Welcome back everyone! Today on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast is our guest, Jarrett Stephens!

A message of hope for an anxious day: God never changes. He is still here and ready to transform our lives. What we must ask is if we are ready to respond to him.

In these turbulent times, many wonder where God is…and why he doesn’t seem to be intervening. Sure, he performed miracles in the Bible, but what about now? What about us? In The Always God: He Hasn’t Changed and You Are Not Forgotten (Jun 1, 2021, Multnomah), Pastor Jarrett Stephens reveals how God is always present, always working, and always faithful.

In The Always God, Jarrett, pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, gives hope to those who think God has given up on us. It invites us to quiet ourselves and listen to the God who does not change or forget us. Not ever. And that changes everything.

Jarrett asks readers: Do you wonder if God has forgotten you?

He responds,
“I wrote this book for you because I’ve been where you are. As a pastor, I walk with people who are where you are: in the midst of a trial, needing to be reminded that our God is always God and needing to be invited to journey with him to a place of greater assurance and intimacy. Regardless of how things may seem, he is always the same and can always be trusted.”

Jarrett shares moments of his wild and sometimes painful journey, including:

• As a boy, when he was a victim of sex abuse from a little league coach for four years
• When he and his wife lost a child to miscarriage
• The years he prayed for a prodigal brother
• The suffering of a dear friend with cancer

Bringing sound biblical teaching along with comforting guidance, he can help your audience answer such questions as: Is God listening and does he see me? Can I have an unwavering confidence that God is always here and always working? Can I get to a place where, no mat­ter what happens, doubt won’t overtake me?  

Jarrett’s prayer is that every reader will discover in a very personal and powerful way just how faithful the always God really is.

Jarrett Stephens is the senior pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church, in Houston, Texas, one of the largest and most diverse churches in America, and he is the author of The Mountains Are Calling.Previously, he served as a teaching pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church alongside Dr. Jack Graham. He has a bachelor of arts in biblical studies and psychology from Ouachita Baptist University, a master of divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a doctorate of ministry from Liberty Theological Seminary. Jarrett has been featured on The 700 Club, I Am Second and dozens of radio and podcast shows.

“In these pages, you’ll find empathy, wisdom, encouragement, and a thoroughly biblical perspective for times when God seems distant or disinterested. Jarrett Stephens doesn’t flinch as he courageously confronts some of the most nettlesome issues that vex so many followers of Jesus. Whatever you do, don’t miss this journey toward wholeness. Let Jarrett lead you to a place of genuine hope and faith!”

—Lee Strobel, bestselling author of The Case for Christ and The Case for Miracles

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Related Links:

• YOUTUBE: Jarrett Stephens
• INSTAGRAM: @jarrettstephens

Welcome back everyone! Today on the Thriving Beyond Belief podcast is our guest, Todd & Brooke Tilghman!

So often we hear “Just keep your eye on the prize!” and “focus on the ‘big picture!’” Todd and Brooke Tilghman offer this counter-cultural advice: look for the small things, not the big things––relish each and every small step/moment.

When Todd Tilghman, pastor of two decades and father of eight from Meridian, Mississippi, auditioned for NBC’s The Voice, he counted it as a win simply to sing in front of an audience other than family and church members. Despite no music or vocal training, he not only made it through the blind audition––with all four celebrity judges vying to coach him––he also won the show’s entire eighteenth season.

In their forthcoming book, Every Little Win: How Celebrating Small Victories can Lead to Big Joy (Thoman Nelson, June 22, 2021), Todd and his wife, Brooke, share how decades of unrelenting challenges have taught them a joyful mindset of embracing not only winning NBC’s The Voice, but also “every little win” along the way. This is the first book ever written by a winner of The Voice.

Fans were drawn to Todd’s tremendous joy on stage, giving them much-needed inspiration during the hard challenges of a global pandemic. In Every Little Win, Todd and Brooke discuss how their focus on joy and celebrating every little win has helped them to overcome numerous challenges over their twenty-plus-year marriage. Todd and Brooke share the lessons they’ve learned and the strategies that have moved them from fear to faith to ever-present joy.

They share in the book, “We win as we discover that in God’s economy, brokenness leads to beauty, and scarcity to abundance.”

• Relationships––from being a young dating couple breaking up (for the sake of Christ), to getting married, to being at the brink of divorce, to reconciling, to facing the negative aspects of social media on relationships.
• Parenting––from adopting two girls on a pastor’s salary (which is practically impossible without an act of God), to parenting a critically ill child (and wondering why God doesn’t answer all our prayers for our children), to having to check one of their sons into a facility to get treatment for depression following bullying at school, to helping that same son later navigate “going viral” for his artwork.
• Handling adversity and cultural stressors––pastoring a church during times of adversity.
• Mental Health––from Brooke’s own battle with anxiety/depression, to how Todd learned to support and care for her in her darkest hours, to both Brooke and Todd parenting one of their children through depression.

Together, Todd and Brooke explain how to find special moments in the middle of ordinary days––from their childhoods to winning NBC’s The Voice and “every little win” in between. Through it all, Todd and Brooke count their blessings. This book isn’t sugar coated. It’s real. It’s honest. It’s intimate. And it’s hopeful.

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Related Links:

• YOUTUBE: Todd Tilghman
• FACEBOOK: @toddtilghmanmusic
• INSTAGRAM: @toddtilghman