Gretchen loves rich theology rooted in real life. She created Gospel Mentoring, a training program for intergenerational discipleship, and is the co-host of Freely Given, a podcast on living free in Christ. She has articles published at 1517, The Gospel Coalition, Women’s Ministry Toolbox and regularly speaks at events.
Her first book: Ragged: Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted comes out in 2021.
She enjoys knitting, reading many books at the same time, and embarrassing her teenagers in public.
From Gretchen:
Some things you should know about me:
I live on a farm in Minnesota with my husband and kids. I grew up in Denver and Phoenix, so I didn’t exactly see that coming.
I have 6 kids. They are so loud, funny, smart, and crazy. I have 3 girls and 3 boys.
One of my kids has some auto-immune diseases, and food allergies. He also learns very differently from my other kids, but he’s is brilliant. He’s the bald kid in the pictures, and I write about that journey sometimes too. He’s now growing so tall, and when I hear him talking on the other side of the house I think it’s my husband talking. This blog isn’t about him, but the things that came along with this child changed me as a mother. About 7 years ago I was in a car accident and now live in chronic pain that has to be managed as well. That also changed me in many ways.
I’ve homeschooled my kids the last 11 years, though my oldest is now in a private school. I’m passionate about classical education, and become a nerd when I start talking about it.
God has called me to write. I don’t know why, but it’s this driving force inside of me. At first I wrote in college, as I majored in English and studied literature, writing, and publishing. (I started out college at Moody Bible Institute, which I adored, but that’s a whole other story.) Then writing became a hobby, as I was raising babies, and just trying to maintain some handle on my craft, and the knowledge I had gained in college. I merged my technical writing skills for a few years with my love of knitting and wrote some knitting patterns that still sell decently well today.
I believe that words are one of the most powerful forces in the world. The primary goal of this blog is to share my life as a testimony as to what a life of a Christian is actually like: beautiful, imperfect, sanctifying, hard, and redeemed. I haven’t figured out a way to share how much deeply God has met me and healed me and walks with me without sharing the broken parts of me he has healed, the trials he walks me through, and the faithfulness in dark places. I’m as honest as I can be. There are some subjects involving other people that aren’t for public knowledge. But when it’s just me and God, I will try to be my most honest.
I’m passionate about encouraging younger women, and younger moms. I feel like there aren’t enough people coming along the younger generation raising babies, who are saying “bring your burdens to Jesus, I’ll help you carry them,” and too many people saying “suck it up and deal with it.”
I wrote a training curriculum for women like me who want to encourage younger women. You don’t have to be any certain age, and you don’t have to encourage just young moms.
This program is called Gospel Mentoring. It’s a discipleship program that focuses on intergenerational relationships. The goal isn’t to add more to the to-do list of younger women, or preach legalism. The whole program is focused on teaching mentors to teach women to depend more on the Lord everyday, and not their own independence. Younger women don’t need a better goal. They don’t need just the right system. They need an honest-to-goodness Savior. That is the passion behind this project.