Lifework Podcast
Lifework is a conversation about calling, hosted by Dr. Stan Norman, president of Williams Baptist University.
Every episode, Stan sits down with one person, a coach, professor, alum, student, leader, or friend, and works through their story: the opportunity they did not expect, the plan that changed, the mentor who challenged them, and the moment their work began to make sense.
No résumés. No highlight reels. Just honest conversations about faith, purpose, work, and the calling God places on a life.
In Season 3, Stewarding What You’ve Been Given, Lifework asks one recurring question: How are you stewarding what God has already given you? Through stories of leadership, redirection, mentorship, perseverance, and service, each conversation explores what it means to be faithful with the gifts, relationships, responsibilities, and opportunities already in front of us.
Lifework is produced by Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.
Episodes
71 episodes
Called to Coach, Entrusted to Lead: A Conversation with Justin Dee
What does it mean to steward a team, not just chase a winning record?Dr. Stan Norman welcomes Justin Dee, head volleyball coach at Williams Baptist University, for an honest conversation about following God’s call and caring for the peop...
Open Hands for What’s Next: Jordan West on Following God’s Unexpected Path
Jordan West didn’t expect his emergency management degree to lead him into ministry. But when he served among people whose lives had been upended by conflict, he found himself using what he had learned to meet them in a moment of need.In...
Faithful to the Assignment: Coach Stephen Abanathy on Returning Home and Building at WBU
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 h...
When the Calling Changes: Kendall Davenport Layne on Finding Peace in a New Assignment
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 w...
Stewarding What You’ve Been Given: Coach Tracy Hubbard on Faithfulness, Calling, and Building What’s Next
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...
Walking Out of Trig: Calling, Seminary, and Steven Nelson’s Path to WBU
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 wrest...
From Missouri Farm Fields to Williams: The Early Journey of Steven Nelson
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...
Calling, Sports, and Storytelling: How God Led Caleb Garner to the Classroom
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 disc...
Chasing Mascots: The Early Journey of Caleb Garner
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 g...
Trust the Process: From Corporate Accounting to Calling in the Classroom
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 ba...
Lifework on the Farm: How Cows, Calling, and a Small-Town Faith Shaped a Business Professor
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 expl...
Called to the Classroom: How God Led a Reluctant Mathematician to Teach
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...
God Is a Mathematician: Professor Belina Dulaney on Faith, Resilience, and “All the Math”
In this LifeWork Podcast episode, host Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Belina Dulaney, Assistant Professor of Natural Sciences – Mathematics at Williams Baptist University, to explore how God uses numbers, work, and hardship to shape a calling. ...
When God Uses Your Worst Decisions: Calling, Cancer, and the Classroom
In Part 2 of this Lifework conversation, host Dr. Stan Norman picks up Dr. Trevor Babcock’s story right where the cliffhanger left off: a clear, lifelong plan to become a chemical engineer—and the slow-motion collapse of that plan in the real w...
From Goth Kid to Gospel Teacher: Dr. Trevor Babcock’s Journey of Calling and Conversion
In this first part of a two-episode conversation, Lifework host Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Williams Baptist University English professor Dr. Trevor Babcock to trace the unlikely path that shaped his calling and character. From a childhood t...
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From Retail to Recruiting to the Bench: How Coach Mayberry Found His Lifework
In this second conversation with Coach John Mayberry, Dr. Stan Norman explores how God redirected a plan that once pointed toward North Texas and college soccer into a life of ministry through Christian higher education ...
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Blue-Collar Faith: Coach John Mayberry on Work, Calling, and Women’s Basketball
In this episode of the Lifework Podcast, Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Coach John Mayberry, head coach of the Williams Baptist Lady Eagles, to trace an unlikely journey from inner-city Hot Springs, Arkansas t...
When Winning Really Matters: Calling, Coaching, and Walking Through the Fire with Coach Josh Austin (Pt. 2)
In this second conversation with Williams Baptist University head men’s basketball coach Josh Austin, host Dr. Stan Norman picks up the story right where Part 1 left off—at the moment when faith moved from the margins of Josh’s life to the cent...
From Magnet Cove to March Madness: How Hard Work Shaped Coach Josh Austin’s Calling (Part 1)
In this Lifework Podcast episode, Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Williams Baptist University head men’s basketball coach Josh Austin to trace how a small-town Arkansas upbringing, an IT-dad and jeans-factory-mom, and Saturdays filled with yard ...
More Than Wins: Coach Jessica Nutt on Calling, Culture, and Caring for Her Players (Part 2)
In Part 2 of their conversation, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits back down with Head Softball Coach Jessica Nutt to explore how God used closed doors, unanswered job applications, and long seasons of waiting to clarify her calling to coach.&...
From Bolivar to the Ballpark: How Faith, Family, and Failure Shaped Coach Jessica Nutt
In this episode of the Lifework Podcast, Williams Baptist University President Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Head Softball Coach Jessica Nutt to trace her journey from a sports‑saturated childhood in Bolivar, Missouri, to leading the Lady Eagl...
From Whistles to Worship: How Coaching Became Calling for AD Mitch Mathis
In this second part of their conversation, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits back down with Director of Athletics Mitch Mathis to trace how a winding coaching career became a clear sense of calling and ministry. Coach Mathis shares how God use...
From Pine Bluff to the Ballpark: How Family, Faith, and Hard Work Shaped WBU AD Mitch Mathis (Pt. 1)
WBU President Dr. Stan Norman talks with Athletic Director Mitch Mathis about how a blue-collar childhood in Pine Bluff, a catcher’s grind on the baseball field, and a winding spiritual journey shaped his work ethic, leadership, and calling in ...
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When Ministry Hurts and God Redirects Your Life with Bill Jeffery (pt. 2)
What do you do when the calling you thought would define your life runs straight into the brick wall of real ministry hurt? In this episode of the LifeWork Podcast, we listen in as WBU president Dr. Stan Norman sits down with former worship gui...
Bill Jeffery (Part 1): Formation, Faith, and the Early Years
In this first part of a two-episode conversation, we turn the spotlight behind the scenes to hear the story of Bill Jeffery—the voice you usually don’t hear, but the one shaping many of the stories told through the LifeWork Podcast.
