Ministry Chick Network Podcast

Have you ever rewritten an email five times before sending it? Replayed a meeting in your head wondering if you said too much...or not enough? Stayed quiet even though you knew exactly what needed to be said? You're not alone. In this episode, Melissa Mashburn and Dr. Brandy Baxter explore one of the most common leadership habits women develop: editing themselves before anyone else ever does. Toge...

She keeps editing herself out. Not because she doesn't have something to say. Not because she isn't qualified. Because something inside her hasn't fully healed yet — and an unhealed woman is a silenced woman, even when she's in the room. In this episode Melissa sits down with Cheryl Luke — transformational coach, speaker, 40-year ministry veteran, National Director for Cultural Communities at Cele...

You walked back into the same building. Same calendar. Same team. Same role. But something is different — and if you're honest, you know it. You have grown. You have been through something. You have learned things you didn't know a year ago. The question is whether you're going to lead like it. In this episode, Melissa sits down with her husband Matt Mashburn — Operations Pastor and the man who ha...

She spent 30 years as an executive producer in TV news — one of the most high-pressure, high-stakes leadership environments that exists. And somewhere in the middle of all of it she started asking a question that wouldn't leave her alone: what if the church had taught women these leadership lessons instead? In this episode Melissa sits down with Suzanne Nadell — author of Wired to Lead and CEO of...

Each year, there's a season that feels like a fresh start in ministry. You know what that season is for your church. New Bible studies. New volunteers. New calendars. New opportunities. But here's the question most of us never stop to ask: Are you actually a different leader than you were last year? In this episode, Melissa Mashburn and Dr. Brandy Baxter explore why experience alone doesn't create...

There is a man in your life who works beside you, leads beside you, maybe even lives beside you — and still doesn't fully understand what you carry. Not because he doesn't care. Because nobody ever asked him to look. In this episode of the Allyship Table, Melissa sits down with her husband Matt Mashburn — Operations Pastor, 25+ years in local church ministry, and the man who has had a front-row se...

You've been through enough ministry seasons to know that change is not the exception — it's the job. New campuses, new leadership, new initiatives, new everything. And somewhere in the middle of managing all of it, you've wondered how to stay genuinely energized instead of just professionally functional. Diana Rush has been figuring that out at scale — overseeing small groups, guest services, volu...

You’ve been listening. You’ve been nodding along. You’ve heard about the cost of leading alone, the importance of community, and the room that was built specifically for the woman in ministry. And somewhere in all of that you’ve been thinking — maybe. Maybe this is for me. Maybe this is the right time. This episode is Melissa and Brandy’s answer to the maybe. Keywords: women in ministry, ministry...

Carrie Williams has been in rooms that most women in ministry never get to enter. She helped launch Eleven22 in Jacksonville. She led Truth Republic. She now serves as Executive Director of Exponential NEXT, equipping current and next-generation leaders to navigate the future of the church. And through all of it, she has been building something most women in ministry quietly ache for but rarely fi...

She is doing all of it. Women’s minister. Communications director. Seminary student. Author. Military wife. Mom. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, she has had to figure out how to keep showing up — through the moves, the transitions, the seasons where her entire support system reshuffled and nobody around her fully understood what she was carrying. In this conversation, Melissa sits down w...

In March 2025, Melissa Mashburn launched something she had been building toward for years. It wasn’t perfect. It was complicated in ways she didn’t anticipate. And then life got hard in ways she didn’t plan for — and the thing she had built for other women turned out to be the thing she needed most herself. In this episode, Melissa and Dr. Brandy Baxter pull back the curtain on the full story of t...

July is almost over. August is the last full month before ministry season kicks back in. And the woman who decides right now what she wants to be different by September is the one who actually gets there. This episode is about making that decision before the window closes. Melissa Mashburn and Dr. Brandy Baxter close out July with one honest question: what have you actually gotten clear on this mo...

Someone handed you a smaller version of yourself a long time ago. A smaller vision of what you could do, what you could lead, what your voice was worth in the church. And somewhere along the way you started to believe it — not because it was true, but because nobody handed you anything bigger. In this conversation, Melissa sits down with Jane Doerman — writer, speaker, podcaster, and creative — to...

Everybody says get clear. Very few people tell you what that actually means or where the process keeps breaking down. If you’ve tried to get clear on your calling or your next step and ended up more confused than when you started, this conversation is for you. Melissa Mashburn and Dr. Brandy Baxter get specific about what clarity actually is, where most women in ministry get stuck, and why the ste...

There's a specific kind of weight that women in ministry often carry, without a name. It's not burnout, exactly. It's not insecurity, exactly. It's the quiet, persistent feeling that you have to earn the right to lead — that you're somehow too much, or not enough, or both at the same time. Amy Cedrone has a name for it: shame. And she's spent years studying how it shapes the way women lead, and wh...

June is almost over. Summer is here. And for the woman in ministry, summer is the one season where the pace actually slows down enough to do something different — if she decides to use it that way. This episode is about making that decision before July starts and the moment passes. Melissa Mashburn and Dr. Brandy Baxter close out June with one honest question: now that you've heard all of this — w...

You've been in ministry long enough to know that the calling doesn't get easier — it just gets deeper. And somewhere between the hard seasons, the budget meetings, and carrying other people's weight while managing your own, you've wondered if you have what it takes to stay in it for the long run. Lori Stansbury has been asking that question for 40 years — and she's still standing. In this conversa...

You already know something is off. The tank isn't empty yet, but you can feel it getting there. And instead of stopping, you've been telling yourself you just need to push through to the next break, the next season, the next time things slow down. Melissa and Brandy want to say something to you about that. In this conversation, Melissa Mashburn and Dr. Brandy Baxter name the thing a lot of women i...

A lot of women in ministry are leading well on the outside and quietly unraveling on the inside. In this conversation, Melissa sits down with Erica St. Bernard — ordained minister, licensed therapist, and founder of Your Life's Well — to talk about protecting your emotional health, your marriage, and the friendships that keep you standing while serving in ministry. This one is going to hit close t...

You've been in ministry long enough to know you're called. What you're less sure about is whether you're equipped — and whether more training is even for someone like you. Maybe you've told yourself seminary is for pastors, or for people with a clear credential track, or for a season of life you can't access right now. Lauren Lowery thought some version of that, too. Then she went to Manila first,...

You have been showing up. In rooms that don't always see you. In roles that don't always have a title. In seasons that didn't always make sense. And somewhere in all of that showing up, you have built something — even if you haven't stopped long enough to recognize it yet. This episode is an invitation to stop and see it. Melissa Mashburn and Dr. Brandy Baxter are pulling back the curtain on what'...

Rejection doesn’t disqualify your calling — it often redirects it. In this episode of the Ministry Chick Network Podcast, Melissa Mashburn talks with Jessie L. Young about how God used seasons of rejection, disappointment, and unmet expectations to lead her into a deeper relationship with Him and a clearer sense of calling. From letting go of personal plans to walking closely with Jesus, Jessie sh...

What if spiritual growth isn’t just theological — it’s neurological? In this episode of the Ministry Chick Network Podcast, Melissa Mashburn sits down with Harvard-trained neuroscience expert and Whoology founder Jessie Cruickshank to explore how brain science, identity formation, and discipleship intersect. They discuss how God designed us for transformation, why repentance and forgiveness are es...

How do you balance ministry, career, marriage, children, and your relationship with God — without burning out? In this episode of the Ministry Chick Network Podcast, Melissa Mashburn talks with Lysandra Osterkamp — pastor’s wife, entrepreneur, mother of four, and author of  Balancing the Crazy  — about time management, spiritual clarity, and choosing what truly matters. If you feel stretched thin...

Leadership pressure can quietly pull women away from clarity, peace, and spiritual alignment — especially when expectations are high, and responsibilities keep growing. In this episode of the Ministry Chick Network Podcast, Melissa Mashburn sits down with transformational leader, author, and educator LaNell Polk to discuss what it truly means to live fully surrendered to Christ while leading with...