Collared Chicks

Tara Beth Leach is the senior pastor of First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena (PazNaz) in Southern California. Tara is a trailblazer and bold leader serving a large, historically male led church, in a male dominated denomination. Tara Beth previously served at churches in upstate New York and the Chicago suburbs. She is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University and earned her MDiv from Northern Seminary. She writes regularly for Missio Alliance, lives in California with her husband and two children, and recently released her book, "Emboldened" into the world.

In this episode of the Collared Chicks podcast, Pastor Monica and Pastor Tara Beth talk about what it feels like to often get sidlelined and sideglanced as women leading in a profession where males have created all of the rules and systems and some don't even believe we should be here. Monica and Tara Beth discuss the great chasm that exsits between affirming women in minstry and truly emoldening and empowering us. Tara Beth also discusses the heart and vision behind her recent and amazing book, Emboldened: A Vision For Empowering Women in Ministry.

In this epsiode, Pastor Rachel and Pastor Monica talk about the desire to create spaces where the unique contributions that bold women make, and the challenges we so often face when leading firecely in traditionally male dominated spaces can be shared. Rachel is an ordained elder, leader, and author. She currently preaches 30 out of 52 weeks per year at Ginhamsburg's main campus, and serves uniquely and collaboratively alongside the church's lead pastor.

In February 2019, Rachel and her teaming are hosting the FIERCE women's conference.

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Kelly Johnson is an author, speaker, retreat facilitator and life coach. Originally trained as a clinical social worker, Kelly worked for several years in the mental health field with adolescents, adults and families. She is an outspoken advocate for The Lamb Center, a local day shelter for the homeless where she has served as a bible study leader since 2008. For the last several years, Kelly has also served on the Board of Directors for The Lamb Center. An avid blogger since 2005, Kelly’s writing has been featured on The Glorious Table, Today I Saw God, Huffington Post, and The Mighty. Her book Being Brave: A 40 Day Journey to the Life God Dreams for You was released by Abingdon Press in December 2017.

Kelly and her high school sweetheart, Steve, have been married for over 30 years and are the proud parents of two twenty-something daughters, Alexandra and Brooke. Kelly and Steve live in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. In her spare time, she loves to read, travel, sing, and garden.

Learn more about Kelly’s writing, speaking and coaching at www.kellyiveyjohnson.com

As the institutional church struggles to attract new people into established systems, systems that many in our day and age are skeptical of, an exciting movement is underfoot. The microchurch movement, which is taking various forms and shapes around the world, is allowing local, organic, highly adaptable church Bodies to form, worship, and serve in environments that integrate all other aspects of their life. Our guest today, Melissa Corkum, explains why.

An Enneagram 1, engineer, entrepreneur, former coffee shop owner, current coach to parents of kids with difficult behavior, and mirochurch leader, Melissa is always looking for ways to make things and people better. Sometimes to the chagrin (and sometimes to the delight) of their 6 children, she and her husband, Patrick, enjoy chasing ideas which are loaded with the promise of adventure and fall squarely outside the proverbial box. The microchurch movement is one such adventure.

After experiencing years of discontent and frustration within the institutional church, she and her husband decided to launch and lead a mirochurch movement over three years ago. Melissa and Patrick have 6 children by both birth and adoption. Their adventures are currently based out of their northern Maryland home.

Melissa writes, coaches, and hosts a podcast at www.thecorkboardonline.com.

In episode 8, the Rev. Frances Cooper, elder of 29 years in the United Methodist Church, pastor of St. Marks UMC in Midlothian, VA, and one of the first and few women in Virginia to lead a large church, shares honestly about a soul-crushing first pastoral appointment, the threat of the call on her marriage, the long road of being figured out, the shifting tides of the church, and the difficulties, perceptions, adjustments, competition, crutches, desperation, and dismantling involved in being a woman in ministry today.

Fran knows well the beauty and the brutal reality of being a woman in ministry. Besides being a full time pastor, she is also a wife (part of a clergy couple), a mom, a "mimi", a sister, a daughter, and friend. She considers herself a lover of preaching and worship, a celebrator of the gifts of Christ in other people, and a planter of God's word, "flowering gardens and food memories" wherever she goes.

It is also no small thing that she happens to be the aunt of collared chick co-creator Michelle Matthews, who says, "Fran is the reason why I am in ministry today. It was only after I witnessed her preach and preside with both grace and conviction that I begin to believe God had called me to this task as well. If I am half the pastor she is, I would consider myself blessed to have served God so ferociously."

Rev. Amy Graham, the Pastor of Spiritual Care at The District Church in Washington, DC, leads us in conversation about how her and her husband built one of the fastest growing churches in the United States by assessing the needs and seeking the welfare of the community to which God had called them and by always keeping Jesus in their inner-city mobilization for justice.

The District Church has grown from 10 people meeting in a living room to nearly 1,000 people in less than ten years. Before moving to DC, Amy served as the youth minister and worship leader at Quincy Street Missional Church in Boston. She is a gifted leader and counselor, a graduate of Boston University’s School of Social Work, a graduate of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary's Masters in Theological Studies degree program, and she and her husband Aaron live in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of DC with their two children, Elijah and Natalie.