A Big Announcement from Risen Motherhood (You Don’t Want to Miss This!) Transcript
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Emily Jensen: Hey, friends, Laura and Emily here. We are popping into your earbuds with a bonus episode today because there's something we want you to know about what's next for Risen Motherhood. It's a big announcement, and so we're going to share what's on the horizon, and then we're going to spend the rest of the episode diving into all the reasons behind the announcement, what it means, and attempt to answer some of the questions you might have. Okay, let's go.
It's always so hard when a friend texts you and they're like, "Hey, can we talk about something?" Then the whole time leading up to talking with them, you're dying inside. You're cringing with anxiety. We recognize the little announcement that we just gave there at the beginning of the episode builds a little bit of anticipation. In order to be the friend who does not say—
Laura Wifler: —We're going to tell you. We're going to tell you. Let's just tell them. I’m dying.
Emily: We're just going to break right into it, yes.
Laura: Friends, what we want you to know is that after years of prayer, personal discussion, input from our husbands, and reflection as a leadership team, with the input of our board of directors, we want to let you know that Risen Motherhood will be drawing to a close in one year from now, in April 2025. Big news.
Emily: I feel like we need to just let that settle for a minute.
Laura: We may need to repeat it once or twice.
Emily: Yes. We know that's just a huge—it's a huge thing to hear. It's a really big thing for us to say. Laura and I—you're going to hear more of the story, but we've been thinking about this and praying about this and planning for this for a long time, and we've had a lot of discussions with a lot of important people in our lives and have had the counsel. This news has settled on us and settled in our hearts a little bit. We recognize, for those of you who maybe started following us and coming alongside us at the very beginning in what was it—January 2016, we released our first episode—you've been following us for years, and you've kind of grown up alongside us. We know this is just really significant news to hear.
Laura: Yes. It's not very normal or typical where ministries close and end. We want to dig into all of the details and answer all the questions that are probably racing through your mind. Before we do that, we really think it might be helpful and beneficial for us to pause and acknowledge, just with gratitude, the things that God has done in the ministry, even just to give a little bit of background. Our guess is that a lot of people who don't typically tune in to Risen Motherhood are probably listening to this one out of curiosity even. Just to give a little bit of background and to see what God has done—because it is incredible when you think about it—we want to go through some of that history.
Emily: Yes, I think the first idea we had of Risen Motherhood was maybe in August 2015. I was looking through some old blog entries the other day. I have a printed, bound version of them. I found one that was recounting the story of Risen Motherhood. I know I have some. I'm going to tuck them away. I might have to pull them out—
Laura: I want to see them.
Emily: —at some point. We spent that fall of 2015 really talking and praying and brainstorming and doing all the research.
Laura: Getting courage.
Emily: I know, getting courage. We recorded some of our first test episodes late that fall. We thought, when we first launched Risen Motherhood in 2016, that it was just going to be these five pilot episodes. It was going to be this fun little project to do together.
Laura: We want to collaborate. We're sister-in-laws.
Emily: Yes, and we never imagined it would become what it is today. We did not set out in Risen Motherhood with this master plan to have articles and have books and have team members and have a board of directors.
It's just interesting, because I think today with social media culture and influencer culture and "Hey, my job is a content creator"—that job didn't really exist in the way that it does now. We weren't envisioning building a platform and becoming this big thing. We were just wanting to talk about motherhood and the gospel.
Laura: Nobody really did that, right?
Emily: Yes.
Laura: In 2015—I'm reading a little bit about the golden age of the internet, and people look back at that as the golden age, where just people really could start something and grow. I don't think you and I really knew that or understood that. Things have really changed now. I think that that is big for us—to know that we never had a master plan. It was sort of like, "Okay, we need a little bit of a help here, and we need a little bit of help there. Okay, people are sending us money. What does that even mean for us?" That was pre-becoming a nonprofit.
Everything was very much just reading the signs that the Lord was giving and following his lead and saying, "Okay, Lord, I trust you for the next step and the next step." I think that's been really incredible. A big part of our story is that we've never been the type of people that are like, "Let's have a ten-year plan," or "Let's really look ahead and see where we're going to be in twenty-five years." For you and I, it was always just a step of faith and then another one and another one and the Lord really opening doors for us. We're like, "Okay, we're going to just keep walking through those."
God really did immensely bless our ministry at Risen Motherhood. He has always fully funded our work after we became a nonprofit. There were a lot of years there where we didn't work for pay.
Emily: We weren't even looking for funding.
Laura: Yes, we were just shelling it out.
Emily: Self-funding.
Laura: Yes, self-funding. He really has provided for us. He's given us these awesome team members and incredible board members, some of them who have been with us since the beginning. Then just ministry partners, sponsors, and other collaborators who have either shared Risen Motherhood or helped fund it in some way. We've just been really grateful for all that God has done. Before we dig into the ending, we want to pause and just say, we give God all the glory in that. We give all the praise back to him.
If you have benefited from something at Risen Motherhood, then we want you to know that it's not because of us. You benefited because God has really worked in this, and the good news of the gospel has been working in your life. We want everyone to know—we want to shout it from the rooftops that it's him. It's not us. We don't have some special sauce. It's been the Lord the whole time.
Emily: Just to build on that, we're also really thankful for all of the ways you guys, as our community, have believed in us and supported us and cheered us on over the years. We know we've tried a lot of different things. We've pivoted a couple of times. You've really stuck through this journey with us. We know that it's no small thing online anymore to give your likes and your engagement and your attention to someone or to a ministry.
There are a lot of options out there, and we just recognize that God has also worked in our lives in and through you guys. We have been really blessed by this ministry too over the years. It's changed our lives, and it's changed our families, and you guys have been a part of that.
Laura: Yes. Okay, let's talk about why. Let's get to the why.
Emily: The why is probably what you guys have all been wondering. We wanted to just start with a little analogy that we've been using between the two of us and with our team: this idea of a TV show, which—we can probably all think of a TV show that we really enjoyed that just went on beyond when it needed to go on. There was a season that you can point to and be like, "That season was its peak."
Laura: Should have been done.
Emily: Then, maybe the studio executives or the writers or there's just—nobody wants to shut down a good thing. Nobody wants to end when the whole world loves you, and you've won your Emmys, and everything is blossoming, and so it keeps going. And maybe some cast members start to leave, and the writers change, and the storyline starts to veer in a very strange way. Maybe you keep watching to the end, but when you remember it, some of your memories are tainted by those last few seasons where you're like, "Yes, it was good up until this point, and then it got weird." Or "Yes, then it fizzled."
That is how you remember it: "It fizzled" versus saying, "What would it be like—?" I know that there were a couple of TV shows in the last year where there were people clamoring for more seasons, and the creator of that series was just like, "It was created for three seasons, and that's it. I don't want to carry the story beyond that because that's it. You've got a complete story." I think for us, we have not wanted Risen Motherhood to become like a series that fizzles out over time.
We really do feel like we're still in these great years. We're still loving it; we're still enjoying it. We have a fantastic team. We have a fantastic board. We feel like all the content that we're giving you is completely authentic, and we put our stamp of approval on it, and we feel like it's high excellence, and it meets our values. We don't want to keep going on and on and on and on and on and on just because we're funded—just because that's what ministries do. I think if we're following the Lord, we don't just do what everyone does just because. We do what he's leading to do next.
Laura: Yes. I think for us, our personal mentality is that we don't think every parachurch ministry or nonprofit needs to be this century-old ministry or continue on indefinitely just because it's funded. Emily and I are firm believers in seasons. We talk a lot about them at Risen Motherhood. We also believe that parachurch organizations can be raised up for a season, and we look back and think, "We believe God used us for this generation of moms and that he used these mediums and our own voice and story."
For us, we don't necessarily see us going on in that, and we don't see a parachurch organization being the same as the local church or the big-C Church. There's a lot more flexibility in our view for that. We also believe—it's really important to note for you guys that Em and I are still—we're pals. [Laughter]
We're close. We love one another. We're family. I think that's what's really exciting about being able to finish right now together in a way that—we're teammates in so many things. We're great collaborators. We're great friends. We love each other, like I said. We see each other. Our kids love each other. I think that's really exciting that we can end at a spot where we both—the Lord brought us to unity in this.
First of all, that was huge, because you and I had talked a few times in the past, like, "Oh, I'm kind of ready to be done," or "I'm kind of ready to be done." It was different. We weren't unified. Then one day, it was like we woke up and we were unified. I'm so thankful that you and I get to finish this in lockstep, and we don't want anyone to think out there that maybe our relationship is tainted, because it's not.
Emily: Yes. This is not like a boy band who suspiciously broke up and one of them is going on a solo career, and all of them are disgruntled.
Laura: Jealous.
Emily: Yes, there's some statement that gets put out, but really, behind the scenes, they're all fighting.
Laura: There's like a documentary twenty years later about it.
Emily: Yes. That is not us. Like Laura said, we are in an absolutely great place. We're in an extremely healthy place relationally. We love one another. We know that a lot of leaders end what they're doing for bad reasons because of sin, because people can't get along, because their vision isn't aligned—weird stuff's going on in the background. I don't even know, but we've all read the stories. We all know that that happens, and we want to be very upfront and clear that that is not what's going on with Risen Motherhood.
There is no secret, salacious reason why we're closing this. We truly are in a super healthy place, and we feel like, "What a great time to be able to run to the finish line together," because we do think that sometimes ministries, organizations, and leaders get to a place of platform, and then they carry on because that's what's expected of them and because it feels good to have a platform.
Laura: Because people rely on them. There's jobs too, or—
Emily: People rely on them.
Laura: —it's their career. Like we talked about, this is our career. Lots of reasons. Good and bad.
Emily: Yes, and you just keep going and going and going. Sometimes, when someone goes beyond what really the Lord is leading, because of all of those other things, that's when mistakes can start to happen. That's when people take their eye off the ball. That's when it starts to be like, "Well, I'm doing all of this work, and I have all of this pressure on me. I deserve whatever this weird thing is behind the scenes." Now there's character compromise, and we don't want to get in that position. We don't feel that we're at risk for that right now in any way, but I think we just would rather say, "Hey, this was a beautiful thing, and we have nothing right now but great memories of Risen Motherhood."
We have great stories to tell, and we want to be able to look back in ten years, in twenty years, in forty years, when our grandkids ask us about Risen Motherhood, if they even care—that we don't have a weird, bad story to tell—that we have a great story to tell and say, "Oh, it was ten years, and it was so fun, and we loved it, and I did that with your Great Aunt Laura and-—"
Laura: Oh, I love this. I love this. It sounds so fun.
Emily: That's our heart in it.
Laura: Okay. We want to walk through some of the reasons. The first thing is really just that, as you can imagine, our families' ages and stages of life are really changing. We have kids that are entering middle school next year. Like Emily mentioned, we've been doing this for ten years. Ten years since it was this idea percolating in our minds. By the time it ends, it'll be ten full years. For us, we've seen our kids grow. You guys have watched us grow as moms, and you've seen us walk through stages as we talked about the little years and then we moved to the middle years. Now we're really on that threshold of looking into middle school and high school.
We hear from moms in front of us that you need more flexibility. You need more—
Emily: More time.
Laura: —availability. Yes. It's even more time. It's a different kind of time too. What little taste of this that we've had, even as our kids are—our oldest boys are in fifth grade. We see that to be true. We really want to make sure, in terms of just time and availability and emotional energy that we can put into our families, that's a reason for us. Then another one is just to be able to protect our kids' stories and their privacy as they go into some of these more challenging years. Sometimes, it feels more high-stakes. I don't know. Talking about snack time feels way less high-stakes than talking about sexuality on a podcast.
Those are the types of issues, though, that moms of high schoolers and middle schoolers are dealing with. We don't necessarily feel like God's calling us to be the experts on that or to even be what we've always tried to position ourselves as—the friend that walks beside you. We really feel like, right now, you need the experts. You need the people that have gone before you. You need those moms who have already experienced some of the complex things.
We want to, I think, step out while we're ahead in some ways and really be able to just work with our kids well and not necessarily feel like we might accidentally share something that we didn't mean to on the podcast. Or we might say something that was taken the wrong way for some reason. It feels more high-stakes, I guess.
Emily: Yes. I think too, when you have a motherhood ministry, and you're the gospel-centered mom, we just recognize that, as kids get older, they become more aware of what you're doing as a parent and what's going on online, and their peers become more aware of it. I think, again, to Laura's point with these high-stakes issues, we don't want them to feel like they're on display. We want them to feel like their stories are safe with us and that they don't have to perform in some way because their moms are the gospel-centered moms, and so "I have to—"
Laura: I don't want to feel like I have to perform either. I'm sorry.
Emily: I know. I don't want that pressure either. Yes, absolutely. There's just a lot of complexity in this. I think that for us, what we've heard and what we've observed is really helpful in these middle school and high school years is that these are things that need to be worked out personally, truly in more of a private, local church setting. I think there are principles out there that are helpful. There are people who've gone before us. There are people right now who are sharing wisdom about the teen years. That's not to say that there isn't any public ministry that can be helpful in that way. I think Laura and I are just saying that we personally—
Laura: This is Risen Motherhood. This is really Risen Motherhood. We don't feel called to this, and we don't feel pressured to do that because we have freedom.
Emily: Yes.
Laura: That's what this ministry is all about—knowing, “Where has God called you? What are your unique circumstances? What does your family need?” That's okay. We don't have to live up to other people's standards. Someone is out there doing those things, and they're our age—
Emily: Great.
Laura: —great. Seriously.
Emily: Thank you. I'll probably be reading your stuff.
Laura: Exactly. That is why I love what we do at Risen Motherhood, because there's so much freedom in everybody saying, "This is what God's called me to do. This is what I'm gifted at. This is where I feel comfortable." We don't have to hold that against people or think people are not courageous enough. I think it's courageous to do both. Anyway, there's—sorry. Jumped into that.
Emily: That's good.
Laura: Okay, what's another one?
Emily: Okay. Also, I think alongside that, our families—our husbands specifically— have changed. This isn't even just like our kids' ages and stages. This is like—both of our husbands do different jobs than they did when we first started Risen Motherhood. Our dreams as couples have changed. I think what we're thinking about for our own legacy as families and what our mission and vision is have changed a little bit. Now, at a macro level, have they changed, of like "We want to make disciples and spread the gospel"? No, but they really have shifted.
I know, early on, we did a lot of shows about that—about understanding what God's calling your family to, what your husband is wanting to do, and how you can support him in that. Like we said, when we started Risen Motherhood, Laura and I were not like, "Let's start an organization that we can lead with all these women." That really surprised us, and our husbands and our families have sacrificed a lot over the years and have adapted to it and have said, "Yes, we see the Lord working in this, and so we're going to come alongside you."
Our parents have watched grandkids. We've had so many people come alongside us so that we can do this. Yet, at the same time, we want to acknowledge that this is a big thing in our lives. It takes up a lot of time, and it can make it so that there are other things that we can't do or that our husbands have had to say no to—that our families have had to say no to. We feel like it's time to bring the season of Risen Motherhood to a close so that our families, and particularly our husbands and we as couples, can pursue different dreams and different directions.
Laura: Yes. I think one of the questions might be, “Why aren't you bringing on new voices?” Or “Why aren't you getting absorbed by another nonprofit?” It's a really valid question. Of course, we discussed that as an option for us, but something about Emily and I that you probably have picked up on over the years is that we highly, highly, highly value excellence, and we're very, very high-touch. That means that if something has our name on it or is associated with us, we feel pretty strongly that our hands are in it and that we know what's going on—that we are helping to sort of steer the ship, in a sense.
That's not for everyone. I think a lot of people can run businesses, and they can step back, and other voices can come in, and certainly, that's a possibility. For us, personally, we felt like Risen Motherhood has grown with us. It's something that we really created over the years, and it just felt like something that was sort of best started with us and best ended with us at the helm. Also, because we just didn't feel like necessarily we'll be able to give it—even if we brought on new voices, we wouldn't be able to give it the time it needed because of some of these other reasons we're sharing.
Emily: Yes. I would wake up at night probably sweating thinking about—
Laura: Oh, we would worry.
Emily: —what was going out there, that I wasn't able to have our hands on.
Laura: Especially Emily. I would probably sleep decently okay.
Emily: I'm sorry. I am the way that I am.
Laura: The Lord's protection is because of Emily Jensen, you guys. That's why we haven't gotten caught up in anything too much too crazy.
Emily: Okay. I guess another reason would be we want to go before you—model for you—
Laura: What are you going to say? [Laughter]
Emily: —what it looks like to say no to something.
Laura: Oh, okay. Yes.
Emily: It is hard when you have a lot of good things in your life, and maybe you have a job that you love and you're really good at, or you've got volunteer opportunities that you've been at the helm of for years and people are looking to you and expecting you to do certain things. Whatever those pressures are, there's kind of a sense of—once you're in it, you can start to feel trapped. You can feel like, "People are expecting me to do this. I'm supposed to do this. I don't want to let people down, and so I can't ever transition out of my career," or "I can't ever leave my job," or "I can't ever go to my boss and say I want to work part time." Or "I can't ever go to the leader at my church and say, ‘Actually, I can't head up this volunteer thing anymore’"—whatever. We just want you to know and see that you can. You can say no.
Now, don't do that willy-nilly. Be a faithful person, be a predictable person, be someone whose “yes is yes” and whose “no is no.” That's not what we're talking about. We feel like there's so much pressure out there right now to be successful in every single area of life and be killing it in every single area of life and do it all and be all and be volunteering at school and be volunteering at church and be working and be a great friend and do all of these things.
We're here to raise our hands and say, “We can't do it all. I can't do it all. Laura can't do it all. We have limits.” We've talked a lot about limits at Risen Motherhood, and there has to be an area of life where you say, "I'm willing to do something really scary. I'm willing to shake things up. I'm willing to potentially disappoint people if I am living in obedience to God and I'm trying to keep Christ at the center.” And our hearts in this is to keep Christ at the center of our lives.
I just think—we hope that if all you get out of this is like, "If Emily and Laura can leave Risen Motherhood, then I can change whatever it is that I'm doing in my area of life. I can say no to something that I'm feeling pressure to do." Great. We're happy to be that example for you. That anecdote. [Laughter]
Laura: Oh, it's true though. I think that's so true, and yes, I won't reiterate. Another reason, and this is kind of—I feel a little weird saying this one, but it's true.
Emily: We're getting wrinkles.
Laura: We're getting old. We really feel like we're somewhat aging out of being able to help and reach moms in the way that we used to. That doesn't mean, again, that younger moms can't learn from us. Again, we talk a lot about the wisdom of older women and having mentor women, but Emily and I sort of—
Emily: Our heart focus has been moms of young children.
Laura: Yes, and locking arms with them and coming alongside them. Yet, when someone talks about gentle parenting, I've gone like, "Let me get the dictionary. What is that exactly?"
Emily: We don't really know.
Laura: Or baby products. You get on these podcasts, and they ask you questions about baby products. They mention one, and you're like, "I have no idea what that is." We are just realizing that we don't necessarily feel like we are the best people to talk about some of the controversies or the issues that young moms are dealing with because things change very rapidly in the tech space these days, with the internet and everything.
We feel like, if we were to reach the next generation of moms—because again, our bread and butter is moms of young children—then we would need to maybe go on TikTok or do more videos. You guys can see we're not that good at video. We know we're not that good. If you see our stuff on Instagram, we are trying—
Emily: Any good videos that we have are from our team.
Laura: Totally. They’re filmed by a third party. I think that that is something that Emily and I just had to grapple with, where we've had a lot of conversations over the years about “Should we get on different platforms?”
Emily: We're going to reboot. We could reboot—mix younger moms with, yes, lots of short, quippy videos with cool text running across.
Laura: Yes. Show our face a ton on social media.
Emily: Yes, and we don't even know—we get, for our newsletters and things like that, we try to round up good resources for you guys. There are so many resources now.
Laura: It's crazy. It's overwhelming.
Emily: It's wonderful, but it's—I'm thinking about—
Laura: Teens.
Emily: —what a twelve-year-old and a thirteen-year-old are supposed to read.
Laura: Where's the next fantasy? The fantasy book that my kid can read.
Emily: We even feel like, "Ooh, it's getting hard for us to keep up with all the Christian resources that are available." Yet, I look around and there are tons of social media accounts, platforms, influencers who are sharing that stuff in a very thorough, helpful, niche way that was not around when we started Risen Motherhood.
Laura: Niche platforms are way bigger than when we started R|M. The very, very specific platforms—which are super helpful—I love. The broader platforms, I think, are less and less these days.
Emily: Yes.
Laura: Now, you look at the landscape, and praise God, there are so many incredible voices out there. People who are doing things in niche ways that are really covering topics like sexuality, topics like homemaking, and all sorts of things out there that weren't around when we were here.
Then there are also just other voices out there that are doing great work, and they are applying the gospel, perhaps even in more clear and succinct ways than we can. That's a comfort in some ways as we step back to make room for new voices. It's something that, for us, we feel like, "Hey, we don't have to carry this torch any longer because there are a lot of great women that can do it." It just goes back to us feeling like, "Hey, we want to be leaders that end on a high note. We want to be people that are able to produce great content that reaches moms where they're at."
We're not certain that that's something that we really desire to do. Not something that we can't do, but maybe it's just not a desire as much for us. I don't know.
Emily: Yes. I think, even after our Whole series, we've noticed that there do seem to be shifts that you go through in motherhood where—and we talked a lot about this if you've heard that series—but when you're a new mom, it's kind of like motherhood consumes everything. In those little years, it's so intense, it's so on your mind, it's so in your face. Then, as you get to a stage where your children are just a little bit older, and they're contributing more to the household, and they're becoming a little bit more like little adults, and they're having these responsibilities and different things—as a mom, I think you're freed up to think about other things again and to lift your eyes up and be like, "Oh, what's my husband doing? What's going on out there in the world? What am I interested in?"
Certainly, motherhood is still a huge focus, but I think Laura and I—you've watched us now go through that shift a little bit where we still have a huge heart for ministry, and we still have a huge heart for applying the gospel. We have a huge heart for knowing the Word and being able to help people understand that through writing and all different means. The topics that we're interested in, I think, are broadening beyond motherhood, and we also want freedom to see how God would lead us in different topics and in different areas where we can share about body image, or we can share about—like I've been talking about weakness. We have these different areas where we're branching out a little bit, and we're excited about that.
Laura: Yes. I think that it's interesting because, in our culture, having a platform is a form of power. It's a form of social currency. A lot of people think like, "Oh, that's really cool that they do that." I think there is a small element—I've had a couple of thoughts but not many. I don't know if you've had many thoughts, Emily, but it does feel kind of scary to walk away from. I've had a few moments where I'm like, "What are we doing?"
Emily: “Do I still matter?” [Laughter] You feel like, if a tree falls in the forest and no one sees it, did it really fall? It's like, “If I'm not on social media doing this, does whatever ministry I'm doing matter?” Here we are—we have said this for years. It matters, but we're being honest and saying, once you get to a place where you're like, "Oh, someone hearted something I did," it can be hard to go back to "I might go to a place, and there's no hearts where I'm going. It's only the Lord's heart, which is what I really want. That's what I really want."
Laura: [Laughter] Yes. Yes, that's a good way of putting it, Em. I think that that is just something that—we want to be willing to do radical things and, we've repeated this drum so many times, but our desire is to just be faithful to the Lord. We know that nobody else can be our husband's wives or raise our own kids or be the friend to the neighbor. We want to be available to do those things. I think that those are just questions every mom should ask: “Are there things I need to simplify in my life or let go of so that I'm able to live out the Lord's calling in other areas?”
This is one drop in the bucket of the many reasons why we end it, but I think it's a principle that's important to hold onto. Anyone who's in ministry, anyone who's in business, any mom—that we think through, "Hey, I don't want to just keep doing this because people think it's cool." That's something that, at the beginning of Risen Motherhood especially, I had to be really careful because I would say yes to a lot of things because I would be like, "Oh, that's such a cool opportunity." It's really easy to get these googly eyes over the opportunity and then realize that that's actually a lot of hard work and a lot of time, and I'm missing my children growing up. There's a huge cost to that.
You have to learn that, I think. Sometimes it's boots on the ground learning, but that's something where Emily and I really don't want to cling so tightly to something, even though it's wonderful. Even though it's incredible, it's not as incredible as choosing Christ. That's what we want to pick over and over again.
There's tons more we could say, but we're sure you're pretty curious to get to the details. We've been calling it a Sunset Plan at Risen Motherhood. Emily and I both really love that analogy because, when you think about a sunset, it's something that's beautiful all the way until the end, and it changes, and it morphs, and it has colors and shoots of light.
Sometimes it's incredible with the clouds around it. It's something that you want to watch all the way until the end. That is something for us as a ministry that we want to sunset well. We don't want to crash and burn like a comet shooting to the earth in a fireball.
Emily: Don't want to fall off a cliff.
Laura: We don't want to fall off a cliff. We want to sunset gracefully. We want to end well and end strong. That is one of Emily’s and my goals as we initially started having these conversations, feeling like maybe it was time to end Risen Motherhood. That was something that we really said, "Okay, well, what does it look like to do that well and not just sort of close our doors and be done?"
Emily: Yes. I've been thinking lately about how it's kind of a gift sometimes when you know you're nearing the end of something, because it allows you to savor it that much more. Whether it's, "Hey, it's the last day of our vacation," and we know this is the last time that we're going to be on the beach for who knows how long. It makes you stand there longer and appreciate the feel of the sand under your feet and hear the waves and be like, "Okay, I'm going to try to remember this when I'm at home standing in my kitchen and everyone's screaming around me."
Or maybe it is special time that you have with a loved one, and they're visiting, and you're like, "I know that I just have one more day with them, or I have one more week with them." You give them special attention, and you share that time, and you savor that because you know that it's limited. Part of our heart in wanting to tell you a year out is that we want you guys to come on this journey with us, just as you've been coming on the journey with us.
We've really tried to take a lock-arms-with-you approach. We're friends with you in the trenches. We're fellow sisters in Christ. We want to explain why we're doing what we're doing and just say, "Hey, we—" We don't want to just wake up one day and say, "Hey, next week, that's the end of Risen Motherhood." We have this year left together, and knowing that, now we can really enjoy this and savor this together and celebrate it because we still have a lot more to come.
Laura: Practically, or logistically, what exactly does that look like? The plan is that, right now, we're going to have all of our regular content, podcasts, articles, social media, newsletters—all the stuff that you guys love and engage in. That is all staying up through April of 2025. Then at that time, we're going to say goodbye to our team. There's going to be "away" messages up on our e-mail, and we are going to close things down in a way.
We will not be posting any new regular content to the website. We won't be posting to social media. We won't be sending out newsletters, but the ministry will still technically stay up for one year beyond that, through April of 2026. That is really just so that people can continue to access the content as they need it. We know that sometimes people might not even hear until a year out or something. We want to give them some time. It allows our authors to collect anything that they've written for us. We really see that last year where Risen Motherhood isn't necessarily active, and there's not necessarily someone answering our e-mails or anything like that.
There'll be an "away" message, but it is still time where all of those free resources, all the articles, all the podcasts, everything that we've produced, which is like—I don't know, we're probably in the thousands of things that we've produced between all the things we've done. Thousands of items that you guys can still access—you can still get. Then, come April of 2026, that's when we're going to remove the digital footprint of Risen Motherhood. We'll talk about why and all that good stuff too.
Emily: Okay. Just to recap that, we've got one more year of new content, podcasts, articles. One year where you can access it, but we're not really engaging or available. Then, after that, Risen Motherhood is not available on the internet anymore.
Laura: We're going to say the word. We're going to say, “deleted from the internet.” That's big news. That's big.
Emily: Which is really, really big news. Like you said, we'll talk more about that, but this next year for us, we really—when Laura and I were praying and talking about "Hey, what does it look like to finish well? What are the last things that we need to say? What are the things that we couldn't walk away from Risen Motherhood without finishing?" We had several projects, several ideas, several concepts that came to mind that we were like, "Okay, these things have to get done—have to get shared. The Lord has these things laid on our heart for us to share with you. We have to get that out before we can say that we are finished.”
This next year is really going to be kind of the culmination of all of the work that we've done. This is going to encapsulate the heart behind everything that we've done. We're going to share everything that we can to help you replicate everything that we do and all the different things that we think. We want to look back and share all the lessons that we've learned. We want to just get in with you guys at the nitty grittiest level, and because we're not continuing on and on, it's like, "Let's just share everything that we know."
A big part of that is going to be sharing through books and publishing projects because publishing projects live on beyond our digital footprint. That is how Risen Motherhood, as a concept and as a ministry in that way, is going to continue on. Then also, we have podcasts that we want to get into the nitty gritty with you guys. We want you to stick around because we feel like some of the most important things that we feel that we have to share are still on the horizon this year.
Laura: That was good with sunset. That was good. It's a good combo. Okay. Yes. Emily's right. We asked ourselves, “What do I need to do?” We were like, "We would really love to publish a few more books." We see these last three products—you guys have heard us hinting about them. We've been talking about them a little bit, and we see these last three products as really our legacy products. That's what we've been calling them: the legacy collection. These three books really encapsulate everything that we do. Our hope is that it helps you continue Risen Motherhood. By them continuing Risen Motherhood, you can continue Risen Motherhood as you read those things and you put them into practice.
Emily: We were saying all four of these pieces together, if you bring the green book—the Risen Motherhood book—in—they all play a part. It's like, "Okay, all of these pieces are a piece of what we've done," and they all come together to make a whole. Okay, go ahead.
Laura: They work really well. They're like sisters. They're like our friends. The first book that you've heard us talk about is Gospel Mom. This book—the subtitle is really apt, and I really love where we landed on it because I think it describes it really well. It says, “How to Make Biblical Decisions and Discover the Mom God Created You to Be.” This releases on October 15th of this coming year, 2024. You guys, this is our brains in a book. This is the masterclass. This is our manifesto.
Emily: Our brains were hurting as we wrote this book.
Laura: Honestly, hard book to write. Hard book to write. This book was like, "Okay, if we were going to just go 101 for women in exactly how we would take a topic—everything that we've done on Risen Motherhood"—you've heard us do this on our shows. We talk about snack time, we talk about nap time, we talk about marriage, we talk about—I don't know. We've talked about every little topic. What exactly do we do? It's something that Emily and I have never really worked through the process because it's sort of been something that we've built together.
We really took a lot of time to write that down in an understandable way that walks you step-by-step through taking a topic and understanding who you are as a mom. It's really a decision-making book. It's sort of a “What's God's will for my life?” book. It's a “What does he want me to do? Who does he want me to be?” book. It's the book that I think, when I was a young mom, that's what we were searching for, Emily.
Emily: Yes, absolutely.
Laura: That is why Risen Motherhood was born, because we were looking for this kind of book. Our hope is that, if you guys pick up this book—it also comes with a companion workbook called Becoming a Gospel Mom.
Emily: That's the second project.
Laura: That's book two, yes. Those books come together as a little—or you can order them as a little package. Those books really work well together. They're really designed to be something that you get together, even with a group of other women—other moms. Or you can do it on your own as well, but that workbook is going to be a deep dive of putting everything in Gospel Mom into practice. That has also been a labor of love.
Emily: Yes, and that one is called Becoming a Gospel Mom: A Workbook for Intentional Growth and Reflection. We feel like—in Gospel Mom, again, where Laura is saying, “Hey, we've put our brains on paper. We're explaining how to make these biblical decisions in motherhood—how to figure out what kind of mom God wants you to be,” but there's a lot of work that needs to be done alongside that. That's what we kept saying—this is for moms who want to do the work and are like, "I really genuinely want to think about this."
Laura: I would say, to differentiate it from the first Risen Motherhood book, that book was a little bit like, "Hey, watch me as I do this."
Emily: Yes, show.
Laura: Yes, it was a show, and you're going to learn just from my life. This book is us talking to you as the reader and very much saying, "Okay, we're breaking down all the stuff we did in the R|M book." It's a deeper dive.
Emily: Exactly. I think Becoming a Gospel Mom is the closest thing we've ever done to a Bible study. It is so interwoven with verses and thinking about how we apply Scripture in certain ways. The workbook really gives you space and questions. You know that we love questions here. Question after question after question of really helping you take your life and the unique circumstances that God has given you and the unique way that he's designed you and your personality and where you live and what your husband's like and what your personal gifts and abilities are and all of those things—it helps you think through the questions that you have.
It helps you process how you're viewing motherhood, and it helps you learn to think in this gospel-centered way. We're really excited about that because, again, we sat through and just workshopped over multiple sittings like, "Okay, how would we explain to someone? How would we walk them through, in questions, how to think through a big concern that they have in motherhood or a big worry or an area where they're feeling a lot of guilt?" All of that is in the workbook.
Then, next spring, in March of 2025, we're releasing A Million Tiny Moments: Reflections to Refresh a Mom's Spirit.
We're saying, "Hey, this is kind of the fourth piece, because this is filled with reflective, inspirational writings about the gospel and motherhood." We're calling it A Million Tiny Moments because we're like, "Hey, motherhood really is lived in all these different moments." What you do in each moment matters because you matter to the Lord. It matters whether you live those moments in worship to him and in gratitude to him or whether you're living those moments in grumbling and bitterness. Or how do you move on from a hard moment?
That book is really going to, I guess, be something that is a little bit more refreshing and gentle and light. It's just these short writings that are meant to encourage you in that moment where you're feeling discouraged and you don't need a hard Bible study—you just need a quick word of encouragement.
Laura: Yes. I always think of it as like—okay, A Million Tiny Moments is kind of at the top, and it's like the easiest entry to the Risen Motherhood content. Then you have the Risen Motherhood green book, our book that came out five years ago. That's like mid-level—pretty understandable. Then you've got Gospel Mom that's like, "Let's go. Let's do it." If you're thinking, "Hey, which is even the right book for me?" or "Where am I at? What should I get for my friend?"—that's a little bit of how to think of them. You can do them in any order, but in some ways, it's nice to think of deep—not shallow. I don't want to say—it's light.
A Million Tiny Moments is light, but then you go to this deep, “let's go” book. Those books are all available for pre-order. Well, A Million Tiny Moments might not quite be yet, but Gospel Mom and Becoming a Gospel Mom are available for pre-order. You can definitely pick those up. Save your receipts—we'll have bonuses at some point. This would be a great book for you to do this fall with your women's ministry or mom's group that you're in. Like Emily said, it's the closest thing to a Bible study that we'll ever do. It probably is a Bible study, but we're just afraid of that word. We don't want to use it.
It's got a lot of good biblical truth, and you're going to be digging into Scripture, which is really fun. We are thrilled about all of those books. They just felt like—as we sort of mapped out, again, ending Risen Motherhood well, we felt like these are the projects that we wanted to see completed in order to make sure that we could finish well and that the ten years of work, really, that we put in would be honored and be able to carry on far beyond what we felt like the ministry could do.
At the end of all this, friends—this is what I'm perhaps most excited for. I'm excited for our books too, but we're going to have a huge, huge party.
We're excited for that. It's coming in April 2025. It's going to be in Fort Worth, Texas. There will also be a simulcast. If you can't make it down to Fort Worth, and there will be limited—I said huge party, and I mean by that fun. Huge fun, but it's probably a little bit of a smaller party—intimate party—but there will be tickets. We would love for any of you guys to be able to come who can make it down to Fort Worth.
Then, of course, we will do that simulcast, and you guys can watch it from the comfort of your own home. We don't have a lot of details because we're still in the planning stages of that, but just know we definitely want to go out thanking God— having a celebration that really honors him and reflects back on the work that we do. Then also just commissions you, as moms, to go out and to carry forth this work.
Emily: Okay. Again, we're telling you way far in advance so that you guys know these things and really just—we feel like this is a really vulnerable moment for us because it's a big risk. It's a big risk to close down a ministry and walk away from really what became a career for Laura and I. It's also a really big risk when you're like, "Hey, we still have some stuff to do. Stick around with us," but we're letting you know that we're not going to be here long-term. There's a risk you guys are going to walk away. There's a risk people won't care anymore.
There's a risk that you guys are going to be disinterested or that you guys are going to be upset. It's interesting because, as Laura and I prayed through this and with our team—we've talked about it a little bit more, but especially our board was really instrumental in talking to us about this—just wanting to honor the time that we've all had together over the years and really trust the Lord that, in sharing this with you early, it can be a blessing as we all go through this last year together.
We're trusting him that the funding that we need is going to keep coming in until we don't need it anymore, that you guys will still be interested to hear these last two podcast series, that you'll still keep showing up on social media. We share this show, I think, with a little bit of fear and trepidation, recognizing that this could all be gone tomorrow—as soon as we announce this. I hope, truly, that if you've stuck with us this long, that you'll stay with us just a little bit longer. We have a lot of great stuff planned.
Laura: Yes. I think it was interesting because we had advice all over the map of "Wait to tell them later.” “Tell your community as early as you can." Again, our board was pretty unanimous about telling you guys right now. They really made the decision of when, and we are really grateful for that. They took the lead there. I think that it's something that a lot of people ask us, "Well, who else has done this?" Or "Are you looking to anybody else?" We're like, "No."
Emily: We don't know.
Laura: Any ministry that's closed, they often close maybe for not the right reasons or maybe it wasn't the leader's choice. I think we're really grateful that we're getting to make that choice, but there isn't a template. We do not know if this is going to work, but we're hoping, just by being honest and vulnerable with you—bringing you along as we always have from our very first podcast episode that—I cringe. I'm like, "Please don't listen to that first Episode 1. Please don't," but you can. It's still out there—just bringing you along in our journey and seeing where we come and where we go.
I think that the key to this is that—I always think to myself that Risen Motherhood is not Laura and Emily. A lot of people think that's synonymous, and a lot of people might think, "Oh, Risen Motherhood is the Risen Motherhood team." Or they might think, "Risen Motherhood is all the writers and all the products that they produce" and everything like that. Really, Risen Motherhood always has been just a way of living. A way of living sold out for Jesus. I think it brings me deep comfort to know that Risen Motherhood never really ends—that we can all live a risen motherhood every day, whether or not the ministry is around. It never was dependent on us. Christ is everlasting, and so that means that living a risen motherhood can go on and on and on.
Emily: Okay. Just taking a breather here. It is okay to have all the feels. It's okay if you need time to think about this and to process this, and we want to hear from you. We want to hear your stories about how the Lord has worked in your life through Risen Motherhood. If you have a story to share, we would love for you to send it to hello@risenmotherhood.com. Not only will our team be reading those and will be encouraged by those, but as this event that we're looking ahead to next year and our final podcast series, there may be opportunities for us to share some of those stories.
Laura: We'll read those.
Emily: Oh, yes, we'll read those.
Laura: Not just our team.
Emily: I want to read it. Laura and I want to read them. We would love that. Then just remember, we have time for this news to settle because we're still around for the next year. We're still going strong. This announcement is going to come up on social media. It's going to drop. Then, the next day we're back to "There's an article coming up on our website," and then "There's a newsletter coming out." We're still doing all of our work here at Risen Motherhood. We hope that you'll stick with us for that.
Laura: All right. Here's the plan going forward. This summer, you guys, we have a shop coming.
Emily: Woohoo! I'm going to buy all the things from the shop.
Laura: Emily, I think we can manage to figure how to get them to you for free, but okay. [Laughter] I think that'd be one perk of being the co-founder of the ministry.
Emily: Okay. I love the R|M merch. I'll be sad that that's gone.
Laura: It's actually our number one requested thing. When we did our AUA roundup, most of the questions were “When is your shop coming back?” We're having one more shop. We're still working through all the details, but that will be this summer. Then this fall, we're going to do a podcast series all about what it means to be a gospel mom. This will lay a lot of foundational things that we believe are really important to what it means to be a risen mom or to have a risen motherhood. We're actually going to follow the outline of our new book, Gospel Mom, and the workbook, Becoming a Gospel Mom, that you heard us talk about.
You won't have to buy the book in order to enjoy the podcast, but they also will work really well together, if you choose to do that. We're excited for that mini-series. Then next spring, we will have our final podcast mini-series. That will all be about what we're doing, the transition, stewardship, good gospel goodbyes—
Emily: —Reflections on our years of motherhood, lessons learned, things we wish we would have known as a young mom . . .
Laura: Ooh, I didn't know we were talking about all that, but I love it.
Emily: I don't know—
Laura: I'm into it.
Emily: —we haven't planned it all out yet, but it's going to be an emotional one.
Laura: It will, yes.
Emily: I already know.
Laura: It'll be an emotional season. During that mini-series next spring, we also have the book A Million Tiny Moments coming out. I suppose we talked to you guys about that previously. It is the short, light meditations on motherhood just for when you need encouragement. Then, finally, we have that party in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. The details will be coming on that. Just know you can attend in person or there will be a simulcast. Watch social media and the newsletter. Newsletter subscribers will probably have the first opportunity to purchase tickets, so you'll probably want to be subscribed to the newsletter.
It's so funny to talk about it because we're like, "And then we'll never send you a newsletter again, in nine months after you sign up.” But thank you.
Anyway, remember that all the content stays up until a year after we close. It's fresh content right now, all the way until April 25. Then you'll have another year to access that content. In many ways, we're around the internet for two full years, just in different capacities.
Emily: Yes. Okay, so you guys probably have a lot of questions. Laura is going to ask me questions.
Laura: I'm going to ask you, yes.
Emily: No, I'm going to actually ask you.
Laura: Oh, okay.
Emily: You may have the answers more clearly than I do. We want you to know, again, you can reference anything on the show notes and then also you can head to risenmotherhood.com/sunset. That is where we have pulled together even more Q&A. We have links. We have contact information. We have some even more specific things for maybe those of you who've written to us, donated to us—all those things. Okay, here we go. Laura.
Laura: Yes.
Emily: What if I wrote content for Risen Motherhood in the past? What is going to happen to my work?
Laura: Okay. Great question. We have pulled together a full author FAQ that you can find in the show notes. The short answer is our team is going to reach out to anyone who's written content for us and make sure that you have adequate time to save your content for future use. We want this encouragement to reach any mom who needs to hear it—the encouragement that you wrote for us. Just know that that content will be yours to keep and use as you wish.
Emily: Okay. This is a big one. Laura, I'm directing to you—why are you deleting all the content? Why not leave it for future moms to glean from?
Laura: The internet doesn't age well is my short answer. Honestly though, I think for us, this goes back to how Emily and I really care and have a high standard of excellence and a high-touch mentality. We want anything that has our names on it to be very intentionally cared for and to be monitored. One of the reasons that we're closing the ministry is so we can shift our focus elsewhere. We feel like it would just be really hard to steward it if we didn't have the team behind us or somebody overseeing it all. This goes back to why we want to encourage our books.
It's not to sell books, but it's to say that that is truly where we put all of this information. We wanted to make it last for a long time in those books. That's why we've decided to delete it and take it down. It is true, some of it is just—it's not relevant after a couple of years, or the answer might change. That's where we're at with that.
Emily: Awesome. I co-sign. All right. What about all the funds that have been donated to the ministry? How will you steward those?
Laura: Because we're continuing to create and share new content for the next year, we'll still receive donations through December 2024. That stuff will just be used for the daily use of the ministry—stuff we're already using it for. It continues through. Then, we're just praying and trusting that God is going to provide all the funds that we need before then, so that we can continue to run Risen Motherhood through that April of 2026 date. That's when the digital footprint is deleted.
If there's anything left over, just know we're a 501(c)(3). That means that Emily, Laura, our team, our board members—nobody gets to keep it. It actually all gets donated to a like-minded ministry, and our board members decide that, not Emily and myself. Our hope, though, is that we're going to steward the funds well enough that really, by the end of the ministry, this is something that there's not a lot left over going to another ministry, but that is how it would work with a 501(c)(3).
Emily: Okay. Are you two pulling away from a public presence altogether, or will you still post content on your personal platforms?
Laura: Well, Emily, I think I can answer for both of us that we both want to continue public ministry but probably in different capacities. It'll be just different for each of us. I think for us, we both are going to sort that out and figure it out over the years. You've probably seen us grow in different ways, if you've been following us on our personal platforms. The plan is definitely that we both would still—we want to keep writing. We want to still talk about the gospel. We want to share what we can publicly where the Lord leads us.
We've included the links to our personal platforms in the show notes. We'll also send out more information via e-mail. In general, if you still want to continue with us, you will have to actually go follow us. Once Risen Motherhood is over, there's not like "Ooh, we're going to pop up and use the e-mail list and let you know what's up with Emily and Laura." That's something where you'll definitely want to go and follow us individually to keep tabs on us, because Risen Motherhood is not going to be doing that anymore.
Emily: Yes. We're excited about that because there's just a lot more freedom to have ups and downs, to have quiet moments, to be really flexible, to have seasons where you're around more or around less. Yes, definitely TBD on that, but our personal handles and things will still be up. Okay. Last question. How can I support the ministry best as you sunset?
Laura: Great question. I think the first thing is that we're really asking for prayer that we can do this well and honor God and be faithful in it. As we talked about this before, we haven't seen a lot of organizations intentionally choose to close their door. In fact, I don't know that we have seen anybody. Maybe there is.
Emily: Let us know if somebody has done it.
Laura: Yes, who's really chosen to close down the way we are. We feel a lot like we're walking forward without a roadmap, but we are trusting God. We ask that you would just pray for that whole situation and how we walk through this. Then, we'd also love your prayers for our team and then, of course, for the community of moms. We know all of you guys are hearing this probably for the first time. You're digesting; you're getting used to this. We just are asking that we have prayer for them as well as they adjust to the news.
Then, lastly, I would just say: stick with us, please. I don't mean that to sound like we're begging or anything, but truly, we feel like there's a lot of great content ahead. We really chose to tell you guys so that you could come alongside us—you could sort of watch and learn from our mistakes, where we get it wrong—learn from any small successes that we have. Our hope and prayer is our community will really remain as strong as it's ever been as we send you guys off well, equipped to live a risen motherhood long after the ministry closes.
