At the Counter with the Baking Pastor | Christian Encouragement, Grief Support, Burnout Recovery & Soul Care

What happens when other people decide what you’re capable of before you ever get the chance to find out for yourself?

Dorsey Ross has spent much of his life hearing predictions about what he wouldn’t be able to do.

Born with Apert syndrome, Dorsey was not expected to survive into adulthood. Doctors encouraged his parents to institutionalize him, teachers questioned whether he could succeed in college, and later, doors int...

You’re probably pretty good at carrying other people’s mats.

You show up. You help. You pray. You remember what everyone needs. You’re the person others know they can count on.

But what happens when you’re the one who can’t get up?

In Mark 2, four friends carry a paralyzed man to Jesus. When they can’t get through the crowd, they find another way. They open the roof and lower their friend down in fr...

What if the screen isn’t the real problem?

For many parents, gaming can become a battleground. We see hours disappearing behind a screen, responsibilities being ignored, tempers flaring when it’s time to log off, and a child who seems increasingly disconnected from the family.

But Nathan Graham invites us to look beneath the behavior.

Nathan knows the world of gaming from the inside. What began as childhood entertainment e...

Sometimes the things that helped us survive eventually stop helping us live.

We keep functioning. We show up. We take care of people. We handle the responsibilities. From the outside, we may even look successful.

But underneath all that competence, something feels off.

This week at the counter, Laura welcomes licensed therapist, author, and Stone and Sky Retreats founder Katherine Parnell for a conversation about what happens when cop...

Some stories entertain us. Others somehow feel like home.

Author Melissa Alyse has created just such a place in Willow Creek, Texas, the fictional small town at the heart of her grace-soaked Christian fiction and cozy mystery series. It's filled with coffee, baked goods, front porches, church potlucks, friendship, a delightfully determined group of bridge-playing women, and people discovering that God's grace has room for them exact...

What do you do when life changes in ways you never expected?

When the future you imagined is no longer possible.

When grief isn't just about losing a person, but about losing dreams, milestones, health, or the life you thought you would have.

In this episode of At the Counter with the Baking Pastor, Laura welcomes author and speaker Laura Bratton for a deeply honest conversation about navigating life's unexpected transitions with cour...

Sometimes life changes slowly.

Sometimes it changes all at once.

One day you know who you are. The next, everything feels unfamiliar.

In this heartfelt conversation, Laura welcomes Shannon Michelle, former award-winning Los Angeles interior designer, author, and self-described "one-eye miracle." After surviving a catastrophic motorcycle accident, a two-month coma, memory loss, childhood trauma, and later breast cancer, Shannon discove...

There are seasons when it feels like everyone else is moving forward while you're standing still. You look around and wonder if you've missed your chance, taken a wrong turn, or simply should be further along by now.

This week at the counter, Laura welcomes executive coach, author, and wood turner Chip Scholz for a thoughtful conversation about the slow work of becoming. Drawing from decades of coaching leaders, personal loss, woodw...

Healing doesn't always happen in dramatic moments.

Sometimes it looks like taking one more faithful step.

Sometimes it looks like learning to breathe again.

Sometimes it happens so quietly that you don't notice the change until you look back and realize how far you've come.

Today, Laura welcomes Melissa Prusinski, founder of Our Healing Farm and author of Say Howdy to Healing and Hope! A Guide to Restoration Through Faith and Horses. T...

Life doesn't always unfold the way we imagined.

Sometimes illness changes everything.

Sometimes loss reshapes our future.

Sometimes we wake up one day and realize we hardly recognize the life we're living.

In this episode, Laura welcomes Jay Setchell to the Counter. Jay has survived multiple near-death experiences, paralysis, dozens of surgeries, and more than seventy operations. Yet through every challenge, he has discovered something...

Some questions don't have easy answers.

Some hurts don't disappear overnight.

Some chapters of life remain unfinished longer than we'd ever choose.

Today, Laura is joined by Rev. Rebecca Foster, an ordained minister with a background in chaplaincy and death care. Rebecca has walked closely with people through some of life's most tender moments, where questions don't always have answers and what people need most isn't someone to fix th...

Sometimes the heaviest burdens are the ones no one else can see.

The things we've carried for years.
The stories we've never told.
The guilt, shame, grief, trauma, or memories we fear others wouldn't understand.

In this episode of At the Counter with the Baking Pastor, Laura sits down with Dr. Larry Brant, Navy chaplain, ministry leader, and advocate for those navigating PTSD and moral injury.

Together they explore what happens ...

Have you ever looked around and thought:

"Nothing is technically wrong... so why does everything feel so heavy?"

In this episode of At the Counter, Laura sits down with coach, speaker, and author John Salzwedel for a grounded and honest conversation about what it means to keep going when clarity feels out of reach.

For years, John led a successful career, yet underneath the accomplishments, something wasn't lining up. He found himself...

There are moments in life when something feels off, but we can’t quite explain why.

In this Seat at the Counter conversation, Laura is joined by Kristan Swan, a life and spiritual guide who helps people reconnect with themselves through curiosity, reflection, and honest exploration.

Together, they explore the tension between inner knowing and external messaging, how conditioning can shape the way we relate to ourselves, and wha...

There are moments when it's not that you don't feel anything.

It's that you feel too much all at once.

And none of it has a clear name.

In this episode of At the Counter with the Baking Pastor, Laura sits down with author and researcher Doug Earl Johnston to explore what it means to name your emotions, especially during seasons of uncertainty, grief, overwhelm, and change.

If you've ever found yourself saying:

• I'm just tired.
• I'm...

Sometimes the hardest part about exhaustion isn't the exhaustion itself.

It's how long you've been pretending you're okay while carrying it.

In this solo episode of At the Counter with the Baking Pastor, Laura responds to listener questions and reflections about grief, survival mode, hidden exhaustion, emotional overwhelm, and the invisible weight many people quietly carry every day.

Together, we'll explore what happens when strength ...

There are seasons when you're not just tired.

You're emotionally stretched thin.
Running on fumes.
Trying to keep going while carrying pressure, responsibility, fear, trauma, and expectations all at once.

And sometimes faith feels tired too.

In this deeply honest conversation, Laura sits down with Atlanta-based alternative hip-hop artist Ashton Stevens to talk about emotional exhaustion, spiritual pressure, fatherhood, healing, ...

What happens when someone you love is suffering and no one seems to have answers?

In this deeply moving conversation, Laura sits down with author, speaker, and nonprofit founder Jody Hudson to talk about motherhood, caregiving, faith, grief, and the exhausting fight to help a child who was repeatedly dismissed and misunderstood.

What began as unexplained pain in Jody's vibrant, athletic eleven-year-old daughter, Alex, became a years-...

There comes a point when pushing through stops working.

Not because you've failed.

Not because you're weak.

But because you've been carrying more than anyone realizes for far too long.

In this episode of At the Counter with the Baking Pastor, Laura sits down with Heidi Blackie for an honest conversation about burnout, chronic illness, grief, identity, and what happens when life asks us to slow down.

For years, Heidi was the strong one. ...