The Pastor’s Studio with Paul Basden

What happens when you get married without a shared faith or a clear picture of what makes a healthy marriage?

Jason and Tiffany Porter spent the first years of their marriage trying to build a life together without following Jesus. Jason carried fears shaped by his parents’ divorce, while Tiffany struggled with perfectionism, anxiety, and the pressure to get everything right.

In this conversation, Jason and Tiffany share how God gradually drew each of them to faith—and how their relationship changed when Jesus became the center of their marriage.

Jason talks about the birth of their first son, his decision to start seeking God, and the community and service that helped him grow.

Tiffany shares the moment a sermon on Romans changed how she understood perfection, grace, and her identity. Together, they describe how shared faith reshaped their communication, family values, parenting, and sense of purpose.

This episode is especially for couples who want a stronger marriage but don't know where to begin, including couples where one spouse follows Jesus and the other doesn't. Jason and Tiffany offer an honest story of two people who started in very different places and gradually learned to walk in the same direction. Their story offers encouragement for anyone wondering whether God can meet a marriage in the middle of its mess and lead it somewhere new.

Topics include:

What happens to your faith when life doesn't turn out the way you prayed it would?

Britt Herrington began asking that question at age 12, when his mother died from a brain tumor just weeks after his birthday. His childhood faith gave him a framework for belief, but it didn't give him easy answers to grief, suffering, and the goodness of God.

In this conversation, Britt shares how those questions shaped his journey through Baptist and non-denominational churches, seminary, music, and eventually Anglican worship.

He talks about the connection between theology and music, why the repeated rhythms of liturgy have become spiritually rich for him, and how the church calendar helps him orient his life around the life of Christ.

He also reflects on Psalm 90, learning to "number our days," and the place of lament in an honest life of faith.

This episode will especially resonate with people wrestling with grief, Christians who have questions that don't fit easy answers, and anyone curious about liturgical worship or the relationship between music and theology. Britt's story offers a thoughtful perspective on how faith can grow deeper through suffering, daily rhythms, beauty, and the lifelong pursuit of wisdom.

Topics include:

Grief, loss, and wrestling with God after the death of a parent

How suffering can challenge easy answers about faith

The connection between music, theology, beauty, and Christian faith

Britt Harrington's journey from Baptist and non-denominational churches to Anglican worship

Why liturgy and repetition can shape daily spiritual life

Psalm 90, numbering our days, wisdom, and the role of lament

Additional resources and recommended reads:

Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff

A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis

Psalm 90

What happens when the faith you’ve always accepted starts raising questions you can’t ignore?

Tim Stephens grew up in an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church, spent nine years traveling with a conservative revival ministry, and eventually became an executive pastor at a growing church.

For decades, his beliefs felt settled—until painful experiences and difficult questions about God, suffering, Scripture, and faith began to pull at the certainty he had always known.

Tim talks openly about what he calls his journey from certainty, through questioning and deconstruction, toward a faith grounded in what he could genuinely own.

He shares how exposure to different churches challenged his assumptions, how his brother-in-law’s ALS diagnosis raised questions about the sovereignty of God, and why he believes there needs to be room for people to ask hard questions without being afraid of where those questions might lead.

He also reflects on leadership, church culture, mentoring, and discovering that administrative and organizational leadership could itself be ministry.

This conversation will especially resonate with pastors, church leaders, and Christians who have inherited a faith framework but are beginning to ask deeper questions about what they actually believe. Tim’s story offers a thoughtful perspective on questioning faith without assuming that questions have to lead away from Jesus—and on how a person can arrive at a faith marked by humility rather than certainty about everything.

In This Episode

Growing up in a fundamentalist Christian church

Legalism and the pressure to have the “right” answer

Questioning and deconstructing inherited beliefs

Faith, doubt, suffering, and questions about God’s sovereignty

Church leadership and the role of an executive pastor

Building a healthy church culture and leading with curiosity

How do you keep trusting God when the pain doesn’t go away?

Kristen Basden has undergone 45 surgeries and lives with a rare genetic condition that has changed what her body can do, but she refuses to let those limitations define her life.

In this deeply personal episode of This Is My Story, Pastor Paul Basden sits down with his daughter Kristen to talk about growing up as a pastor’s kid, navigating chronic pain and unanswered questions, and learning to focus on what she can do rather than everything she can’t.

Through surgeries, setbacks and seasons that looked nothing like she expected, Kristen has held onto the words of Psalm 139 and the truth that she is fully known by God.

“He knows me and has known me and will continue to know me more than I’ll ever know myself.”

Kristen’s story is a reminder that even when circumstances don’t change, God can still use our hardest seasons to encourage someone else.

Can you build a new marriage with the same person?

Warren and Sonya Jacobs fell in love as teenagers, married at 20, and were determined to build a life together. But beneath the surface, years of conflict avoidance, codependency and unresolved hurt were slowly pulling them apart.

In this episode of This Is My Story, Pastor Paul Basden sits down with Warren and Sonya for an honest conversation about the moment they realized, “We are not okay,” and the counseling, community and faith that helped them begin again.

More than 20 years later, they share what they’ve learned about grace, forgiveness, intimacy, identity in Christ and doing the hard work of repairing a relationship.

“Our marriage as it was was really over... We wanted a new marriage. We had to have a new marriage.”

For anyone wondering if deeply rooted patterns can really change, Warren and Sonya’s story offers a powerful reminder: “Your relationship can change. We’re a testimony right now.”

Can you think your way into faith? What happens when your questions about God seem bigger than the answers?

For Alex Logan, those questions lasted nearly 50 years.

In this episode of This Is My Story, Pastor Paul Basden sits down with Alex, a retired attorney, former constitutional law professor and Mensa member whose journey with faith has been anything but straightforward. After losing his father at 59 and struggling to reconcile that loss with the idea of a good God, Alex walked away from faith and spent the next four decades as an agnostic.

Then one Sunday at Preston Trail, Alex looked over at his young grandson during worship and saw tears streaming down his face. Alex remembers thinking, “I want that in my life.” That moment led him to an EQUIP class, where he showed up with plenty of skepticism and even more questions. Slowly, those questions became the path that led him back to Jesus.

This is a conversation for the skeptic, the question asker, and anyone who wonders if they’ve been away from God for too long. Alex’s story is proof that questions don’t have to keep you from faith, and it is never too late to find your way home.

• How the death of Alex’s father caused him to walk away from faith

• Preston Trail EQUIP

What does it look like to follow Jesus in the places where faith isn’t always talked about out loud?

In this episode of This Is My Story, Pastor Paul Basden sits down with Becca Baker to talk about faith, family, work, and what she has learned through years of developing and coaching leaders in some of the country’s largest companies.

Becca shares how a faith that began when she was seven has continued to shape the way she leads today. From coaching C suite executives to navigating career changes, raising two boys, serving as an elder at Preston Trail, and learning when to say yes and when to say no, her story is a reminder that following Jesus shows up in the everyday choices we make.

She and Paul also talk candidly about living out your faith in the workplace. For Becca, it isn’t about forcing a conversation. It’s about relationships, authenticity, humility, and trying to reflect Jesus in the way you treat and lead people.

And for anyone who has ever wondered whether they really deserve a seat at the table, Becca offers this:

“You belong. You deserve to be where you are.”

This is a conversation about finding your voice, leading with humility, building relationships that matter, and trusting that a faithful life doesn’t have to be dramatic to be a story worth telling.

• Matthew 5:13–16

What do a Halloween “hell house,” the Texas Rangers and a lesson in trusting God have in common?

Corey Jones.

In this episode of This Is My Story, Pastor Paul Basden sits down with Corey to talk about a life that has taken some pretty unexpected turns. Corey shares how a decision to follow Jesus as a teenager grew into a faith that would later carry him and his wife, Jenny, through one of the most uncertain seasons of their lives.

He also shares how that same willingness to trust God and say yes has shaped his career. Corey started as a customer service representative at 19 and, 27 years later, serves as a senior vice president at Globe Life. Somewhere along the way, an idea he was told was a little crazy helped lead to the Globe Life name appearing on not one, but two Texas Rangers ballparks.

“The circumstances don’t dictate the faith.”

This is a conversation about trusting God when you don’t know what comes next, saying yes when an opportunity feels bigger than you, and learning to look back and see God’s fingerprints all along the way.

• Hebrews 11

What does it look like to choose life when you've walked through so much death?

In this episode of This Is My Story, Paul sits down with Kelly Carter to explore a life marked by profound loss, unwavering faith, and the sustaining presence of God. From losing loved ones at a young age to walking beside her husband through an aggressive cancer diagnosis, Kelly has experienced more grief than most. Yet through every season, she has discovered that while loss changes us, it doesn't have to define us.

Along the way, Kelly shares how foster care and adoption expanded her family's story, how the Church became the hands and feet of Jesus during unimaginable hardship. She offers a moving perspective on grief, reminding us that sorrow and joy often exist together, and that our deepest hope is found not in avoiding suffering, but in knowing Christ.

Whether you're walking through grief, caring for someone you love, or simply wondering how faith holds up in life's hardest moments, Kelly's story is a powerful reminder that your life is bigger than your loss.

What happens when the faith you inherited leaves you searching for something more?

In this episode of This Is My Story, Paul sits down with Mandy Hinerman to explore her journey from a Jewish upbringing to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Raised in a family that faithfully observed Jewish traditions and holidays, Mandy spent much of her life believing in God, but never truly knowing Him. When tragedy, loss, and unanswered questions began to shape her story, she found herself searching for a faith that offered more than ritual and obligation.

As Mandy began reading Scripture for herself, she discovered something that changed everything: the promises and prophecies she had grown up hearing pointed directly to Jesus. What followed was a journey marked by healing, peace, unexpected friendships, and a growing confidence that Jesus truly is the Messiah promised throughout the Jewish Scriptures.

Mandy’s story is a powerful reminder that God often meets us in our questions, our grief, and our searching and that His invitation is always rooted in grace rather than fear.

Faith is more than tradition or performance. When we encounter Jesus personally, we discover the peace, grace, and assurance we’ve been searching for all along.