When God Redirects: Tara Tharpe's Journey from Church Pew to Marketplace Mission

Tara Tharpe grew up in a small Baptist church in Indianapolis where she mastered the art of looking faithful. She sang alto in the youth choir, served on the usher board, and knew exactly how much hip movement was acceptable when marching down the center aisle. From the outside, she was the model church girl. On the inside, she was keeping score — doing just enough good to outweigh the bad, hoping the scales would tip in her favor.

"I just didn't want to go to hell," Tharpe admits. "All the living for Jesus part? That just sounded like way too much."

Then she found herself in what she calls "an express train to hell kind of activity" — the kind of mistake that even people outside the church would shake their heads at. In that moment of reckoning, a children's song she'd learned years before kept playing in her mind: "Yes, Jesus loves me." But this time, instead of singing it mindlessly, she asked the question that would change everything: "But really, does He? I don't know. I don't think so, actually."

That honest doubt became the beginning of real faith.

From Pharmaceutical Executive to Purpose-Driven Entrepreneur

Tharpe spent most of her career in organizational change management for the pharmaceutical industry — "minimizing eye rolls anytime there's new technology implementation," as she puts it. But every seven years or so, she'd get laid off. After the third time, she finally heard what God had been trying to tell her.

She launched a consulting practice, thinking she'd found her new path. Her first consulting role wasn’t as fulfilling as she expected. It was harder in ways that she didn’t expect. And veteran consultants told her that things would get better from her. Looking back…

I think that was God's way of saying, look, little girl, that is not what I want you to do. I need to make this real uncomfortable so you don't go do it again, because this is not what I want you to do at all.

The redirect was painful but necessary. While running her consulting business, Tharpe had also started a YouTube channel called "Changed by Grace by Tara." She wanted to integrate her faith more fully into her work, but she didn't know how. A business coach asked her a clarifying question: "What do you naturally do?"

The answer surprised her. "I really do help women to change," Tharpe realized. "It would be my friends, people I coached — that's just what I do. I don't even think it's anything super special, actually."

God thought otherwise. About a year ago, He gave her a framework called CHANGED — an acronym that captured the process He'd been walking her through in her own seasons of transformation. That framework became the foundation of She is CHANGED, her speaking and coaching business dedicated to helping women navigate transitions with confidence, clarity, and renewed faith.

Learning to Pray in the Aisles

Tharpe's approach to faith in the marketplace is refreshingly direct. Years ago, she attended an evangelism training where she learned that 99% of people will say yes if you ask to pray for them. Fired up, she left the training ready to put it into practice.

At a fast-casual restaurant, she encountered a man with a cane complaining about airport delays and a terrible day. This was it — prime prayer material. She approached him: "Excuse me, sir. Seems like you've had such a day. Would you mind if I prayed for you?"

He looked at her and said, "No, thank you."

"I'm thinking, well, they did not equip me in evangelism training on what to do when they say no," Tharpe recalls with a laugh. "I'm speechless because I'm ready to go with my training, and my gosh, I clearly misread something."

But she didn't let that first "no" stop her. Over the years, she became known for praying with strangers in grocery aisles, at forest preserves, anywhere God prompted her to see someone in need. Her five adult children became accustomed to their mother's spontaneous intercessions — even if it sometimes embarrassed them.

There shouldn't be a work you and a home you. There should just be a you. We are all being transformed to look more and more like Jesus, and we take Him with us wherever we go.

One spring morning, Tharpe was hiking at a forest preserve when she passed a woman holding a rosary. A quiet voice prompted her to stop and ask if the woman needed prayer. Tharpe argued back — she was running behind schedule, the woman seemed fine, she had things to do. Finally, she relented.

"Excuse me, I don't mean to be a bother, but would you like someone to pray for you?"

The woman's face lit up. "Oh my gosh, the rosary was probably a dead giveaway, huh?" They sat together for 40 minutes, praying and discussing Scripture. As Tharpe left, she realized something profound: the errand she'd run earlier that morning — the one she thought had made her late — had actually positioned her to arrive at exactly the right moment.

"When I thought I was behind, I was actually where I was supposed to be, doing exactly the thing that I was supposed to do."

The Fuel the Flame Practice

At the heart of Tharpe's CHANGED framework is a principle she has to remind herself of constantly: pause before you plan. She calls it the "Fuel the Flame" guided practice, and it's designed to fix your gaze on the Change Maker before you focus on the change itself.

The exercise is simple but transformative. First, list 10 attributes about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Then identify 15 things you actually do to remind yourself of who Jesus is. Finally, commit to two new practices you'll try in the next seven days — and tell someone about them for accountability.

"The reason I have you do that before you start any change is because you can get so focused on the change that you forget the Change Maker," Tharpe explains. "When change gets hard — and it always does — if we don't have routine practices to point us upward, we'll get stuck and stop."

For Tharpe, those practices include nature walks that remind her of God's bigness, bubble baths that force her to slow down and listen, and fresh-cut flowers that reflect both God’s beauty in nature and the beauty He sees in her. These aren't abstract spiritual disciplines — they're tangible touchpoints woven into ordinary days.

We all have to stop: stop just giving God our list of what we need Him to do. But instead, we stop to remember who He is…

No Levels in the Kingdom

Tharpe is also divorced — a reality that, in some Christian circles, can make women feel like second-class citizens in the kingdom. She's experienced the subtle hierarchy: married women on the 1A team, single women at 2A, widows at 2B, and divorced women relegated to 2C status.

"The reality is there are no levels, and we're all on the same A team," she says firmly. "I want women who have gone through hard things to not be stuck there and feel like there's no voice, no place for me in Christendom anymore."

Her message is grounded in Romans 8:28 — that God uses all things, the good, the bad, and the ugly, for our good and His glory. Women don't have to be held captive by their past decisions or circumstances. God's daughters can flourish, love Him well, and love others well, regardless of what's behind them.

It's a message Tharpe lives out loud, whether she's speaking to audiences, coaching clients through transitions, or mentoring teen mothers who've made brave choices as young women. She volunteers with a nonprofit supporting these young moms, imparting wisdom to the next generation navigating their own hard changes.

The Next Faithful Step

Tharpe's advice to Christian business leaders is the same counsel she gives herself: spend time at God's feet — not with a list of demands, but simply beholding who He is. God has equipped us for the roles He's called us to play in the marketplace, whether we own the business or work in one.

But there's a second part to that counsel, and it's one Tharpe delivers with characteristic candor: "We're like, 'I'm just praying. I'm just praying.' Sis, when you gonna get off your do-little and do something? You can't stay there. God doesn't tell you the whole plan. He'll tell you the next step. You have to take that one. Clarity comes when we move."

It's the tension Tharpe navigates daily — resting in God's presence while also stepping forward in obedience. Pausing long enough to see Him clearly, then moving when He says move. Praying in the aisles when prompted, even when you're running late. Saying yes to the redirect, even when the consulting money was really good.

That childhood song she learned when she was "this big" — "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" — still brings tears to her eyes. But now she knows the answer to the question she asked in her darkest moment. Yes, He does. The Bible tells her so. And that love isn't earned by perfect performance or maintaining the right image. It's freely given, scandalously generous, and powerful enough to transform a church girl keeping score into a woman walking confidently in her calling.

"I want to see God's daughters really flourishing, loving God well and loving others well, whomever the others are," Tharpe says. "That's my heart. That's really what I'm after."

She's living proof that sometimes the greatest clarity comes not from having all the answers, but from finally asking the right question — and being willing to hear God's response, even when it redirects everything you thought you knew.