A coach who once wanted the bigger-school path came back to Williams after being told he would never win here. 

In this episode of Lifework, Dr. Stan Norman talks with WBU Head Baseball Coach Stephen Abanathy about returning home, accepting a difficult assignment, and building something that matters beyond the scoreboard.

Coach Abanathy reflects on the relationships and Scripture-centered community that shaped him as a student, his unexpected road from college baseball to coaching, and the challenge of leading a program where culture matters as much as competition. He also shares why he measures success not simply in wins, but in graduates who become faithful men, husbands, fathers, and leaders.

Along the way, Coach Abanathy discusses building trust with players, recruiting young men who will lead when no one is watching, serving as WBU’s interim athletic director, and why he still finds refreshment in stepping onto the field with his team.

Faithful to the Assignment: Coach Stephen Abanathy on Returning Home and Building at WBU is an honest conversation about playing the long game and discovering that the work God gives you may be bigger than the one you originally planned.

Interested in experiencing the WBU community for yourself? Sign up for Preview Day on Friday, September 25 at williamsbu.edu/preview.

Kendall Davenport Layne shares how she found peace when her lifelong plan to serve overseas changed and how God led her into counseling, teaching, and mentoring students instead.

In this episode of Lifework, Dr. Stan Norman talks with Kendall about feeling called to missions from a young age, serving for two years in South Asia, and returning home with difficult questions about identity, obedience, and purpose. Kendall reflects on the long process of learning that God’s love and calling are not limited to one place, job, or version of the future she had imagined.

Now an assistant professor of psychology and child and family studies at Williams Baptist University, Kendall is discovering new ways to live missionally through counseling, discipleship, meaningful conversations, and investing in the next generation of students.

Plus, hear a special invitation to Williams Baptist University’s Fall Preview Day on Friday, September 25. If you know a high school senior who is exploring college options, invite them to come see campus, meet the WBU community, and imagine what their next step could look like.

Lifework is a conversation about calling, hosted by Dr. Stan Norman, president of Williams Baptist University. In Season 3, Stewarding What You’ve Been Given, each conversation asks a simple question: How are you stewarding what God has given you now?

Season 3 of Lifework begins with a question that reaches into every season of life: How are you stewarding what God has already given you?

In this opening episode, Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Coach Tracy Hubbard to talk about calling, faithfulness, leadership, and the unexpected paths God uses to prepare us for meaningful work. Tracy shares his journey from Michigan to Williams Baptist University, the mentors who challenged him, the moments that reshaped his sense of purpose, and what it has meant to build a wrestling program and invest in the lives of students.

Their conversation is an honest reminder that calling is not always about waiting for a future opportunity. Sometimes it means showing up faithfully in the place you are, leading with both grace and truth, and using the gifts, relationships, and responsibilities already in your hands.

This is Lifework, honest conversations about calling, hosted by Dr. Stan Norman, president of Williams Baptist University. In Season 3, Stewarding What You’ve Been Given, each guest helps us consider how faithfulness in the present can shape the work God has ahead.

Thinking about college or know a student who is? Join us for Preview Day at Williams Baptist University on Friday, September 25. It is a great opportunity to experience campus, meet faculty and students, explore academic programs, and get helpful answers about the college decision. Share this link with a student or family who needs an invitation:
williamsbu.edu/preview

In part two of Dr. Stan Norman’s conversation with Steven Nelson, Director of Housing and Intramural Sports at Williams Baptist University, Steven picks up the story as a young electrical engineering student at DeVry in Kansas City, still wrestling with God’s call to ministry. He recounts the decisive moment in a trigonometry class when he stood up, told his professor “I’m not supposed to be here,” withdrew from school, and returned home to work on the farm and in a factory while saving for Bible college. 

Steven shares how the Lord used those seasons of struggle, along with the support of his grandparents, to lead him into formal theological training at Spurgeon College and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary—including archaeological digs in Israel—and ultimately into his current role shepherding students at Williams. 

If you missed last week’s episode, be sure to go back and listen to part one so you can experience the full arc of Steven’s journey from farm fields to the WBU campus.

In this episode of the Lifework Podcast, host Dr. Stan Norman welcomes Steven Nelson, Director of Housing and Intramural Sports at Williams Baptist University, to share how a boy from rural Missouri found his way into shaping campus life at WBU. 

Steven reflects on growing up in a large farming family, learning perseverance in the fields and factories, and navigating complex family dynamics that forged his character and faith. He introduces how those early experiences prepared him not only for future ministry training at Spurgeon College and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, but also for his calling to invest in students’ lives through housing, intramurals, and teaching. 

Stay tuned through the end of this conversation as Steven begins to wrestle with God’s call on his life and the tension between an engineering path and ministry, setting up part two of his story coming next week.

In part two of this conversation, President Stan Norman and Caleb Garner pick up Caleb’s story as he moves from Mississippi State into the world of sports media and, eventually, the classroom at Williams Baptist University. Caleb describes discovering that work is both service and worship, and how roles in sports information, media relations, and communications became avenues for telling stories while God was quietly reshaping his vocational path.

He shares how graduate studies, long hours in a “24/7” athletics environment, and mentoring student workers awakened a love for teaching that ultimately brought him to WBU to lead the growing Sports Management program. Caleb also unpacks what a sports management degree can prepare students to do—from coaching and athletic administration to sports business and media—and why he believes Christ-centered leaders are desperately needed in today’s multibillion-dollar sports industry. Listeners will hear how he is pursuing his doctorate in sport management, investing in students as future leaders, and viewing every role—from cutting grass to teaching—to be an act of worship under the direction of the “Master Storyteller.”

Learn more about the health & physical education department: https://williamsbu.edu/physicaleducation/

In this episode of the Lifework Podcast, President Stan Norman sits down with Caleb Garner, Chair of the Department of Health and Physical Education and Assistant Professor of Sports Management at Williams Baptist University. Caleb shares how growing up in the “boondocks” of Brooksville, Mississippi, in a close-knit, church-centered community and a hardworking family shaped his view of vocation and calling.

He reflects on watching his parents persevere through job loss and tough seasons, early experiences working in his grandfather’s feed store, and the formative influence of camp work that taught him to see even unseen tasks as service to Christ. Along the way, Caleb talks about his lifelong love of athletics—right down to his quirky gift for “chasing mascots,” memorizing college teams and stats—and how God used that passion, together with key mentors and campus jobs, to begin steering him toward a future in sports management.

Learn more about the health & physical education department at WBU: https://williamsbu.edu/physicaleducation/

In last week’s episode, Janna Himschoot shared how farm life, family, and faith in Hardy, Arkansas, laid the groundwork for her calling as a wife, mother, and future educator. If you missed that conversation about lifework, you’ll want to go back and listen before jumping into this powerful continuation. 

This week, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman welcomes Janna back to trace the next chapter of her journey—from corporate accounting during the tech boom, to an unexpected pivot into healthcare, to the humbling season of tutoring alongside her dad. 

Janna describes how God used a missed job opportunity, long commutes, and an online MBA to reshape her understanding of success and to deepen her desire to pour into students, not just bottom lines. She tells the story of arriving on the Williams campus and sensing, almost immediately, “Now everything makes sense,” as years of work experience, motherhood, and ministry converged into a clear sense of lifework and calling. 

Janna also reflects on helping shape Williams Works, why her most fulfilling work now is “being a mom” to her students, and the simple phrase she shares with them—and would share with her younger self: trust the process.

Learn more about the business department at WBU: https://williamsbu.edu/business

What if your sense of calling started with a cattle loan at age 12 and evenings spent checking cows with your dad? 

In this episode, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Assistant Professor of Business Janna Himschoot to explore how God used small-town Hardy, Arkansas, hard work on a 300-acre farm, and deeply rooted family faith to shape her lifework and purpose. Janna shares why motherhood was her first calling, how a Girl State workshop pointed her toward accounting, and why she never wavered in her resolve to build a life that put faith and family first. Along the way, she reflects on growing up in a multigenerational church her great-grandparents founded, meeting her husband in the cattle barn at the county fair, and learning that simple, steady obedience is often where God forges our true vocation. 

Stay tuned—next week, Janna returns to talk about corporate accounting, doors that didn’t open, surprising pivots into healthcare and tutoring, and how God ultimately led her to discover her lifework in the college classroom.

Learn more about the business department at WBU: https://williamsbu.edu/business

In part two of our conversation with Belina Dulaney, professor of mathematics at Williams Baptist University, she shares how God redirected her carefully laid career plans and revealed a surprising calling to the classroom. From orientation day at ASU and dreams of becoming an actuary, to discovering a deep sense of ease and joy while teaching as a graduate assistant, Dulaney traces the moments when God clearly overruled her “never going to teach” resolve.

She reflects on her year in a high school classroom in a low-income community, the emotional toll and deep fulfillment of investing in students’ lives, and the leap of faith that brought her to Williams Baptist University. Dulaney also explains why she sees God as the ultimate mathematician, pointing to patterns, harmony, and design in both creation and the golden ratio that she highlights in her contemporary math classes. This episode invites listeners to consider how God weaves gifts, personality, and unexpected opportunities into a clear sense of calling and purpose.