It’s Election Time! Is the gospel still good news...? Today, we invite Michael Wear, Chief Strategist of the AND Campaign, to discuss how to hold onto Christ’s heart in the midst of intense election year. For a few years now, Michael and the AND Campaign have been wrestling with the tension of unity and diversity, especially when engaging in politics. Join us as we discuss unity in the Body of Christ, primary and secondary issues, how to speak up with grace, and how to receive grace from Jesus a...
Aug 21, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Has it ever been hard for you to come to Jesus? What do we do in those moments? When we are at the end of our rope, how to do we approach God exactly as we are? Today, we welcome Rashawn Copeland, author of Start Where You Are, to discuss his experiences with these questions and more. Rashawn brings good and gracious wisdom to the table, inviting us to come to God from the place we're in--not where we think we should be--and trust Him to meet us there. Join us as we hear Rashawn's heart on this ...
Aug 14, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Parents...this is your week! This week, Matt and Laurie take your questions on the advice they give to parents of LGBTQ+ kids--and, really, it's just good advice for everyone, always coming back to the gospel and the purpose of our lives in God's eyes. Topics include: What is the advice we offer to all parents of LGBT+ kids? Would we bake the cake/do the photography/do therapy for a same-sex couple? How do we know if we are called to marriage or singleness? //: Highlights: “The most—for me—winso...
Aug 07, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Welcome to Season 4! We're kicking off this season with a discussion on endurance and courage! What do we do when suffering hits and we're called upon to continue in the work God has given us? Join Matt, Laurie, and Steve as we explore practices and experiences that help build up "endurance muscles" for any form of suffering. //: Highlights: “More and more, [looking back] instills more trust that the God we worship is going to be with me.” -Matt Krieg “Staying in the world, where God has us, is ...
Jul 31, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Guys! It's the season three finale! After walking through this episode, we felt this season gutted us in the best way and offered hope when we needed it. We did get practical (our theme this season), and we did get real (our constant desire). We were so grateful to listen back to highlight clips from some of our favorites and yours: 1. Episode 99:A Gender Conversation Part 2 Heather Skriba 2. Episode 92: Broken/Beloved Pastors Part 2 with Johnny and Amanda 3. Episode 96: Healthy Friendship and T...
Jun 26, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 1
*Real* talk: Authenticity seems to be currency we can "use" to deepen friendships, feel seen, or even to get more followers. But that type of authenticity--that is an end in itself--isn't what we are calling "authentic authenticity." There is selfishness in it, and the fruit produced from it ... tastes gross. How can we and why should we be truly authentic? How can single people experience this? How can married people if their spouse is unwilling to go to the emotional depths? Let's get this thi...
Jun 19, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Today is question and answer time with Matt and Laurie! We cover a lot including these questions: How did we first meet Steve? How do we handle Pride Month? How do we plan to address our mixed-orientation marriage with our kids? How can straight, single guys and girls be friends without the relationship getting weird? If we, as a married couple, invite a single person into our home how can we prevent it from becoming a situation where one of us falls in love with the single person? How can I car...
Jun 12, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 1
**FIRST: We have VIDEO!! WATCH this episode here. ** In the midst of national and global suffering, it seems almost wrong to put the word "hope" near it. However, pastor and author Sam Collier, alongside his wife and ministry leader, Toni Collier, know how to carry both hurt and hope in each hand. How can we do that, too? Just ... listen. //: Highlights: “It’s impossible to pursue justice without hope.” –Sam “The gospel compels us to be one. I don’t think we get the luxury as believers to forfei...
Jun 05, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 1
How would you respond if you found pornography on your kid's phone? (Listeners without kids but who are equally valuable disciple-makers: How would you recommend your friend respond to their kids if they found this?) Author and speaker, Lee Neinhuis, had to deal with this exact situation, and it taught her, her son, and her family a lot about grace and truth. But how do we engage not only this specific satiation, but how do we cultivate deep roots in our kids/friend's kids/youth group kids when ...
May 29, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Do you know anyone processing past trauma while muddling through this pandemic trauma? Maybe it is you? Maybe it is a friend? Maybe it will be someone you meet tomorrow? How can we hear and love them well? How can we care for ourselves if we have gone through pain in our past and things have resurfaced in the pandemic? How can we process how this season has been challenging for everyone--whether or not we have gone through another traumatic event? How can we process our pain? Speaker and author ...
May 22, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 1
This conversation feels like sitting down with a dear friend over tea. I can envision us starting out with a sigh, a sip of Earl Grey, and saying: "So, this pandemic has been hard. I haven't *only* been running to Jesus. I've made some mistakes. Can you help think through what is going on in my heart?" Bestselling author and speaker, Dee Brestin, hears our words, gently translates them into heart idols (power/control, comfort, or approval), and offers us some really practical next steps. This co...
May 15, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 1
It's time. We finally brought in some Enneagram experts. Beth and Jeff McCord are definitely Enneagram experts, and are definitely not weird about it. Their approach is focused on the gospel, takes in mind Core Longings (!!), childhood woundings, and even though we invited them to talk marriage and the Enneagram, the conversation (as always) was applicable to all humans--no matter their marital status. We also asked how each Enneagram type might be responding to the pandemic. (It. Was. Fascinati...
May 07, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 1
So. Has God called you to singleness or marriage? How did you discern that? If you are called to singleness, is it temporary or for life? How did you discern that? If you are called to lifelong singleness ("vocational singleness," as our guest today calls it), is there a creative way to not be lonely in the midst of it? Why not start a modern-day monastery? That's what today's guest, Pieter Valk, did, and the conversation about the modern-day monastery's origins and daily life (including how it ...
May 01, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 1
In the circles we run, there is one common answer to the question: What will be the next thing when it comes to sexuality? Their answer? Polyamorous relationships. What do you know about them? (Other than that they are a romantic, sexual relationship between three or more people?) Did you know that 24% of church-going people think that consensual non-monogamous relationships are morally acceptable? Or that as many as 1 in 5 Americans have been in a consensual non-monogamous relationship, and 5% ...
Apr 24, 2020•57 min•Season 1Ep. 1
But what about the kids? **We recorded this episode pre-quarantine, and once again, God provided the content we needed for this unforeseen moment. I know our own kids (Matt and Laurie's) are wrestling with their emotional balance in this quarantine life. Are the kids or young adults in your life struggling at all? Let's help them, yeah? (Whether they are wrestling with anxiety, depression, have been walking a journey on the autism spectrum, or have experienced sexual trauma as kids.) The person ...
Apr 17, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 1
This is the therapy sesh we all need right now. Counselor, author, and teacher, Dr. Alison Cook, co-author of Boundaries for Your Soul has a word for us about what to do with our overwhelming thoughts and emotions. (Anyone got some of those these days?) But, what can we do with them? We can turn them into our allies. "Emotions are not your enemy, they are queues," she said. "Learn about them, pay attention to them, don’t let them rule you, but get to know them. Let them be an aid to you on your ...
Apr 10, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Again. God, in His mercy, knew that we would need this episode today when we recorded it over one month ago. Today, Matt and I (Laurie) introduce you to our for-real small group. These are people who are a huge part of our lives and are truly the reason Matt and I are still married. In an age where large-group churches cannot meet and small groups are meeting online, this group has become even more of our lifeline. Now, we don't just meet every-other week for a couple of hours hours, we meet onl...
Apr 03, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 1
In this home-centered, pandemic-laden world we are in, God, in his kindness, had Matt and I (Laurie) record a mini-series last month where we opened up our real world to you. Today, we are sharing it. In episode two of three of the "Our World" series, we invited our friend, Stephanie Thole, to help us learn how to have a conversation bridging the gap between sexuality and race conversations. Are these conversations so similar? Are they so different? Is it really true that if you are pro- "Black ...
Mar 27, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 1
As many of us hunker down into our homes, Matt and I (Laurie) open up our real lives to you. In this "Our World" mini series, will cover the following topics: 1. When I walked with someone for months and it seemed like a failure, 2. The sticky intersection between the race and LGBT+ conversations, 3. How God encouraged us to form a small group that has changed our lives. Today: When discipleship "fails." I walked away from a discipleship relationship with Kara Martin several years ago feeling ho...
Mar 20, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 1
This is timely. In the midst of a global pandemic, one of the stock market's worst weeks, and fear invading many corners of our hearts, bestselling author, John Eldredge, brings a critical message to the podcast table this week. “Your soul is never meant to carry all of this," he said. "The human soul is not designed for these conditions.” It isn't. We are not meant to carry the insanity of a broken world. So how do we engage it with maturity? Learn with us as we talk through a message that lite...
Mar 13, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 1
"Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us," the writer of Hebrews tells us (Heb. 12:1). But what does that mean, exactly? Where are we going? To death? To the New Heavens and New Earth? To more suffering? And how do we run this race without being legalistic about it: Just keep swimming. Just keep going. Just do it. That's what Christians do. Author and teacher, Trillia Newbell, helps us understand more of this race running in a compelling conversation that we hope will inspire yo...
Mar 06, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Yes, yes, yes, we know: We live in a sex-saturated world. Move on, right? Maybe. But is there something we can do about it? Do we simply have to endure the brokenness around us and within us, or can we take some Christ-following steps in the right direction? Our dear friend and newly minted author, Rachel Gilson, thinks we can. Her critical new book, Born Again This Way, not only tells the story of how she came to Christ at Yale through a stolen copy of Mere Christianity, but she unpacks how som...
Feb 27, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Identity. Labels. Names. Who are you? God knows. No, not like, "Oh, only God knows," but like, He knows you. Knows us. Knows our true identity. Esther Fleece Allen, author of the new book, Your New Name: Saying Goodbye to Labels that Limit, is determined to help us know it, too. Her story is gripping, and her love for Jesus and people is palpable. Join us? //: Highlights: “If I don’t know who I am and who God names me, I will inevitably be redefined and renamed by the culture.” --Esther Fleece A...
Feb 21, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Is anyone tired? Is anyone a tired leader? Author, teacher, and today's guest, Ruth Haley Barton, cares about you and the wellness of your soul (and so do we). But who is a leader? "If anybody is following you," Barton said, "then you are a leader and you need to pay attention to your leadership and the influence you are having on the world." This means stay-at-home parents, ministry leaders, people in the marketplace, and all of you with followers on the socials are leaders. We are tired as lea...
Feb 14, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Oh, guys. We went to town on this one. David Bennett, a former atheist gay activist turned Christian apologist, came back to the HIMH podcast for the second time and turned. It. Up. We talked about why in the world gay/straight/everyone needs to engage this sexuality conversation, the “slippery slope” of universalism, debating people on the internet, and how to practically love our friends who disagree with us with genuine love and gentleness. Listen to all the grit and the glory, and then … how...
Feb 07, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Because of this interview, I [Laurie] called the trafficking hotline for a suspicious building I drive past. I didn't know if that was a weird or helpful thing to do before before talking with our guest today, Rebecca Bender. Rebecca is the author of the new book, In Pursuit of Love, is a survivor of human trafficking, and has trained law enforcement officers, Homeland Security and the FBI on how to approach anti-human trafficking efforts. She also trained us a bit through this interview. “What’...
Jan 31, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Anyone relate to thinking that life will be x, but then it’s not even y … it ends up being q? Or t? Or 27? How do we deal with these unmet expectations besides throwing clichés and sprinkling a lil’ Jesus on it? Author, teacher, and broadcaster Sheridan Voysey offers zero clichés and all real-life learning how to suffer well with his own version of facing “When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned.” Get it, fam. //: Highlights: “You think about trying for a child? Every month there is an expectation follo...
Jan 25, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Bestselling author and pastor David Platt rocks. He navigated our interview with humility and courage. Not only did he open up his heart and journals with us about his new book 'Something Needs to Change' (and how he went from writing "coldhearted" sermons about poverty and sex trafficking to weeping about them both), but he also encouraged us and leaders everywhere not to sit down when it comes to engaging culture's urgent challenging questions about sexuality. Hear his humble exhortation with ...
Jan 17, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Maybe it's just us, maybe it's just our generation . . . maybe it's just this year? But it seems to us as if the vulnerable pursuit that comes with friendship can be extra challenging for some men. Can we get an a-men? (Ha...) Today, we invited some of our new friends, Sam and Blaine Eldredge (yes, the sons of John and Stasi), to help us better understand why friendships for men can be extra challenging. We talk about some intense (and fun) things, of course, including: What do are you nerdy abo...
Jan 11, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 1
New year, new Hole in My Heart Podcast theme music, new website ... what else is new? Well, with all of this new, how about something old? Like throwback time? Matt and Laurie realized that there are many NEW listeners out there, and you might not know their stories. So, we deep-dive a bit into them. Matt talks about the heart of his journey with pornography addiction (and how he finally got set free from it), and Laurie talks about her discipleship journey with her version of broken sexuality. ...
Jan 03, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 1
