6.7K
Downloads
58
Episodes
The Pastor’s Studio is a space for honest conversations, meaningful questions, and stories that reveal how faith meets real life. Hosted by pastor and author Paul Basden, this podcast brings together authentic dialogue, spiritual reflection, and real-life experiences to help listeners navigate what it means to follow Jesus in a complex world.
Across every season, the aim is the same: to help listeners see God more clearly, understand themselves more deeply, and live out their faith with wisdom, humility, and grace.
Thoughtful, grounded, and full of heart, Pastor Paul invites you to slow down, listen well, and pay attention to the story God is writing in and around you.
Season 1: Uncomfortable Conversations with Christians
Season 2: Why Do I Do What I Do - Exploring the Enneagram
Season 3: This is My Story
Paul Basden is an author and serves as co-senior pastor of Preston Trail Community Church in Texas. A native of Dallas, Texas, Paul earned his BA from Baylor University and his Master of Divinity and PhD from Southwestern Theological Seminary. Paul also served as university minister and a professor of theology at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He and his wife, Denise, have two grown daughters and four grandsons.
Episodes
Thursday Aug 07, 2025
Thursday Aug 07, 2025
Over the past 10 months, we’ve tackled some of the most polarizing topics in culture—faith, politics, sexuality, justice, and more—not to divide, but to unite.
In this heartfelt finale of Uncomfortable Conversations with Christians, host Paul Basden revisits the core question: How can we have hard conversations that actually bring healing?
Join us as we explore:
🔹 The power of words to divide or unite (Proverbs 12:18, Ephesians 4:29)
🔹 How to be known for love—even in disagreement (John 13:34-35)
🔹 Practical wisdom for families, churches, and public discourse
🔹 Why unity, not uniformity, is the goal of gospel conversations
Whether you’ve felt misunderstood, wrestled with opposing beliefs, or simply long for a better way to talk across divides, this episode offers both challenge and hope.
May our conversations be honest, humble, and healing. And may they always begin—and end—in love.
🎧 Listen now to the season finale, and stay tuned next week for a brand-new season: Why Do I Do What I Do? Exploring the Enneagram.
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
In Part 2 of our series on gun control, host Paul Basden is joined by Greg, a long-time gun owner, and Mike, an active-duty police officer. Together, they tackle one of the most polarizing topics in America—firearms—through the lens of faith, public safety, and personal responsibility.
Join us as we explore:
Why Christians feel conflicted about gun ownership
How personal experience shapes beliefs about gun laws
The tension between the right to bear arms and the call to peacemaking
What it means to prioritize both safety and compassion in a divided culture
Whether you're a Second Amendment supporter, an advocate for reform, or somewhere in between, this episode offers a grounded and thoughtful dialogue on one of today's most pressing issues.
Friday Jul 25, 2025
Friday Jul 25, 2025
The gun control debate is more than political—it's personal, moral, and spiritual. In this episode of Uncomfortable Conversations with Christians, Paul Basden takes us to the epicenter of the controversy: the right to bear arms.
Before diving into interviews and expert opinions next week, this Part 1 episode explores the spiritual tension many Christians feel when trying to balance personal freedom with public safety.
Join us as we explore:
- Four foundational beliefs that shape American attitudes on guns—sacredness of life, human sinfulness, the instinct to defend, and the constitutional right to bear arms
- What Scripture says about valuing life and community
- How churches can step into the gap with radical acceptance and relational rescue
This episode challenges both extremes of the debate and asks deeper questions:
What kind of person are you becoming? What kind of society are we building?
Whether you’re a gun owner, an advocate for reform, or somewhere in between, this conversation invites reflection, not reaction.
Listen now and prepare to be both convicted and comforted.
Subscribe wherever you stream podcasts.
Tune in next week for Part 2 featuring expert interviews.
Thursday Jul 17, 2025
Thursday Jul 17, 2025
In this powerful and deeply personal episode of Uncomfortable Conversations with Christians, Paul Basden sits down with longtime Preston Trail Creative Pastor Allison Harrell and couples group coordinator D’Anthony Forte to talk about a subject too many know firsthand: church hurt.
Allison opens up about growing up in a high-control religious group she now recognizes as a cult—where authority went unchecked, manipulation was normalized, and eventually, her family was excommunicated. D’Anthony shares how fear-based faith, legalism, and judgment shaped his earliest experiences with church, leading to decades of anxiety and a 14-year absence from Christian community.
Together, they discuss:
- What spiritual abuse and toxic church cultures can look like
- Why walking away is sometimes a survival response—and why coming back is possible
- The role of therapy, vulnerability, and real community in healing
- How God’s love can meet us in our rawest, most wounded places
- The surprising truth: church can still be the place where healing happens
Whether you’ve been burned by spiritual authority, are afraid to trust again, or are simply walking alongside someone who’s been hurt, this episode offers honesty, grace, and hope.
🔔 Subscribe to hear more honest, unfiltered conversations about faith, pain, and the messy beauty of following Jesus.