Hope for the Home with Jerry and Becky Drace

Finn Jacobs says the biggest question any college student will ever answer isn't about religion or relationships. It's "Who is Jesus to me?"

Finn Jacobs, a campus minister in Jackson, Tennessee, returns for a second week with Jerry and Becky in their series on single young adults. Finn shares how a planned road trip turned into leading a campus ministry, and how he hopes to plant a church out West someday. The conversation explores what he looks for in a future wife, why couples should talk through the big questions of calling and ministry before marriage, and why being single doesn't mean going it alone. Finn and the hosts discuss the recent wave of baptisms on college campuses, the importance of discipleship after a decision, and the encouragement that believers are called to plant seeds even when they never see the harvest. Finn names discipline and community as his greatest needs as a single young man, and the group reflects on how a person can feel lonely even in a crowd. He closes with practical advice for anyone curious about Jesus: read the books of Mark and John, and seek him in a quiet room.

Topics discussed:

• How Finn ended up leading a campus ministry
• Hopes for church planting in a city out West
• Talking through calling and ministry before marriage
• Qualities to look for in a spouse: a life obsessed with Jesus and full of the Spirit
• Campus revivals and baptisms, and why discipleship matters afterward
• Planting seeds without always seeing the harvest
• A single young man's greatest needs: discipline and community
• Why people feel lonely even in a crowd
• Reading Mark and John to answer "Who is Jesus to me?"
• Seeking Jesus in a quiet room, away from the big events

Finn Jacobs says singleness gives him something rare: the freedom to be out late, up early, and give his life away so more people can meet Jesus.

Jerry and Becky turn to the single young man's perspective with guest Finn Jacobs, a recent Union University graduate who now serves as a campus evangelist at three colleges in Jackson, Tennessee. Finn describes how he came to faith after years of lukewarm Christianity, how he started sharing it right away, and how free lunches and worship nights on campus have grown quickly. He shares what he sees on campuses that aren't explicitly Christian: students who are lonely, empty, and hungry for real conversation. The conversation covers the freedoms and challenges of being single, why Finn disagrees with the idea that you don't need marriage for a fulfilling life, practical ways to start spiritual conversations by finding common ground, and why loneliness is the single hardest part of this season of life. Jerry and Becky also share survey findings about Gen Z and singleness.

Topics discussed:

• Survey findings about Gen Z, singleness, and marriage
• The freedom of singleness to serve and share the gospel
• Finn's journey from lukewarm faith to a real relationship with Jesus
• Campus ministry in a city with four colleges
• Starting spiritual conversations by finding common ground
• Why students on non-Christian campuses often feel lonely and empty
• Disadvantages of singleness: isolation and the desire for marriage
• Why loneliness can exist even in a crowd, and what fills it
• Finn's favorite passage, Philippians 2

Leah Sutton avoids praying for a future spouse, and her reason may surprise you: the more she prayed for one, the more discontent she became.

Leah Sutton, a residence director for freshmen at Union University, returns for a second week with Jerry and Becky in their series on single young adults. Leah shares what she looks for when getting to know someone: a person who is walking closely with the Lord on their own, has mentors, and is active in a church. She and the hosts talk about how to tell whether someone is being honest, why decisions made out of desperation so often go wrong, and why a person who is content with who they are is better prepared for marriage than one hoping to be completed by someone else. Leah offers a candid look at the downsides of singleness, including safety concerns, making big decisions with no one to consult, loneliness, and doing ministry alone. The conversation also touches on social media, couples moving in together, and whether churches talk enough about singleness.

Topics discussed:

• Using the freedoms of singleness to serve others
• What to look for in someone you're getting to know: faith, mentors, and church involvement
• Telling whether someone is being honest: follow-up questions, actions that match words, and the company they keep
• Why decisions made out of desperation lead to bad outcomes
• Contentment in singleness and why no one "completes" you
• Why Leah doesn't pray for a spouse, and how others in her church pray for her
• Qualities worth putting on a list, like self-control and gentleness
• Disadvantages of singleness: safety, loneliness, and making decisions alone
• Social media, living together before marriage, and how churches can talk about singleness

Why are young adults waiting longer to marry? Leah Sutton, 25, says it comes down to independence, opportunity, and a culture that values marriage less.

Jerry and Becky open a new series on single young adults with guest Leah Sutton, who works at Union University. Leah talks openly about why people end up single, from choice to divorce to loss, and how she has come to trust that God is sovereign over her season of singleness. She shares why she thinks marriage is happening later, the pressure she felt from friends and family in college, and how singleness can be a gift: a month of mission work overseas this summer, more freedom to serve and share meals with others, and the discipline of living on one income. The conversation turns to where Christian young adults can meet like-minded people, from church to social media to dating apps, and Jerry and Becky invite listeners to share their own experiences as the series continues next week.

Topics discussed:

• Why people are single: choice, divorce, death, and disability
• Why young adults are marrying later than previous generations
• Trusting God's sovereignty and timing in a season of singleness
• Feeling pressure from friends and family to date or get engaged
• Using the freedom of singleness to serve others and pursue mission work
• Managing life and finances on a single income
• Where Christian young adults can meet like-minded people
• An invitation for listeners to share how they met their spouse

The biggest challenge single dads face isn't money or time, says T.C. Talley. It's the quiet belief that they don't matter.

T.C. Talley returns once more to talk with Jerry and Becky about what he sees as the number one struggle among the fathers he mentors: feeling unneeded in a culture that often treats dads as a paycheck or an afterthought. T.C. shares what he's seen at Birth Choice, where he meets several fathers a week, and how he responds when a father walks in hostile or unsure: short, direct, honest, and with a promise never to lie. He and the hosts urge single mothers to encourage a father's involvement, to communicate the child's needs rather than their own hurts, and to resist playing children against one another, reminding listeners that a child's heart has room to love many people without loving anyone less. The conversation also touches on how few pregnancy centers have fatherhood programs, and why parents should teach purity in every area of life before their kids leave for college.

Topics discussed:

• Why single fathers need to hear that they matter
• Mentoring hostile or unsure fathers with honesty and directness
• How Birth Choice has reshaped its space to welcome fathers
• Why so few pregnancy centers have fatherhood programs
• How single mothers can support a father's involvement
• Keeping resentment from spilling onto the child
• A child's heart can love more people without loving anyone less
• Teaching purity in every area of life before kids leave for college

Two jobs, weekend custody, and child support he set up himself the day his first wife left: T.C. Talley knows exactly how thin single fathers get stretched.

T.C. Talley returns for a third week with Jerry and Becky, this time digging into the practical realities of single fatherhood: working two jobs to make ends meet, voluntarily setting up child support the moment his first wife left, and navigating the nurturing side of parenting that didn't come naturally to him. T.C. also opens up about his own education struggles as a visual learner in a traditional school system, and shares his current work directing both the fatherhood mentoring program and an abstinence education program called Stone Covenant, which he brings into schools and churches to teach purity in relationships. The conversation takes a candid turn when T.C. shares his personal conviction that Christians shouldn't casually date, sparking a discussion about red flags in early relationships. Jerry and Becky close with a look at single-father income and another reminder for single dads to request their free study Bible.

Topics discussed:

• Income challenges for single fathers
• Working multiple jobs and taking on child support as a single father
• Navigating the nurturing side of parenting as a father
• Being a visual learner and finding an educational path that worked
• T.C.'s dual roles directing fatherhood mentoring and abstinence education programs
• Teaching purity and relationship "red flags" in schools and churches
• Why T.C. believes Christians shouldn't casually date
• The stereotype of the "deadbeat dad" and the reasons behind it

Content note: this episode includes discussion of a past abortion decision within a marriage.

T.C. Talley's mother once told him plainly: the day you join a gang is the day you leave my house. It worked, and it's part of what shaped the man who now spends his life mentoring fathers.

T.C. Talley returns for a second week with Jerry and Becky, picking up his story from the streets of Chicago to his current work as a fatherhood mentor at Birth Choice. T.C. describes his mother's fierce boundaries that kept him out of the gangs surrounding his family, his move to California as a teenager, and getting married for the wrong reasons in his early twenties. He opens up candidly about a painful chapter of that marriage: a decision to end a pregnancy that he opposed but felt powerless to stop, and how that experience now shapes his empathy for the fathers he counsels. T.C. walks through the actual structure of his mentoring program: a ten-week curriculum built around honesty, earning trust, and a documentary screening families watch together. Jerry and Becky close with an offer for single dads to request a free study Bible and a teaser about T.C.'s mother and wife's stories still to come.

Topics discussed:

• Growing up in Chicago and avoiding gang life because of his mother's strict boundaries
• Moving to California as a teenager and finishing high school while working
• Getting married for the wrong reasons and the strain that followed
• A painful decision within that marriage to end a pregnancy
• How that experience shapes his work mentoring fathers today
• The structure of his ten-week fatherhood mentoring program at Birth Choice
• Why building trust and honesty comes before anything else in mentoring
• Preview of upcoming stories about his mother and his wife

He never heard his father's voice, saw his face, or spoke to him — not once. Decades later, T.C. Talley is the one mentoring other men through fatherhood.

After weeks of listeners asking when they'd hear the single-parenting series from a father's point of view, Jerry and Becky welcome T.C. Talley, Director of Fatherhood Mentoring and Abstinence Education at Birth Choice, for the first of what will be a multi-week conversation. T.C. shares his remarkable story — growing up on the streets of Chicago without ever knowing his father, surviving two violent altercations in a single weekend as a teenager, and starting over in California at his cousin's urging. He opens up about coming to faith through a friend's invitation to church, being single-parenting his four children on joint custody after his first marriage ended, and the painful, ongoing estrangement he now has from his adult children. Jerry and Becky share statistics on single fathers in America and set the stage for a series that promises to be, as Jerry puts it, "the rest of the story."

Topics discussed:

• Statistics on single fathers in the United States
• T.C. Talley's introduction: his work mentoring fathers at Birth Choice
• Growing up without a father and the pain behind an absent parent's silence
• A violent turning point in Chicago that led to a fresh start in California
• Coming to faith through a friend's invitation to church
• Being a single father of four on joint custody after his first marriage ended
• Praying for estranged adult children rather than trying to control the outcome
• Preview of an ongoing multi-week series on single fatherhood

Divorce isn't just the end of a marriage — it's a grieving process for the person you thought you were. In her final week on this series, Lisa Reasons gets candid about what that grief actually looks like.

Jerry and Becky close out their multi-week series on single parenting with Lisa Reasons, sharing openly about her own path through divorce and healing. Lisa talks about finally finding a church with a real support system for divorced people, why rebuilding trust after betrayal is so much harder than it sounds, and how grief after divorce means mourning not just a marriage but an entire imagined future. Jerry shares a memorable story about a house full of college students and one young man's tearful confession about his parents' divorce — and the unexpected comfort he received from friends who'd been through the same thing. The conversation turns back to adoption as Lisa describes her role walking birth mothers through the process at Birth Choice, and the episode closes with an offer for listeners to request a free Bible packed with resources on family and single-parenting issues.

Topics discussed:

• Why people become single parents: divorce, death, deployment, or never having married
• Finding a church community with real support for divorced people
• Divorce as a grieving process — mourning the marriage, the person, and the future you expected
• Rebuilding trust after betrayal and understanding attachment styles
• Leaning on prayer and Scripture during seasons of numbness or hopelessness
• Why single parents should know their own worth before dating again
• A story of unexpected comfort among college students processing their parents' divorces
• Lisa's role guiding birth mothers through the adoption process at Birth Choice
• Offer of a free Bible with family and single-parenting resources

Nearly 24 million American families are headed by a single parent — and Lisa Reasons knows that world firsthand, both as a single mother of four and as the adoption agency director who now helps other families navigate it.

Continuing their series on single parenting, Jerry and Becky welcome back Lisa Reasons, director of the adoption agency at Birth Choice, to talk candidly about what it actually takes to heal and hold steady as a single parent. Lisa shares how prayer led her to Christian therapy, and unpacks EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) — including lesser-known variations like attachment-focused and pre-verbal EMDR, which address trauma from before a child could even speak. The conversation turns to the importance of seeking out a Christian counselor, the value of processing painful events from the past rather than pushing past them, and the loneliness Lisa felt when she was shunned by people in her own church after her divorce. Jerry and Becky share statistics on single-parent households and press the point that churches need real, visible support systems — not judgment — for the parents and kids living this reality. They close with a preview of next week's continuation of the series, this time from a woman's perspective.

Topics discussed:

• Statistics on single-parent households in America
• Finding and choosing a Christian therapist
• EMDR, attachment-focused EMDR, and pre-verbal EMDR for processing trauma
• Why processing the past matters instead of only moving forward
• Feeling shunned by a church community after divorce
• What churches can do to support single parents without judgment
• Helping children of single parents process what they've been through
• Preview of next week: single parenting from a woman's viewpoint