Beside Every Calling | Episode 12: Only in Ministry: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Episode 12: You Won’t Believe This Happened. 

Episode 12: Only in Ministry: Season 1 Finale!  Debbie and Jill celebrate by sharing some of the funniest, most unbelievable moments they've experienced in ministry.  We all need to laugh!

This is a space for those walking beside a calling—where identity is formed beside it, not lost within it.

In this lighthearted Season 1 finale, Debbie and Jill share some of the funniest, most unexpected, and completely unforgettable moments from life in ministry.

From baptistry chaos and communion mishaps to embarrassing public moments and international travel disasters, this episode is filled with stories that remind us ministry life is often beautiful, meaningful—and wildly unpredictable.

After a season of honest conversations about loneliness, friendship, relationships, family, and transitions, this episode is a reminder that laughter matters too.

If you’ve ever had a ministry moment that made you laugh, cringe, or wonder “did that really just happen?”—this conversation is for you.

Want to connect with us or share your story?
Email us at: besideeverycalling@gmail.com

Table Talk Questions:
1. What is one funny or unforgettable ministry moment your family still talks about today?
2. How has laughter helped you through difficult or stressful ministry seasons?
3. Why do you think humor and joy are important in ministry life?
4. What are some of the moments that remind you ministry is both meaningful and wonderfully imperfect?
5. How can you create more space for joy and lightness in this season of life?

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome to Beside Every Calling, where a life you love is formed beside the call and not lost within it. If your date night has occasionally included a hospital stop, or your kids played Let's Baptize in the pool instead of Marco Polo, you understand this rhythm. Across every season, from little ones to leadership transitions to emptiness, we live beside the call while creating lives we love along the way. So please get comfortable and let's dive into today's episode. Hello, friends, and thank you for joining us on this episode of Beside Every Calling. Jill, high five. We have made it to 12. High five. So if you happen to be one of the four people watching on YouTube, then you're seeing that we are dressed how we really like to be. Ball caps, totally casual. This is more who we are. And we wanted to end our first season with funny stories just to leave you laughing. And we would love to hear your stories, and we will share them if you want us to. But for now, Jill, why don't you start us off with one of your funniest stories in ministry?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Okay, I need to be very authentic. I'm not gonna tell my funniest because it's a little um when we when we all get to know each other a little bit better, it might be maybe episode season two. Maybe season two, season three, but I do have plenty. So I guess ministry, you know, some people just look at you and they have this idea of what life would be like or how it's going down or whatever. But I just thought you should know that our son Ross just loved to swim in the baptistry at a couple of our different churches. Yeah. We would fill it up usually the night before it was, especially after it was all over. He he gone take take a little run. Some jacuzzi. You know, the baptistry splash kind of thing going on. So that's kind of one thing, just to let you know it's okay. Also on our son Ross, if he hears this, he's gonna be kind of embarrassed. I want to share one on Noah too. So I'm hoping I don't think our kids will ever listen to this. So probably not. It's like we're already embarrassing them to him. Um we he was getting putty trained, and we were at our church lead being the lead pastor and our the parsonage, and where we built the church out of a barn, actually, of this land that was there, was very close. So his everyday yard was part of the the church's front yard, kind of a little bit. Anyway, it was one Sunday morning, and we were like, Where's Ross? So we heard had just kind of looked around and went out front, just the front doors of the church. People were standing all around, and there he is, just peeing in the yard, like you know, just doing what you you know boys do, what boys do. I won't go into all the details, but Sam was teaching our congregation, but was we're having communion, but how to do it with intinction. You take bread and and dip it and then take it. So that was our first time as a congregation to do the intinction, and he was explaining it all, doing a really great job, and then the church experienced it and did it. And our sweet older man, I don't necessarily think he's living anymore, but he was wonderful, was an usher in the back of the room, could not hear thunder. So I'm sure he didn't hear a thing that Sam was trying to explain, and he was the last one to come up, and he grabbed the bread and he didn't know what to do with it. We kind of looked confused, so we ate it, and then Sam's holding the cup with the with the juice in it. You know, you're supposed to and think it. Yeah, and so he just takes it and goes, he just takes it and he downs that puppy. Oh my goodness. No, Jack, it was the best thing ever. It we did, you know, it was way before you ever recorded services or anything like that. But so funny. I he's such a sweet-spirited man, but we got such a great laugh out of that in our very first church. It was just a kind of a shotgun kind of little church there on the campground. It was a great little place. But honestly, right in the middle of one uh one of Sam's sermons, a squirrel got loose and uh came in the door and ran down the aisle, and then right out the another door kind of thing, it was just like, oh my word, this is like a you know, the Mississippi squirrel revival getting ready to break out. But it was that was a hoot and hollering kind of situation. And then at that same church, we had where the we had a single wide trailer that was right beside our building, and that was where our we called it our Sunday school annex. It's where our nursery was and our couple little kids' rooms and stuff, but we needed to light the furnace to keep everything warm over there. Well, Sam got there early, or we got there early, and he was you take one of these long matchsticks, and you gotta bend down on the floor to find where the where the you light it. And so he did that. And he got it lit, and he pulled it back out, and he didn't pull it out far enough, and he caught his hair.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

I love it. All right, well, one of my favorite ones, we were on staff in Oklahoma and we'd had communion, and I believe it was actually Easter Sunday, and we had communion, it was a beautiful service, and I could not find Noah. And then some sweet, precious soul in the church came totally exasperated and found me and said, Your Noah is in the kitchen eating all the leftover elements. And so I walk over to the kitchen, and he was tiny, I don't know, four or five. Yeah, uh, and he had crawled up on the counter and they left him, and Noah's just using every little glass, just drinking everyone, eating the bread down, that's just having a wonderful time. And I just laughed and thought, oh, that's just church life for so I was sad that this lady was so upset, but she was, and I have many funny moments. But my one of mine recently happened, Jill, that is truly I couldn't decide, as you know, if I was even gonna share it because it's so embarrassing. Yeah, no, it's good. You need to share it. The travel for me has been a bit much, and we travel all the time. You live out of a suitcase. I have one set of clothes. The one thing, if you're traveling, you don't want to have to make a lot of decisions. So you wear the same thing again and again, and it just helps you not live in stress. I highly recommend it. So I have one dress that I've been wearing for two years for ordination services. So yeah, I'm in the same picture all the time, but it's okay. And so we were we we have Africa now, and so we were in Africa, and I love the FSC we're traveling with. Solomon and his wife are wonderful and Danny, and we're gonna do a night safari, but we could only do the safari if we were willing to drive three and a half hours the next day to the church. We just get up early and we all said, Yes, totally worth it. Let's do it. So we go, and Scott and I have been on a safari before, and it was kind of bougie, like a really nice hotel. It was we, yeah, it was great. Well, we pull into this one, and I don't know what I was thinking, but I guess I thought it would be like the last one, and it is truly a hut. Nothing, it was bugs and dirt and hut. And I realized, oh my land, I don't have a hairdryer. And I mean, there's not shampoo. Scott and I have one, we don't pack towels. There's a tiny little towel to share. Yeah, and it was as rustic as I didn't even sleep because you could hear the animals all night long. But the iron, we went on the safari, we had a great time. It was, I highly recommend nighttime safaries. We saw every it was just really fun, but you're dirty and dusty when you get back. So I had to shower, and it was in the middle of washing my hair that I realized I have nothing to do with my hair and no hair dryer. That I have my flat iron, but there's no electricity in this place. Yeah. And how am I gonna do this in the morning? So Scott's like, yeah, just one day, just make the best of it. So I'm just going to show you how I was looking. So, those of you not on Zoom, I'm sorry. I will try my best to describe it. So, this is my headband that I wash my hair with. The only thing I really had. So I thought, well, better than having it everywhere, I'll just kind of put my hair, yeah. Looks like you're washing your hair bad. Yeah. But I put my makeup on. Yeah. And then I had on my nice dress, and then this scarf, it's dipped in bug spray, which they come in all different colors and I travel in them, and they're kind of like they dress it up. So I was feeling bad. Like Scott and I laughed together bad, but we thought, oh, you know, it won't be that bad. Right. One day, kind of thing. No, one one time. Yeah. And you know, we've been in African services. Most of the ones we've been at that point were small and they were tribal stuff, some of them. So it's not like Easter Sunday. Right. And so no big deal. We hadn't had breakfast. We leave before the sun is up to get to this church, and it's rainy, and the roads are muddy. And I say road in parentheses, and it's so muddy, hopping, you're feeling sick. I'm in the middle, and then Scott's in on my left, and then the other FSC wife is on our right. So it's a three-hour squish tight ride, and you're dressed for church, except for my hair. And even she laughed, and I'm like, she's like, You'll be fine. And I was like, Yeah. So three and a half hour drive, we get to this church, and it is a big church, and we are late, and church is already going. And we step out of this car, and Scott's trying to get his suit, and we're all a mess, but I'm really a mess. And as I step out, the back of my legs hit the side of the car, and I have mud all over the back. Uh sweet Solomon looks at me and goes, Miss Debbie. And I thought, oh yeah. So I did what anyone would do. I take off the scarf, I wipe the mud off my legs, which of course you still see the mud, but it's now nice and tidy in my scarf. Yeah. And Spot looks at me and he's trying not to laugh because it's so bad. But at that moment, I'm not exaggerating, the whole hem of my dress falls out. Oh my. I mean, it had been working for me for two years, so I should be grateful. So the hem is out of my dress, like with the strings, not even like that you wouldn't notice, totally out. And my legs have mud, dried mud on the back. My hair looks like this, which looks like a lady should go wash her face. And we're going in to the largest church service possible, and not only entering, but they are escorting us in to the front. Oh my goodness. Golden chairs. And Scott goes to the platform. And I I literally sat down. I look over, and I hope you have the picture. And the lady next to me is the DS's wife, and she's beautiful. I'm going to show the picture. If you're on YouTube, you could see this. So I'm going to describe to you because most of you are just on podcasts doing your walk or something, anyways. But the lady next to me not only is dressed nicely, she's dressed like Easter Sunday back in the 80s. Nice. A beautiful hat, this flowery dress, nice heels, and the place is packed. And they march us all the way down with me with mud on the back of my legs, my hair looking like lady, come on, can you do something? And I'm carrying a muddy scarf. And I sat down, took a deep breath, and I sat there and I just laughed at myself out loud and said, You have two options. You can either be okay, this is how you are, and your looks aren't that important. Who cares? Even though when the lady looked over at me, it was like, that's your best. And it's like, oh, I even made Scott swear that he would never show the picture he took because it's so bad. But I ended up what's the funniest part is in Africa, they dance and conga lines together, a lot of the ladies, and I thought, I'm already in, I'm going in. So I just danced and enjoyed the service with the rest of them. But I truly felt like, oh, church, I am so sorry that this is how I'm representing you because it is one hot midlife mess that showed up on that Sunday. So yeah, that's my look. So now y'all know how I wash my face with my headband every night. Yeah. Put my hat back on. This is how Scott and I like to travel, just in hats, sweats, and but he doesn't usually travel in sweats anymore because once they lost our luggage and he had to ordain people in sweats. So yeah. I just wanted to share my story and it keeps me humble, which God does all the time. But that was one of my most embarrassing moments in ministry where you just have to go with it.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

And we all have those moments of okay, this is not how it's supposed to go, right? That's what I'm supposed to look like.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

And the service, like of all of them, the one with a thousand people and everyone dressed up. This is the one. So tell tell, let's end with before you tell this story, I just want to thank everyone for listening to our first season of Beside Every Calling. And we are taking a break. And I want to encourage you to go back and listen to other episodes maybe you missed or to share them. And again, Jill and I have started this because we felt like there was a space in the church that no one was addressing, and we wanted to help ministry spouses, ourselves and you, male and female, feel seen and valued. And we would love to hear from you at beside every calling at gmail.com is our email. And for episode ideas, we're working on the next season already, and we're excited to bring some stuff not only on retirement and what to do if your spouse dies, like some heavy stuff, but a lot of fun, funny stuff also. But if you have a topic or just want to share a story, we would love for you to reach out so we can put that in the next season.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yeah. Jill, anything before you tell this my favorite story? No, I just think if you want to send us any topics that you want to hear us chat about, we would love to hear that. Just email us at beside of recalling at gmail.com that we would really appreciate that. Well, listen, in ministry, it it's just you're gonna have a list of embarrassing moments. My list is long. Some of you listening might know some of my other stories. But this one is kind of PG, so you might as well just get in another room, whatever. But it's not horribly bad. No. But if you have really sensitive ears, it's best to log off. That's exactly right. It was back in the day, and I don't know if some of the young ones listening might even know this, but what we did at church was if someone new was attending, we'd get their name and actually welcome them from the pulpit or from the front. I I called it embarrassing our visitors. You know, looking back, we like to embarrass them, but we we would try to welcome them out loud, like with their name, the kind of thing. And I was the one to do that in our first church, because that's what we do. So I did it every Sunday. It was really great. We our church was a smaller church. We were running in the 20s when we got there. So any person that was living walking in, we were so excited to just meet and get to know and maybe get some ice cream with whatever, the whole, the whole thing just to get to know them. And um, I I did fairly well with that. You know, I wrote the names down or Samuel get the names and give them to me, and we would I would introduce them. This one sweet lady, and she is a sweet lady. I don't really remember her first name, so forgive me for that, because it was many, many years ago. She was very sweet, and she was very short. I'm like 5'7, she was probably four two. I mean, she she was a shorter woman, that's exactly right. She also found herself to be a little stout, which is okay. That's just what she was how she was made. And in in all of that, she was just pretty well endowed in the front. So nothing bad about all of that. She gave me her name, and again, I can't remember her first name, but her last name sorry. Yeah. Her last name is a fine name. It's a fine name. It's a very good name.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Her last name was her last name was T E E E T S.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yes, this is why people left our church. Announcements are welcoming. Anyway, I got to her name and I said, which just came out of my mouth, I said, it's so nice to have Mrs. Tit with us today. I don't know what happened. At least I didn't stop right there. I didn't know. I noticed Sam's finger just kept going on. I kept going on. I was so proud of it kept going on. Because if I would have stopped, it would have been way more embarrassing than what it were. Maybe people said surely she said teeth. You know, she didn't just say that. Yeah, she said teeth. Yeah, right, right, wrong. But anyway, it was just anyway, you know, it just to know that we're all out there just trying to doing our best, we're doing our best, just trying to do our best, just trying to support ministry, just trying to be a part, and things will happen. And so that happened that one Sunday. And no, she did not come back. I just want to know what does Sam do? Like, did he laugh out loud or did he hold it in? No, Sam always had a more mature filter than me. So I first of all, I was just really proud of me. Yeah, what you know, kind of thing. I didn't do that. But you carried on. Good job. Like it's normal. I moved it to the next thing. Like, hopefully, nobody really heard what I said. And Sam did not did not move a muscle, I don't think. God knows now.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Like, we have a lot of funny stories that yeah, he has a hundred travel rules that I break right away. So oh yeah, they get what they get. We're doing the best. Spouse is listening to this. We are doing our best. Hey, I did not have any training for this, okay? That's there's been no training, no training. This is the people are going, seriously, this podcast is all we get.

unknown 18:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

We're starting somewhere. This is all we have. So I'm just saying that I had no training either, and I'm proud of you, Jill. And I just want to say cheers to our first season of Beside It Recalling. Yes, yeah, cheers. And I hope that it's just encouraging somebody's spirit. Right. Friends, we want to thank you not only for listening to our podcast and becoming part of our community, we are excited to get to know you. And I do want to mention we do have a Facebook group and an Instagram page that if one of us gets the time or courage to start working on, we're gonna do that. And we do have email that I check now at beside everycalling at gmail.com. And we would love to hear from you while we take this brief break and plan out season two. So thank you for joining us and especially today, laughing with us. And Jill, I'm gonna let you give our final thought in closing.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Yeah, well, you're doing better than you know. I always just want to say that I'm just proud of you. I don't know you, but I am proud of you. We too are out here just trying to figure it out one day at a time along with you, and know you're not alone in this. And I know those lonely feelings come, but you are not alone and you're doing better than you think.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Absolutely. And friends, create a life you love beside the calling without losing yourself within it. And we'll see you next season on Beside Every Calling. See you later. If this conversation felt a little too familiar, like, were they sitting in my living room this week familiar? That's your sign. Text this episode to one ministry spouse who might need it today. And if this space feels like oxygen in your season, would you please take 30 seconds and leave us a review? It helps more spouses find this beautiful, sometimes overlooked, but wildly important community. We'll see you next time on Beside Every Calling.