S4 E3 | ReWILDING MOTHERHOOD: Shannon Evans

This one was for the MAMA’S!!! I said it on the show and I’ll say it again: I feel like this was a book I both needed and one I could have written. My journey in motherhood was not necessarily untraditional, but it was uncommon. I both worked and stayed home, we danced to a nonconformist rhythm. As my children were born, I was also birthing the ministry of Jesus Said Love, leading worship around the country and the world, and writing/recording music with Brett. Hattie and Lucy (our older girls) were often on the road with us, sleeping in small college dorm rooms for summer camps, getting to know different nannies, and being nursed at truck stops and airports along the way. When Gus came along we didn’t travel as much but our ministry to women in the sex industry grew and our time leading worship locally became routine. Weeknight band rehearsals and home visits to women from the clubs, Friday night club outreaches and Sunday soundchecks for Brett and I at 7am meant all three kids were backstage in pj’s where a hearty breakfast of donuts, juice boxes and peppermints abounded. Along my road I would have several Southern women say, “I love that your calling is to ministry to women in the sex industry, mine is to be a mom.” My mouth would swallow the shame and my gut would regurgitate it as rage: My calling to women did not nullify my calling as a mom. Where did this asinine hogwash come from in the church? Motherhood and ministry are not antithetical, but rather a beautiful paradox that we live within.

I do hope this conversation gives you beautiful freedom and a deep breath as a mom. 

Cheers to rewilding motherhood!