The Pastor's Table

What does it look like to practice wise pacing in ministry? In this brief update, Chaz Robbins (producer of The Pastor’s Table) shares a word of gratitude, reflection, and clarity as the podcast enters a short season of pause. After three years and more than 150 episodes, this moment is about tending the table well by listening, discerning, and ensuring that what comes next continues to serve past...

Pastors have a tremendous blessing and opportunity to help their congregations stay alive to God. If this opportunity is to be fully realized, it requires pastors to know their people. God has invited pastors to be the guides on a journey of where God is taking the community. Forming the life of God in your church starts with the leaders to be formed. Everyone has the opportunity to experience God...

The people in your church are being formed by all sorts of sources. Cultural Idols Social Media News Media Work Demands and the list could go on … Mindy Caliguire gives clarity on how pastors can enhance the vision of a formed life after Jesus. The people who are suffering from a poverty of imagination can be given guidance and tools on the journey of formation Jesus offers. Get Soul Care’s 21 Day...

Pastor’s leadership is capped at our self-reflection. Pastors must tend to our own souls. Mindy Caliguire provides 4 different practices of page, person, plan & place to tend well to our souls as leaders. Page is the invitation to reflection. Person to be ruthlessly honest. Plan is a rule of life to create intentional space for growth. Place is honoring the location God has placed us. Get Soul...

Loss is plaguing the church.   Congregants are leaving. Pastors are burning out. Loss of all kinds is painfully present in the church.   Many times people feel tending to a surrendered life of Christ is hard. Mindy Caliguire suggests that what is really hard is facing the pain of staying the same. There are so many pressures facing the church, but a community that tends to soul...

What happens when the very institution that shaped your ministry turns around and wounds you? Can God take that loss and birth something new? In this deeply personal anniversary episode, Mark and Tara Beth look back on three years of The Pastor’s Table and the untold story of how it all began. From Mark’s unexpected firing, to the disorientation that followed, to the Spirit-led formation of this p...

What does ministry look like when your people are afraid to leave their homes? In this heartfelt conversation, Pastor Hector Alfaro joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to share what Hispanic churches in Chicago are experiencing as ICE activity intensifies. From families torn apart to churches emptied in a matter of weeks, Pastor Hector offers a raw, front-line perspective on shepherding undoc...

How does a pastor guide a community facing real threats, real fear, and real need? In this powerful continuation, Pastor Paco Amador joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to share how his congregation in Chicago’s Little Village is responding to the immigration crisis with courage, compassion, and prophetic witness. From offering tamales and prayer outside a migrant shelter to confronting the f...

What happens when the story of migration becomes the story of calling? In this episode, Pastor Paco Amador joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to share his journey from Mexico to North Carolina to Chicago’s Little Village. With honesty and humor, Paco reflects on his encounter with Jesus as a teenager, the grief and beauty of leaving home, and the long road toward discovering where he truly b...

What does it look like to live a life formed by grace and resistant to the pressures of the world? In this second conversation, Pastor Nathan Hoff returns to unpack the theology and practice behind The Rule of Life at Trinity Lutheran Church in San Pedro. He joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to explore how intentional rhythms of prayer, reconciliation, and presence can shape both pastors an...

What if the cure for modern ministry restlessness is staying put? In this episode, Pastor Nathan Hoff joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to share his story of 20 years at Trinity Lutheran Church in San Pedro, California. From a childhood marked by constant moves to forming a residential community in an unrooted city, Nathan reflects on the beauty of long obedience, shared rhythms, and a “rul...

What happens when grace rewrites your story from the inside out? In this second conversation, Pastor Katie Langston joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to share how the gospel of grace led her from Mormonism to the waters of baptism and into the freedom of ministry. Katie opens up about her conversion, her calling as a Lutheran pastor, and why she now preaches grace as the Church’s most radic...

What happens when religion becomes a system for proving your worth? In this powerful conversation, Pastor Katie Langston shares her journey from growing up Mormon to discovering the freeing power of grace. With honesty and humor, she describes life in a worthiness-based system, her battle with scrupulosity, and the moment she first heard the gospel of grace through a Wheaton professor’s words: “I...

What if you didn’t get to choose where you served, but trusted the Spirit and the Church to send you? In Part 2 of this conversation, Pastor Benji Van Fleet joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to unpack the Methodist system of itinerancy and what it teaches us about obedience, humility, and trust. From matchmaker bishops to Methodist “March Madness,” Benji shares a vision of ministry rooted i...

What happens when your theology of calling collides with your understanding of ownership in the church? In this episode, Pastor Benji Van Fleet joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom from Abilene, Texas, to talk about his journey from architecture student to Methodist pastor, how cancer and heartbreak became catalysts for his call, and why he describes himself not as a shepherd—but a sheepdog. 🎙...

What happens when personal pain becomes public platform? In this candid conversation, Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom reflect on Tara Beth’s widely shared Substack essay, When the Wounded Take the Mic . They explore the rise of “wounded influencers,” the temptation for pastors to preach from fresh wounds rather than healed scars, and how leaders can discern the difference between prophetic trut...

What happens when ministry wounds you so deeply that you wonder if you’ll ever serve again? In this conversation, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson joins Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom to share how a decade away from the pastorate became a season of theological reflection, healing, and rediscovery of God’s mercy. From the theology of the cross to the false lure of utopian church ideals, Sarah offers hard-...

What happens when God calls you back into ministry after deep wounds? In Part 2 of her story, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson reflects on moving from disillusionment in New Jersey to surprising renewal in Tokyo. With honesty and humor, she describes serving a fragile, English-speaking congregation during COVID, watching people show up because Jesus himself drew them, and discovering her pastoral heart resto...

What happens when ministry doesn’t go as planned? In this riveting conversation, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson shares her story of growing up in a third-generation pastoral family, wrestling with her call as a woman, and stepping into a church full of both history and heartbreak. From dollar-priced communion to deep theological reflection, Sarah’s story reminds us that God often works through unexpected t...

What happens when your call to ministry feels buried, but never really dies? In this special episode, the tables turn as Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom interview their producer, and now executive pastor, Chaz Robbins . From a childhood shaped by faithful mentors to an RV road trip with his family, Chaz opens up about his winding path through ministry, media, church planting, and finally, back...

How do pastors pour themselves out for others without losing their own soul? In Part 2 of this conversation, Ben Cachiaras reflects on the dangers of achievement addiction, the symptoms of ministry at an unsustainable pace, and the practices that helped him and his staff find a healthier rhythm of life and leadership. From numbing emotions to creating a staff-wide REST policy, Ben shares the hard-...

What does it look like to serve a 200-year-old church that’s still bursting with life? Pastor Ben Cachiaras of Mountain Christian Church has spent nearly three decades leading with holy ambition, holding together the call to discipleship and evangelism. His story is one of clarity, perseverance, and joy in ministry that truly “fits like a glove." 🎙️ In This Episode: Ben’s early call to ministry th...

How do pastors actually “do it all”? In this lively, behind-the-scenes conversation, Mark Quanstrom and Tara Beth Leach pull back the curtain on their rhythms of ministry, family life, writing, and rest. From the myth of busyness to the art of batch working, they share practical ways to sustain pastoral life without burning out—and why mornings might be the most important part of the day. CLICK HE...

Ministry can be both deeply rewarding and painfully exhausting. In this conversation, Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom open up about what keeps them in pastoral ministry after decades of challenges, transitions, and spiritual fatigue. From the support of their spouses to the importance of theological education, they reflect honestly on what sustains them when things get hard. Learn more about Th...

What if God’s invitation isn’t to act—but to wait? In this episode, Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom continue their conversation with pastor and author Faith Eury Cho. Together they explore how a season of uncertainty, silence, and scarcity became fertile ground for trust, surrender, and a deeper experience of God’s presence. From living without a paycheck to planting a church from her living ro...