What if your calling was never modeled for you—and your grief hit harder than your training ever prepared you for? In this episode, pastor and author Aubrey Sampson joins Tara Beth and Mark to share the winding, beautiful, and painful road of planting a church while navigating personal loss, theological wrestling, and the loneliness of leadership.

🎙️ In This Episode:

• Why Aubrey never imagined herself as a pastor
• What it means to plant a church with conviction and complexity
• The emotional toll of leadership and stepping into grief while serving
• How theological clarity became a freeing force

03:00 – From volunteer to pastor: discovering a hidden call

06:00 – Wrestling with guilt, theology, and spiritual authority

09:00 – Why church planting was the only path forward

12:00 – Honeymoon seasons, heartbreak, and sacred disappointment

17:00 – Co-pastoring through sabbatical and spiritual weariness

24:00 – Grief, illness, and loss behind the scenes of ministry

28:00 – Pastors and the cost of not being allowed to lament

💡 Thought to ponder:

Ministry doesn’t protect you from pain; it shapes you in it.

Aubrey’s story is a reminder that faithful leadership isn’t found in perfection, but in showing up anyway, trusting that God meets us in the dark.