Halfway to Sunday

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE How do you keep fear from taking over when your mind starts racing toward everything that could go wrong? Jill talks with writer, speaker, transplant survivor, and Joy Reflex creator Jenna Schutt about what it means to train our hearts and minds to return to faith, peace, and joy when life feels uncertain. Jenna shares how a serious illness and difficult medical journey expos...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE Where is God when the pain doesn’t go away? David Heflin, founder and executive director of Broken & Mended, joins Jill to talk honestly about chronic pain, suffering, unanswered prayer, and learning to trust the presence of Jesus when relief doesn’t come. After being diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and Crohn’s disease, David found himself wrestling with many of the...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE What if hospitality is about much more than having people over for dinner? Jill talks with pastor and author Ian Simkins about what it means to live the gospel up close in a world marked by loneliness, distraction, and division. Ian reflects on the way Jesus repeatedly moved toward people, listened with curiosity, shared tables with those others avoided, and turned ordinary s...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE How do you hold onto hope when life turns out nothing like you prayed it would? Rachel Kerr Schneider joins Jill to share the deeply personal story of walking with her husband, John, through an ALS diagnosis, caregiving, and loss. Rachel talks honestly about believing for a miracle, wondering why her faith wasn’t making the journey easier, and eventually learning that trustin...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE What happens when God has given you a promise, but your circumstances seem to tell a completely different story? Jill talks with author Tom Anderson about marriage, wilderness seasons, identity, and the slow work of learning to believe that we are truly loved by God. Tom shares honestly about the early years of his marriage, a season when hope seemed almost impossible, and th...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE Who is helping form your family in a digital world? Jill talks with Reverend Dr. Robin Blair about digital discipleship and why media literacy belongs in conversations about spiritual formation. Robin explains how media can quietly shape identity, behavior, values, and expectations and why parents and caregivers can respond without turning every screen-time conversation into...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE What happens after you say yes to Jesus? Jill talks with Bill Nienhuis, president of Childcare Worldwide , about the difference between knowing about faith and actually being formed by Jesus over a lifetime. Bill reflects on the people who discipled him as a child, the long season of preparation that eventually led him into ministry, and why genuine discipleship goes far beyo...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE What happens when a lie sounds just true enough to believe? In this episode, Jill talks with author and speaker Melanie Cox about spiritual warfare, shame, perfectionism, people pleasing, and the thoughts that slowly become part of our identity. Melanie shares her deeply personal faith story, including a season when she questioned whether God loved her at all, and how Scriptu...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 120 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with Christian coach, author, speaker, entrepreneur, and podcast host Jake Giffin for an honest conversation about disappointment, trust, and identity in Christ. Jake shares how a failed church plant and an unrealized dream of pastoral ministry led him to pull away from God and question his faith. Together, Jill and Jake ex...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 119 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with her friend Janelle McGuckin, author of The Gift of With , for an honest conversation about loneliness, friendship, and rebuilding community after relational hurt. They explore how technology can create the appearance of connection while leaving us without the deeper intimacy of being truly known and loved. Janelle shar...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 118 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill welcomes back Cathy Garland for a gentle theological wrestling match between two passages that often confuse Christians: Ephesians 2, which says we are saved by grace and not by works, and James 2, which says faith without works is dead. Cathy explains why Paul and James are not contradicting each other. Paul tells us how we are made...

In Episode 117 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill continues her conversation with Val Kleppen about wilderness seasons (Part 2); those stretches where you can’t see what God is doing and you’re desperate for clarity. Val offers a perspective-shifting challenge: why do we assume we need answers before we obey? She shares how a faithful life creates ripples that can impact generations, even if we never see...

In Episode 116 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with Val Kleppen (host of The Motherhood Experience Podcast ) for an honest conversation about the wilderness seasons when prayers feel unanswered, direction feels unclear, and you’re trying to stay faithful anyway. Val shares from real life: grief, deep wrestling, and the exhaustion that comes from trying to control outcomes when everything fee...

In Episode 115 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with Christian artist Carly Ann Taylor to hear the story behind her faith, her calling, and her song “Why Should I Worry.” Carly shares about growing up in a deeply unstable environment of abuse, addiction, and foster care to then reaching a breaking point where she contemplated ending her life. She describes hearing a simple phrase “Something g...

In Episode 114 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with Jessica DeYoung (founder of the Made Whole Movement and host of Perspectives into Practice ) to talk about obedience when you don’t have the full picture. Jessica shares a simple but challenging truth: obedience comes before clarity. God often gives the next step, not the whole map. Together they unpack how to discern God’s voice in real li...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 113 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with Jennifer Bosma, host of the Front Parking Spot podcast, to talk about living out faith at home and moving from religion and “should dos” into a real relationship with Jesus. Jennifer shares practical ways to slow down and make space for God even in busy seasons (even if it’s only two minutes), and why praying Scripture...

In Episode 112 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with Anita Keagy (founder of Joy Shop Ministries) for a deeply hope-filled conversation about shame, fear, and God’s redemption. Anita shares how an unplanned pregnancy brought fear and embarrassment and how her faith, her parents’ grace, and God’s love helped her choose life rather than be driven by fear. She reflects on what it means to cry ou...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 111 of Halfway to Sunday, Jill sits down with Heather Day (Barnabas Foundation; author of Money and Spirit) for a conversation about authentic faith, trust, and obedience, especially in the everyday places we often try to control. Heather shares what it looks like to surrender your finances to God through the work of the Holy Spirit (not a “health and wealth” messa...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 110 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with Kyleigh Rose to talk about real joy, the kind of joy that doesn’t pretend everything is fine, but chooses hope in the middle of what’s hard. Kyleigh shares honestly about seasons of shame and guilt, trying to “do enough” to make the weight of all of it go away, and how God met her through grace, surrender, and communit...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 109 of Halfway to Sunday , Jill sits down with writer and podcast host Wanda Thibodeaux for a refreshingly honest conversation about joy, especially when trauma and grief are part of your story. Wanda shares how joy doesn’t require denying pain, and why unresolved grief often keeps us anchored in the past. Together they talk about practical ways to “train your brai...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 108 of Halfway to Sunday, Jill sits down with author and longtime Guideposts editor Rick Hamlin to talk about following Jesus in a divided, discouraging world without losing compassion. Rick shares the heart behind his devotional Everlasting Jesus: 40 Days of Timeless Wisdom for Modern Living and offers practical rhythms for modern life: making “alone time,” starti...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 107 of Halfway to Sunday, Jill sits down with pastor and author Robert Bass to talk about living with purpose without losing intimacy with God. Robert shares how easy it is to become busy, overwhelmed, and focused on our own agenda, doing “good things,” yet not experiencing the fruit, joy, and peace we’re longing for. They explore the idea behind Robert’s book Hidd...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 106 of Halfway to Sunday, Jill sits down with Rev. Cheryl Kincaid for a trauma-aware conversation about forgiveness, healing, and boundaries. Cheryl addresses one of the hardest questions Christians face: how do you forgive without excusing what happened? She explains the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and why reconciliation requires repentance...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 105 of Halfway to Sunday, Jill sits down with Teresa Blaes (podcast host, ministry leader, and founder of Kosh Media Productions) for a raw conversation about faith after trauma. Teresa shares her story of growing up in a broken home, facing severe medical challenges, and experiencing devastating loss that left her deeply angry at God. She describes how encounters...

✝️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE In Episode 104 of Halfway to Sunday, Jill sits down with Dr. Angela Deulen to explore the connection between faith, stress, and the nervous system. If you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or “noisy on the inside,” Angela explains why spiritual habits can feel difficult when your nervous system is dysregulated and how calming your body can help you reconnect with God. She shares a p...