematics gave way to teaching and coaching, and how a difficult day in Florida led to...

Jordan West didn’t expect his emergency management degree to lead him into ministry. But when he served among people whose lives had been upended by conflict, he found himself using what he had learned to meet them in a moment of need. In this episode of Lifework , Jordan joins Dr. Stan Norman to talk about his path from Arkansas to the mission field, through seminary, and eventually to Williams B...

A coach who once wanted the bigger-school path came back to Williams after being told he would never win here.  In this episode of Lifework , Dr. Stan Norman talks with WBU Head Baseball Coach Stephen Abanathy about returning home, accepting a difficult assignment, and building something that matters beyond the scoreboard. Coach Abanathy reflects on the relationships and Scripture-centered communi...

Kendall Davenport Layne shares how she found peace when her lifelong plan to serve overseas changed and how God led her into counseling, teaching, and mentoring students instead. In this episode of Lifework , Dr. Stan Norman talks with Kendall about feeling called to missions from a young age, serving for two years in South Asia, and returning home with difficult questions about identity, obedienc...

Season 3 of Lifework begins with a question that reaches into every season of life: How are you stewarding what God has already given you? In this opening episode, Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Coach Tracy Hubbard to talk about calling, faithfulness, leadership, and the unexpected paths God uses to prepare us for meaningful work. Tracy shares his journey from Michigan to Williams Baptist Universi...

In part two of Dr. Stan Norman’s conversation with Steven Nelson, Director of Housing and Intramural Sports at Williams Baptist University, Steven picks up the story as a young electrical engineering student at DeVry in Kansas City, still wrestling with God’s call to ministry. He recounts the decisive moment in a trigonometry class when he stood up, told his professor “I’m not supposed to be here,...

In this episode of the Lifework Podcast, host Dr. Stan Norman welcomes Steven Nelson, Director of Housing and Intramural Sports at Williams Baptist University, to share how a boy from rural Missouri found his way into shaping campus life at WBU.  Steven reflects on growing up in a large farming family, learning perseverance in the fields and factories, and navigating complex family dynamics that f...

In part two of this conversation, President Stan Norman and Caleb Garner pick up Caleb’s story as he moves from Mississippi State into the world of sports media and, eventually, the classroom at Williams Baptist University. Caleb describes discovering that work is both service and worship, and how roles in sports information, media relations, and communications became avenues for telling stories w...

In this episode of the Lifework Podcast, President Stan Norman sits down with Caleb Garner, Chair of the Department of Health and Physical Education and Assistant Professor of Sports Management at Williams Baptist University. Caleb shares how growing up in the “boondocks” of Brooksville, Mississippi, in a close-knit, church-centered community and a hardworking family shaped his view of vocation an...

In last week’s episode, Janna Himschoot shared how farm life, family, and faith in Hardy, Arkansas, laid the groundwork for her calling as a wife, mother, and future educator. If you missed that conversation about lifework, you’ll want to go back and listen before jumping into this powerful continuation.  This week, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman welcomes Janna back to trace the next chapter of her...

What if your sense of calling started with a cattle loan at age 12 and evenings spent checking cows with your dad?  In this episode, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Assistant Professor of Business Janna Himschoot to explore how God used small-town Hardy, Arkansas, hard work on a 300-acre farm, and deeply rooted family faith to shape her lifework and purpose. Janna shares why motherhoo...

In part two of our conversation with Belina Dulaney, professor of mathematics at Williams Baptist University, she shares how God redirected her carefully laid career plans and revealed a surprising calling to the classroom. From orientation day at ASU and dreams of becoming an actuary, to discovering a deep sense of ease and joy while teaching as a graduate assistant, Dulaney traces the moments wh...

In this LifeWork Podcast episode, host Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Belina Dulaney, Assistant Professor of Natural Sciences – Mathematics at Williams Baptist University, to explore how God uses numbers, work, and hardship to shape a calling. From growing up in a single–parent home in small–town Arkansas to becoming a valedictorian with 52 college credit hours and eventually a college math profes...

In Part 2 of this Lifework conversation, host Dr. Stan Norman picks up Dr. Trevor Babcock’s story right where the cliffhanger left off: a clear, lifelong plan to become a chemical engineer—and the slow-motion collapse of that plan in the real world of co-op work, panic attacks, and an unexpected loss of desire for the career he had built his identity around. Trevor describes how God used that work...

In this first part of a two-episode conversation, Lifework host Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Williams Baptist University English professor Dr. Trevor Babcock to trace the unlikely path that shaped his calling and character. From a childhood that bounced between Kentucky, Cincinnati, and the suburbs of Sacramento, to a home marked by Naval Academy discipline on one side and pastoral ministry on t...

In this second conversation with Coach John Mayberry , Dr. Stan Norman explores how God redirected a plan that once pointed toward North Texas and college soccer into a life of ministry through Christian higher education and basketball at Williams . Coach Mayberry traces the unlikely path from Foot Locker management , to working in recycling , to a last‑minute trip to Williams Baptist University t...

In this episode of the Lifework Podcast , Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Coach John Mayberry , head coach of the Williams Baptist Lady Eagles , to trace an unlikely journey from inner-city Hot Springs, Arkansas to the sidelines in Walnut Ridge. Coach Mayberry shares stories of growing up in a blue-collar home , learning the value of hard work from a dad who never complained and a mom who logged 30...

In this second conversation with Williams Baptist University head men’s basketball coach Josh Austin, host Dr. Stan Norman picks up the story right where Part 1 left off—at the moment when faith moved from the margins of Josh’s life to the center of his calling. Josh shares how a hard sophomore season, a stairwell conversation with a stranger, and a renewed hunger for God’s Word reshaped his prior...

In this Lifework Podcast episode, Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Williams Baptist University head men’s basketball coach Josh Austin to trace how a small-town Arkansas upbringing, an IT-dad and jeans-factory-mom, and Saturdays filled with yard work—not screens—forged his relentless work ethic.  Coach Austin shares stories from Magnet Cove, from spotlighting deer and folding Arizona jeans to gettin...

In Part 2 of their conversation, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits back down with Head Softball Coach Jessica Nutt to explore how God used closed doors, unanswered job applications, and long seasons of waiting to clarify her calling to coach.  Drawing from her time at Kids Across America, in the classroom, and on the field, Jessica shares how relationships, not résumés, helped her see that invest...

In this episode of the Lifework Podcast, Williams Baptist University President Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Head Softball Coach Jessica Nutt to trace her journey from a sports‑saturated childhood in Bolivar, Missouri, to leading the Lady Eagles on the field at WBU. Coach Nutt shares how growing up in a tight-knit, church‑centered family at First Baptist Bolivar and coming to faith in Christ in f...

In this second part of their conversation, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits back down with Director of Athletics Mitch Mathis to trace how a winding coaching career became a clear sense of calling and ministry. Coach Mathis shares how God used closed doors, hard seasons, and unexpected moves—from small-town Arkansas to inner-city Houston and back—to shape his heart for students, coaches, and fam...

WBU President Dr. Stan Norman talks with Athletic Director Mitch Mathis about how a blue-collar childhood in Pine Bluff, a catcher’s grind on the baseball field, and a winding spiritual journey shaped his work ethic, leadership, and calling in athletics. In this first part of a two-episode conversation, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Williams Baptist University Director of Athletics,...