What if we stopped fearing lament in church, and started embracing it as holy?

In this powerful follow-up conversation, pastor and author Aubrey Sampson joins Tara Beth and Mark to talk about leading while grieving, pastoring through pain, and creating sacred space for sorrow in the church.

🎙️ In This Episode:

• How unprocessed grief distorts our leadership and faith
• The courage it takes to bring your honest self to the pulpit
• Why lament isn’t faithless, it’s an act of deep spiritual trust
• What churches gain when they normalize grief in worship

⏱️ Timestamps:

03:00 – Prayers we’re afraid to pray

08:00 – The grandkids only God could give

12:00 – The gift of lament in public worship

17:00 – Creating space for sorrow in Sunday services

21:00 – What unprocessed grief does to leaders

26:00 – Giving yourself permission to pause

30:00 – Big Feeling Days and writing for the littlest grievers

💡 Takeaway:

Grief doesn’t disqualify us from ministry: it deepens it.

Lament is not a detour from discipleship; it is discipleship. Aubrey’s story invites us to become churches that grieve well, love honestly, and make space for the sacred work of tears.

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

⏱️ Timestamps:

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.

What happens when your gender, age, and relationship status seem to speak louder than your call?

In this episode, Pastor Elizabeth Bair returns to The Pastor’s Table to reflect on the quiet tension of pastoral identity, learning to relax into the authority God has given, and why she's not chasing titles, but transformation.

🎙️ In This Episode:

• The burden of “proving yourself” in ministry as a young woman
• Singleness and the myth of being “incomplete” in church culture
• When call becomes confirmation: living into the identity God speaks
• Learning to lead with grace when you're underestimated

⏱️ Timestamps:

03:00 – Proving yourself vs. resting in your call

07:00 – The “triple threat”: young, single, female pastor

13:00 – Finding spiritual authority in the midst of critique

20:00 – When ministry fits “like a glove”

27:00 – What Gen Z pastors wish older leaders knew

🧭 Takeaway:

God doesn’t define you by what others see as limitations. He calls you by name. That is enough.