Hope Is Where the Heart Is: A Story of a Marriage Broken and Restored

Written by Jim Pourteau, Shannon Pourteau, Dr. Joe Beam and Ken Abraham

Narrated by Jim Pourteau and Dr. Joe Beam

In Hope Is Where the Heart Is, Jim Pourteau shares the story of how he and his wife, Shannon, found healing and restoration in their marriage after betrayal and brokenness.

Have you made mistakes, wrong choices, or foolish decisions that have negatively affected your life and the people you love?  

Jim Pourteau has you beat.

Jim was the guy who did everything “right.” He was a spiritual leader in one of the largest congregations in the Northeast, the go-to guy when others needed advice. Yet he nearly destroyed his marriage by having an affair with one of his wife’s best friends.

But Hope Is Where the Heart Is is about much more than the demise of Jim’s marriage and how he and his wife, Shannon, discovered how to put it back together. It is a roadmap for overcoming hardships, for finding strength to face another day—or to make it through the long, dark night of your soul—forging ahead in faith, and persevering despite the circumstances or opinions of others.

This story will cause you to ask, “What would I do in a similar situation? How can I better handle betrayal and rejection?” Most of all, it will evoke the question, “What really matters?”

Whether you have a great marriage, or your relationship is in trouble, Hope Is Where the Heart Is offers a different approach to facing your challenges. Within these pages, you will find one of life’s most valuable assets—hope!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Forefront Books
• Release date: Nov 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781646895304

Jim Pourteau

Hope and conquest, loss and renewal, Jim Pourteau’s life is a beacon for anyone looking to reclaim their own. Surviving an unstable childhood marked by eleven stepfathers and covert trauma, he found a lifeline in his high school sweetheart, Shannon, and a calling to the ministry. With their move from Houston to Connecticut, Shannon worked in real estate while Jim served as a youth and staff pastor. He went on to serve as executive pastor of Liberty Church in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, named one of the “Top 100 Fastest Growing Churches in America,” before their relationship was torn by infidelity.  Suffering a crisis of faith, Jim surrendered his ordination and left to work for his father before Shannon discovered Marriage Helper, setting them on a path of reconciliation. Today, Jim has dedicated over 15,000 hours as a personal life coach and a business leadership trainer for clients such as the NCAA, Columbia University, and Chick-fil-A, and as a mentor for the John Maxwell leadership program. Jim and Shannon also lead marriage rescue workshops, where their high success rate is mirrored in their own wedlock, now surpassing thirty-four years. They live outside of Nashville with their two dogs, Jackson and Joey.