At Esther Press, we empower and equip women to courageously stand strong in the truth of who God made them to be. Let us do that for you today by sharing the story of Natalie Runion, worship leader, songwriter, teacher, mentor, and founder of Raised to Stay.
Rushing to the hospital, Natalie Runion tried not to panic.
She was on her way to comfort a woman she’d never met—a woman who had tragically lost her baby in childbirth that morning.
What was there to panic about? After all, Natalie had only been thrust abruptly into the role of associate women’s pastor a week ago—a role she hadn’t asked for, didn’t want, and had no idea how to do. And now, with no prior experience to fall back on, she had to comfort a stranger suffering through one of the most devastating losses possible.
And she had to figure it out before she got to the hospital.
“I drove down the highway and was just telling the Lord, ‘This isn’t going to work! I can’t do this!” Natalie recalls.
When she stopped in the recovery room’s doorway and surveyed the scene, she felt wildly unprepared and lost.
That’s when God took over.
“I looked at the mom, who was still numb from the epidural. The dad was looking out the window, just so angry. And the Lord said, ‘Get in bed with her.’ And I didn’t know what else to do, so I climbed in bed with her, and I sat with her throughout the whole day.”
It was the day she became a women’s pastor.
“It took a tragedy; it took having a really life-changing moment for many people involved, to step into that authority and step into that space with confidence.”
But her journey was just beginning, and it didn’t all snap into place in that one moment.
When dreams become nightmares
Eighteen months before, Natalie and her husband had uprooted their family from everything that was comfortable and familiar to move across the country for Natalie’s exciting new job as worship leader at a large church. Music ministry was her passion and calling. So, this opportunity was her dream finally coming true.
Yet, several months into her new role, her dream started to feel more like a nightmare. The pressure was high; intense scrutiny and critical comments triggered her insecurities. She increasingly worried she wasn’t good enough.
Then, one day, the pastoral team called Natalie into a closed-door meeting that shattered her dreams and confidence.
“We feel like your talents and your abilities are best suited in another type of ministry,” they told her. As the shock flooded through her, they explained that, effective immediately, they were moving her to associate women’s pastor.
“We see you as a teacher,” the lead pastor continued, trying to put a positive spin on the unilateral decision.
But Natalie didn’t want to be a teacher. She had never done it and didn’t know the first thing about teaching. She certainly wouldn’t have moved her family across the country if she had known this is where she was going to end up.
“For you to really truly pastor people, your heart has to break for them, and my heart hadn’t broken for [the women in our church],” she says. “I had been a worship leader for so long … and it was all I cared about doing in the church.”
Isolated and unsupported
The new position came with a new supervisor with whom she had instant friction. That leader continued to undermine her confidence and amplify her doubts about whether she should be in ministry at all.
The new position also came with a new office—far from the other staff. At the end of a hall, at the back of the building, the space mirrored her perception of being cast aside. Pushed out of the way. Isolated.
Despite the profound experience of God’s clear equipping at the side of the grieving family, for months afterward Natalie wrestled with God, begging him to let her quit. When she was alone, she prayed and wept as she journaled. But when she was actively serving the women of the church, she hid the turmoil inside.
Called to persist
At her lowest point, she took a walk to clear her head and pray for God’s sustaining strength. As if in response, the words “raised to stay” formed in her mind. She rushed home to search the phrase online and find out what it meant but found nothing. Regardless, she had gotten the message: Don’t quit.
Don’t quit ministry.
Don’t quit the church.
Don’t quit Jesus.
She wanted to share what God was saying to her with others who might be tempted to quit ministry too. So, she set up an Instagram account called Raised to Stay and began posting short, pithy messages, like,
God sees you. You haven’t been lost or forgotten.
The best seat in the house of God is the seat He has entrusted to you.
Your anointing is more powerful than your brokenness.
A global community
The follower count ticked up, then zoomed higher. Hundreds. Then more than a thousand. Followers privately messaged Natalie ministry stories of heartache, disappointment, confusion, defeat, exhaustion. It grew into a community of people encouraging one another not to quit serving God through serving the church, even in their darkest moments.
Some days she has received as many as one hundred private messages from all over the world.
“To see how the Lord will use Instagram or social media to encourage the body was mind blowing.”
Now she was nurturing her global Instagram community while she persisted in her local church role.
And because she stayed, she was allowed to see the fruit of her perseverance.
Harvesting the fruit
When Natalie’s supervisor left for another opportunity, Natalie led the leadership team in reinventing the ministry, replacing large events with small group Bible studies, training the women themselves to lead them. They pushed women to meet each other in homes, coffee shops, and restaurants, creating space for nonbelievers to join them.
“What kept me in that position … was that I had fallen in love with the people of that church. And that’s, at the end of the day, why I didn’t quit—I had learned to love the people more than I had learned to love my position.”
The ministry soared. Women gained confidence, discovering God’s calling and equipping. New believers were baptized.
The young mother who had lost her baby became a regular attender and found deep comfort in her growing relationship with both Jesus and the loving church members. After a long, dark journey, that woman’s husband found healing in giving his life to Jesus. The couple followed God’s lead in starting a ministry to other moms who tragically lose a child in the hospital.
“I do believe a lot of us quit before we see why God has asked us to walk out some of the hard things,” Natalie says. “But He is very faithful, even in those dry seasons, to continue to produce good fruit in us and through us if we’ll just remain on the vine.”
