Help & Hope

How do you face each day after a diagnosis of ALS or Lou Gherig’s disease, knowing you will not survive longer than eighteen months – two years? Pastor Dale Meador joins Sharon and Chuck Betters to answer this question and more as he describes how each day reminds him he cannot beat this disease. He knows his time on this earth is short. But, for Dale, this disease has renewed his confidence in he...

In this conversation and in their book, Making Room for Her, Barbara and Stacy Reaoch jump headfirst into a topic sure to generate much discussion and maybe even confrontation: Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships. Mother-in-law jokes are easy to find and most expect daughters-in-law to roll their eyes when their mothers-in-law are mentioned. Barbara and Stacy’s perspective on how two w...

Is singleness a gift or a curse? If you’re single because you never married, divorced, or widowed - are you just in a waiting room, marking time until you meet the right person, or is singleness a place filled with opportunities you would not have if married? Is it wrong to pray for a spouse? How do you respond when well-meaning friends say hurtful things like, “I don’t understand why some guy has...

About one million babies world-wide die each year within 24 hours of birth. would be one of those children? In this conversation, Sharon Betters talks to Diane Bansbach about what it was like for her to learn her much wanted baby girl, Amy, might not survive birth, let alone live outside her mother’s womb. Diane and Sharon share a few tears as Diane steps back into that season of loss and grief an...

Stephanie Hubach is no stranger to the challenges of raising a child with special needs. As a researcher in disability ministry and the mother of a son with Down Syndrome. Stephanie has spoken to thousands of parents about the struggles and the blessings of children who might be seen by our culture as dispensable, but in God’s world, they are indispensable and we lose many gifts and blessings when...

Studies show that the loss of a spouse, whether through divorce or death is one of the most devastating losses a human can experience. Our podcast guest, Deb McQuilkin, knows the unspeakable grief of the loss of a husband through an unwanted divorce and the sorrow of losing a beloved husband through death. Perhaps these losses are why Deb feels such a kinship with Naomi whose story we find in the...

Part 2 - On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof, a young white man, attended the Wednesday evening Bible study at the predominantly black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. An hour later, Roof pulled a concealed weapon and killed nine African-Americans as they prayed, including Myra Thompson, the wife of Reverend Anthony Thompson. Myra's murder devastated Anthony, yet he chose to privat...

Many in the church and community still struggle to understand Reverend Thompson's deliberate choice to forgive the racist murderer. But as Charlestonians witnessed this incredible act of forgiveness, something significant happened within the community. Instead of the expected racial riots in the aftermath of the shooting, black and white leaders and residents united, coming together peaceably...

Stephanie Broersma lived a charmed life until the day she discovered a deleted online conversation between her husband and another woman. When confronted, he confessed to a ten-year addiction to pornography and multiple affairs. In this conversation with Sharon Betters Stephanie shares the story of moving through anger, betrayal, fear, and finally redemption. Her remarkable story brings hope to on...

In this candid and fun interview, Jani Ortlund and Sharon Betters talk about what it’s like to be married to their pastor. Jani and Sharon have been married to their pastors for over fifty years – that’s 100 years of experience between them! Using Jani’s book, Help! I’m Married to My Pastor as a springboard, they cover such topics as how to help pastor husbands deal with depression, create a home...

“Who am I? What is my purpose? I thought I could have it all and I do. But I am restless, I feel like I’m missing something.”Statistics show many American woman are weary, struggle with depression and self-medicate with alcohol, flattery, Suicide rates for women are on the rise. What’s happening? More importantly, what’s the resolution? In this conversation Jen Oshman, author of Enough about Me an...

When a son, sister, or grandchild begins to behave in unexpected and disturbing ways, family members hope it is simply a phase. For some, it is instead a life-time illness – schizophrenia. The diagnosis of schizophrenia can bring shock, fear, and worry to everyone involved. But in the midst of the numerous challenges, hope doesn’t have to die. (Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them by Simonetta...

1 in 8 couples have trouble getting pregnant. That's about 6.7 million people each year who have trouble conceiving.10—15% of women who know they are pregnant will experience a miscarriage. Some studies say it’s higher. About 1 pregnancy in 100 at 20 weeks of pregnancy and later is affected by stillbirth, and each year about 24,000 babies are stillborn in the United States.1This doesn’t take...

In Part 2 of this Help & Hope podcast Nick Thompson, co-author with Joel R. Beeke of Pastors and Their Critics continues his conversation with Chuck Betters about the difference between betrayal and criticism and how to handle criticism from church members. Part 2 focuses on how to create a church climate where it is safe to share concerns with your pastor and elders along with the reality tha...

In Part 1 of this conversation Nick Thompson, co-author with Joel R. Beeke of Pastors and Their Critics talks with Chuck Betters about the difference between betrayal and criticism and how to handle criticism from church members. Pastors quickly learn that criticism comes with the territory of shepherding. This conversation took place in the middle of the 2020 pandemic and pastors are weary from t...

For too long women, rather than feel safe, women often feel shame in their local churches, so much so that they will not ask the leadership for help. The idea of speaking about her personal needs and hurts to any man, let alone being in a room alone with a group of men fills her with fear. This conversation with Ann Maree Goudzwaard, Sharon Betters and Jane Anne Wilson fills us with great hope as...

In this conversation two seasoned pastors, Chuck Betters and Bernie Lawrence talk about how the local church is not only called to be a safe place for hurting women but how to make it so. Bernie is co-author with Ann Maree Goudzwaard of HelpHer – A Churchwide Response for Women in Crisis. Chuck and Bernie discuss how many churches are ill-prepared to come alongside of women in crisis but how the s...

Barbara Juliani and Jane Anne Wilson join Sharon Betters to talk about those feelings every mother experiences at one time or another. This conversation follows an interview with Barbara about prodigal children. Barbara and her father Jack Miller co-authored Come Back, Barbara, a raw and transparent story of Barbara’s rebellion against her parents and their faith and her journey “back home”. Whene...

Do these words haunt you: "Mom, Dad, I don't want your rules and morals. I don't want to act like a Christian anymore! And I'm not going to," Barbara Juliani (then Barbara Miller) made this declaration at the age 18. As her father desperately attempted to reason with her, Barbara grew more resentful, choosing a path of immorality that only deepened her parents' pain....

Mention church conflict in a group of pastors and ministry leaders. One by one they will nod knowingly and share war stories of betrayal, conflict and relationship damage. We hear about pastors taking their own lives and the many who are leaving the ministry, tired of the in-fighting, unfair criticisms and unbiblical treatment of not only them but their families. The Covid pandemic created even mo...

This conversation is for pastor’s and ministry wives and those who love them. While there are occupational hazards in all lines of work, ministry families experience conflicts that sometimes not only result in broken relationships but loss of their beloved church family. In most jobs, wives are not expected to be an unpaid laborer, stand by their husband’s side every Sunday, remembering every name...

Mention “fear of the Lord” and most people don’t know what it means. Is it terror in God’s presence? Is it fear He is watching and waiting to condemn us or tell us what a good person we are? Or maybe the Lord will demand we give up what is most precious to us to prove we fear Him. Or perhaps fear of the Lord grows when we think He is punishing us for past sins. In this conversation Christina Fox t...

Discontent easily arises when our desires aren’t met and our plans don’t come true—but this is a dangerous path that drives us away from God. Megan Hiil talks with Sharon Betters about how discontentment can be an insidious, unrecognized poison that robs us of opportunities to experience joy and intimacy with the Lord. Megan explains the meaning of contentment, how we often make discontentment com...

In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Wendy Alsup shares how suffering came in wave after wave, leaving her breathless and lonely. In one particularly dark and painful period after intense surgery for cancer, Wendy discovered she was not truly alone. Though her pain was not alleviated, she found comfort and strength in experiencing intimacy with the Lord Who walks with us in suffering. Wendy d...

Aging is a season of loss on many levels. Married women fear losing their spouse or outliving their children. In fact, today there are 13.6 million widows in America, and about 700,000 women become a widow in the U.S. each year. Single women who have never married can fear being alone in the last years of life. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, seventy-two-year old Jerdone Davis frankly sh...