Our Cohorts – FALL 2022

What is a cohort?

An Alongside Cohort is a small group of ten pastors’ wives that gathers together for the purpose of taking the next step in embracing the unique opportunities of this God-given role. The cohorts will engage in monthly, topical discussions, facilitated by two Alongside coaches, around becoming a better team in your marriage and living out your individual calling, as well as some of the obstacles to staying engaged in ministry as a team. We’re looking forward to helping each other become more of what God made us to be.

The Specs

The majority of our cohorts meet online via the Zoom platform. We’ve found this to be easily accessible, provides a safe atmosphere and is a great space for intentional conversation. Our cohorts typically meet once a month for four months, for two hours per session. Due to scheduling limitations, some cohorts will start later and meet twice per month to end before Thanksgiving or the end of April, depending on the term. Because the spaces are limited, we ask that you commit to participating in every discussion when you sign up.

Sign up

We fill cohorts on a first come-first served basis. If all of the cohorts fill for your desired time, we’ll put you on a wait list. If someone gives up their spot, you’ll be contacted and given the option of joining, provided it is before the first session. When dates are released for the next semester’s cohorts, you’ll be given first priority.

Conversation Series

Each cohort engages in intentional, focused conversations that help us to wrestle together with some complicated issues surrounding the life of a pastor’s wife. These conversations are designed to help us each take the next step in embracing our callings to ministry and the opportunities that are unique to this calling. While we don’t shy away from the “ugly underbelly” of church ministry, our desire is to help each other see God’s hand in the midst of all that is hard. And while there is some content, some meat and tools that our coaches bring to the table, the conversations are more about digging in, asking hard questions and sharing perspectives. 

The Embracing Your Calling series is foundational to many of the other conversation series. So we encourage doing that cohort series first. It is not required, but encouraged.

Series Descriptors

Embracing Your Calling Conversation Series

Dig into the idea of a “shared calling” and how to build a marriage team that not only supports but seizes the opportunities God brings your way with courage and unity. Discover how you are uniquely gifted by God for this crucial role. Learn practical skills in building your marriage team.

Session 1 – A Shared Calling (How did we get here? How is the idea of a shared calling not only biblical but helpful? How do I move from “his calling” to a “shared calling”?

Session 2 – Being a Team (What are the obstacles to being a team and how to tackle them? What happens when I feel tempted to disengage? How can I better know how our marriage team works? How can I be intentional about strengthening our marriage team?

Session 3 – Discerning Your Calling (How does my life fit into what God is doing in His Kingdom? How has God built and molded me for this role? What’s the difference between my identity, my calling and my assignment? Is this a big deal? How has God used my greatest pain to build in my my greatest passion?

Session 4 – Group Guided (The topics discussed in this session will be the product of issues and questions sent by the cohort to the coaches during the previous three months)

Raising a Family In Ministry Conversation Series

There’s a difference between raising a family where Dad happens to be a pastor and raising a family that embraces being in ministry together, as a team. We all desire to raise kids that love Jesus and His people from the heart, but sometimes being in church ministry makes that a whole lot more complicated. Dig into living out the Both/And realities such as embracing ministry and healthy boundaries, authentically sharing struggles and protecting kids, and the blessings of privacy and a public platform. We’ll talk about family life and ministry from the time of diapers through parenting adult children. We don’t have all the answers but will provide some framework to think about these issues purposefully.

Session 1 – Helping Kids Love Jesus (How do I help my kids internalize their faith? How do we create a safe place for them to wrestle with their faith? How do we keep it from getting lost in the busyness of ministry? How much is my responsibility?)

Session 2 –  Helping Kids Love His People (How do we nurture our love for God’s people, especially when they are unlovable? How do we deal with expectations that are put on our kids? How do we navigate protecting our kids from the ugly underside of ministry while allowing them to see the struggle and growth that comes from it? How do we help our kids find their own place in the family of God?)

Session 3 – Living Publicly (Does our family see our platform as a blessing or a curse? How do we navigate privacy and living publicly? How do we engender respect without encouraging people to put us on a pedestal? When we are struggling, in our marriage or our kids, how do we do that when it’s so public?)

Session 4 – Group Guided (The topics discussed in this session will be the product of issues and questions raised during the previous three months, perhaps that we haven’t had the time to press into)

Continuing Conversations – Navigating Messy Ministry Relationships 

This series is for those ministry wives that have been through the Embracing Your Calling series. We’ll dig into navigating those relationships that can often bring the most stress and pain to the ministry pathway. While the hours are long and doing ministry on a shoestring budget can be hard, the things that give us as ministry wives the wounds that are often hardest to heal are the relationships we have with people that are difficult. These conversations will rely heavily on discussion and include time for sharing and prayer for each other.

Session 1 – Dealing with Criticism

Session 2 – Managing Conflict

Session 3 – Engaging the Revolving Door of Relationships

Session 4 – Handling Expectations

New! MINISTRY AND MARRIAGE

This conversation series dives into the particular challenges facing couples in ministry. We assume that you are familiar with the foundational principles of a healthy marriage (communication strategies, conflict resolution, expectations, etc.) and use these as a springboard for conversations that equip us to invest in marriages where ministry is a tool that God uses to bring us together, not pull us apart. We’ll discover wise principles and appreciate the unique application they have in each of our marriages.

Session 1 – Dealing with Loneliness and Friendship

Session 2 – Dealing with Conflict in the Ministry

Session 3 – Keeping the Spark of Romance and Love Alive in your Ministry Marriage

Session 4 – Open Discussion

 

New! TRANSITIONING WELL

We’re all transitioning in one way or another.  And whatever we’re starting or finished-we want to do it well.  When we start and end well, we set ourselves and others up for success in the in-between.  In this Pastors’ Wives Cohort, we’ll talk together about the trickiness of entering new ministries when you are the pastors’ wife, how to turn over the reigns in an empowering way, how to grieve and celebrate when you leave a church (even when the circumstances are less than ideal) and how to enter a new church in a way that paves the way for Kingdom ministry.  We’ll also spend a little time digging into transitioning out of full-time pastoring and into retirement in a way that continues to embrace Kingdom investment.

Session 1 – Leaving Well

Session 2 – The Moving

Session 3 – The Entering

Session 4 – Adapting