You Can’t Borrow Faith: Choosing Hope When Life Gets Heavy | Dr. Jon Chasteen

What You Will Hear in This Episode • Growing up as a pastor’s kid and moving from a small town to inner-city Dallas • Navigating faith, skepticism, and rebellion before making belief personal • College years, athletics, and formative leadership experiences • The moment of personal encounter that reshaped everything • Why faith cannot be inherited and must be owned • Saying “no” to ministry before eventually saying “yes” • Leaving higher education to step into pastoral leadership • Discovering purpose in the place of greatest fear • Leading Victory Church through growth, challenge, and restoration • The reality that life is a series of hopeless moments • Why hope must be anchored to something greater than circumstance • The vision behind City Center and choosing partnership over control • Planting something healthy, then releasing it to the community • Defining hope as believing for what cannot yet be seen • Writing Half the Battle and ReLeader and helping rebuild broken organizations • A call to not just experience hope, but bring it to others Key Quotes “You can’t have faith through someone else, you have to have your own encounter.” “Life isn’t one hopeless moment, it’s a series of them.” “If Jesus were in Oklahoma City, He’d be in War Acres.” “God will chase you down if you’re willing to be found.” “Hope is believing for something you can’t yet see.”