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.

• Growing up as a pastor’s daughter
• Kristen’s diagnosis and 45 surgeries
• Wrestling with God through chronic pain
• Finding purpose within physical limitations
• Friendship and community through difficult seasons
• “Recycling your pain” to encourage others
• Why Psalm 139 became Kristen’s life verse
• Her encouragement to anyone who feels like giving up

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.”

• Falling in love as teenagers and marrying at 20
• How conflict avoidance and codependency affected their marriage
• Knowing when it was time to ask for help
• Counseling, community and rebuilding trust
• Creating a “new marriage with the same person”
• Finding identity in Christ instead of your spouse
• Grace, forgiveness and repairing after conflict
• Hope for couples who feel stuck

• Enjoy Your Marriage
• Preston Trail Marriage Ministry
• The 5 Love Languages
• Psalm 139:14
• Isaiah 30:21
• Matthew 19:26
• John 15
• Galatians 5:22–23
• Psalm 139