Let's Talk with Sanctuary

Send us a text Throughout their multi-decade tenure in vocational ministry, predominantly as lead pastors, Bryan and Haley Jarrett have come to the conclusion: Haley prefers the shadows to the spotlight. She's uncomfortable with platform ministry and, despite her many efforts to "grow into the part", has come to recognize that she is called to her husband, and not quite as much to the traditional roles with which the title of "pastor's wife" has often been culturally linked. Cultural expectat...

Send us a text It's been studied, researched, and proven: technology has sped things up when it comes to parenting, teaching, and pastoring today's children. Topics that once were saved for later are now required topics to address, both in the home and through the local church. In today's episode we welcome Kids Min expert Brian Dollar, whose tenure in children's ministries and Next Gen ministries overall speaks for itself. The breadth of his insights on how to train up this generation to be ...

Send us a text Parenting children while simultaneously fulfilling all the weighty duties of work, the extracurricular activities, and meeting needs of extended family can be quite challenging, to say the least. Adding the layer of special needs, and the list of variations as diverse as the children who wrestle with them, can produce stress, fear, worry, and so much more on the parents who are just trying to fulfill the call of God on their lives. This episode features a panel of Special Needs...

Send us a text In today's episode we welcome author Kristen Strong to share about her most recent book--a book you're going to love to receive, and love to give away. Friends Are Family We Choose provides the perfect introduction to a conversation we keep unpacking at Let's Talk with Sanctuary--the value and importance of healthy friendships. Kristen shares about her "baptism by fire" training in friendship when she went from her childhood on "O'Neil Lane" to moving every few years with her h...

Send us a text Eternity in heaven, with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is the ultimate goal for every believer. Unfortunately, many professing followers of Christ, including ministers of the Gospel, will give themselves far too much latitude as they age, letting go of the simple spiritual disciplines and convictions that have grounded them through decades of following Christ, only to be sidelined by the enemy just before they cross the finish line. Faithfulness, not just in ministry servic...

Send us a text Today’s guest will inspire you to just be a better, stronger, more compassionate human being. James wrote in chapter one, verse 27: “Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world.” Sometimes, even as ministers of the Gospel, we can be so consumed with all the tasks that are involved in...

Send us a text Today's conversation is going to be an encouragement for all our friends who are serving in the ministry, like pastoring a church, or preaching out on the weekends when invited, or serving as a lay youth pastor or worship pastor, while also carrying the weight of a full-time job in the secular arena. But we also hope to encourage so many others who may be considering this prospect in the near, or distant, future. Bi-vocational ministry often gets overlooked by vocational minist...

Send us a text In this episode, host Bridgette Tomlin and her guest Crystal Williams tackle the "modest is hottest" mantra, talk about what true modesty actually is, how to teach the generation behind us more about it, and what the risks and rewards are in speaking truth when it's easier to remain silent. Is modesty just about how long your shorts are, or how low-cut your blouse is? What does modesty of the heart look like? Take a listen and pass this crucial conversation along to another mom...

Send us a text You may have heard the slogan, “Behind every good man is a better woman”. Good men can be even greater men when challenged to become that. It is within the power of every woman to champion the greatness and potential she sees in the man she knows and loves, especially and most importantly her husband and the sons she is raising. It is widely known that men and women are vastly different in the ways their brains function, what is most important to them, how they manage their em...

Send us a text There is a growing, almost staggering uptick in women who are serving in vocational ministry or on the mission field who are not married. And yet very few conversations are centered in the ministry world around what it looks like to be single in the local church, much less single in the ministry community space. So, that’s why today's guest Kelly Reed and host Bridgette Tomlin are attempting to pull back the curtains and shed a little light on this very important subject. They'...

Send us a text Even those beyond the church's four walls recognize that being labeled with a "Jezebel Spirit" is not a good thing. But often this term is thrown around flippantly, and even more often, it is thrown around without an understanding of its true meaning according to Scripture. What is a Jezebel spirit? In today's episode we welcome guest Susan Vandenheuvel to discuss the origin of this term, what it truly means, and how and when to properly use it. But even more importantly, this ...

Send us a text There's a lot of talk these days about church hurt. People who have been hurt or disappointed by spiritual leaders, spiritual leaders who have been hurt by those they are called to lead. How can someone in spiritual leadership maintain a heart that is tender to those he or she is leading, and simultaneously protect against chronic injury from the saints? Today's guest Ashley Earwood has had her own share of church hurt and joins host Bridgette Tomlin to reveal how the Holy Spir...

Send us a text In today's episode host Bridgette Tomlin welcomes Casey Gibbons of Mothergood to return to the podcast and talk about S-E-X. How do we talk to our children, teens, and young adults about God's plan for sexuality? In the midst of a gender identity crisis, how should today's ministry leaders and parents broach these otherwise touchy subjects according to God's Word? Casey, mother of six, offers sound counsel with practical tools on how to start the conversation, and keep it going...

Send us a text While there are many seasons in the life of a ministry wife, undoubtedly there are seasons where it may feel like she's silently bleeding--isolated with no one who seems to understand the life she leads. In this episode, host Bridgette Tomlin welcomes her guest Jan McIntyre to share candidly about her own journey as a ministry wife, the nudge from the Holy Spirit to create community for ministry wives, and the practical decisions she's made to break out of isolation and shake o...

Send us a text While we don’t want to believe it, public perception or image definitely matter. As a general rule, there are two camps, perhaps three, within the ministerial community when it comes to public persona. One ascribes to that of the Influencer in every way--focusing on high fashion, promoting all their latest finds on social media, maybe they’re in the extreme fitness realm. And then there are those in the camp who deem attention to such things as vain, self-serving, prideful, and...