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

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 • Spending nearly 50 years as an agnostic • The moment with his grandson that made him want something more • Bringing his hardest questions about God into an EQUIP class • Finding faith and being baptized at 73 • Why Easter suddenly meant something completely different • Trusting God while living with long haul COVID • The role friendship and community played in growing his faith • Alex’s encouragement for anyone still wrestling with questions about God

• Preston Trail EQUIP • Rooted • The Chosen

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 • Matthew 7:12 • Dare to Lead by Brené Brown • The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown • WorkLife with Adam Grant • Harvard Business Review

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. But through all of it, Corey keeps coming back to one thing:

“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 • Philippians 4:12 • Romans 5:8 • Proverbs 22:29 • Freakonomics • The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

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.

• Growing up with an early awareness of loss and death
• How foster care and adoption transformed Kelly's family
• Walking alongside her husband through a terminal cancer diagnosis
• What it means to have an "even if" faith when healing doesn't come
• The role of community in carrying one another through grief
• Why grief and joy can coexist
• How choosing life became Kelly's greatest testimony

• Philippians 3:7–10
• Zephaniah 3:17
• Daniel 3:16–18
• John 16:33
• GriefShare: https://prestontrail.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/3633850