At the Charis Fellowship Conference in July, leaders from Charis Women, Inspire Charis Pastors Network, and Thrive Pastors’ Wives Network announced a strategic shift intended to strengthen care for pastors and their families.
Thrive will transition from the umbrella of Charis Women into partnership with Inspire. Megan Johnson will continue leading Thrive, carrying its vision of providing pastors’ wives with refreshment, resources, and relationships. She will also work alongside Inspire’s board to help provide more holistic care and shepherding for couples in ministry.
“One of the greatest strengths of the Charis Fellowship is our spirit of partnership, and the transition of Thrive to Inspire is a meaningful expression of that strength,” said Jenn Avey, executive director of Charis Women. “By placing this shepherding ministry within Inspire’s broader care for pastors and their families, we can provide focused support for pastors’ wives while Charis Women continues to deepen its mission of equipping women to disciple, lead, mentor, teach, and serve throughout the Fellowship. Together, Charis Women and Inspire are creating greater opportunities to strengthen women, care for pastoral families, and serve our churches for the sake of the Gospel.”
The transition brings Thrive alongside a network whose mission has long been to encourage and equip Charis Fellowship pastors. It also underscores an important conviction: caring well for pastors must include caring well for their wives.
Two Roles, One Calling
For Megan, that conviction is both personal and practical. In addition to directing Thrive, she has served with Assist Church Expansion since March as Coordinator of Shepherding for Ministry Wives. There she cares particularly for the wives of pastors involved in church planting and revitalization — settings that can bring unusual pressures and limited support.
Thrive and Assist serve women in different contexts, but Megan’s purpose in both roles is the same: to help ministry wives know they are seen, valued, and not alone. She has lived that need herself. Megan and her husband, Adam, served together for a decade in youth and young adult ministry before helping plant JOURNEY Church near Philadelphia. Adam serves as lead pastor, while Megan is director of discipleship. The couple also has four children.
“The biggest catalyst in seeing the need for this ministry has simply come from being a pastor’s wife for 20 years,” Megan said. “We’ve experienced both deep joy and deep pain in this calling, and I often felt isolated and alone.”
She hopes to offer women some of what she did not have during her early years in ministry: resources that promote spiritual health, opportunities for rest, and relationships that encourage the heart.
Seen, Known, and Supported
Scripture gives no separate job description for a pastor’s wife, yet churches may have spoken or unspoken ideas about how she should serve, relate, parent, or participate in church life. Those expectations can leave little room for each woman’s gifting, circumstances, and season of life.
Ministry wives can also feel set apart within their own congregations — surrounded by people but uncertain where it is safe to be fully known. Careers, parenting, marriage, grief, and past wounds continue alongside the needs of a church family. A woman can genuinely love her church and calling while also feeling tired or discouraged. She does not need a pedestal; she needs to be known.
Painful seasons taught Megan the importance of trustworthy ministry couples and dependence on God’s Word.
“Times of suffering forced me to mine the deep parts of my heart, apply the Gospel to my own life, and root my identity firmly in Christ,” she said. “I don’t want to shy away from the hard or give pastors’ wives pithy advice, strategies, or anecdotes. I want to feed them God’s Word and remind them of who He is, what He’s accomplished, and who they are in Him.”
Her passion was also shaped by friendship. God brought other pastors’ wives into her life with whom she felt safe, seen and supported — the kind of friends who could hear an honest admission and respond, “You, too?” Together they rested, cried, laughed, prayed, and spoke truth to one another.
Thrive seeks to make those connections possible across the Charis Fellowship. Its new partnership with Inspire creates an opportunity to strengthen that work while caring more intentionally for pastoral couples and families.
A Call to the Church
Church members have a role in caring for their pastor’s wife. Meaningful support can mean something like writing a note, providing a meal, offering to watch the children, or praying faithfully for her. It means examining whether expectations placed on her are biblical or merely cultural, respecting her boundaries, and pursuing genuine friendship without an agenda.
Megan has described pastors’ wives as “corner pillars”: valuable, load-bearing, and sometimes overlooked because they quietly support so much. Through Thrive’s partnership with Inspire, Megan’s complementary work with Assist, and the care of local congregations, the Charis Fellowship aims to ensure that pastors’ wives are seen, strengthened, and reminded that they do not carry the joys and burdens of ministry alone.