Family Ministry

One family makes a daring decision, discovers the power of purpose, and encounters a God-sized passion for living. Something kept pulling at Jay and Beth Loecken, telling them there’s more to life than the pursuit of a large home, nice cars, and all the trinkets and trappings for a suburban family of six. They felt something stirring, a feeling that God had a different purpose for them, and they knew they had to do something—something big—to get started.

When Kim de Blecourt and her husband decided to adopt a child from Ukraine, they knew that the process might be challenging. Nothing, however, could have prepared de Blecourt for the twisted nightmare she would endure. During her year-long struggle to extricate her newly adopted little boy from that post-Soviet country's corrupt social service and judicial systems, de Blecourt was insulted, physically assaulted, and arrested. Worse, her months of loneliness, worry, and fear drove her to the brink of spiritual despair. But God had no intention of abandoning de Blecourt or her family.

Growing with Purpose elevates God’s grace to its proper place, above sin, where love always triumphs over lists of rules, where no one is forgotten, and where everyone gets more than a second chance. This one-year devotional is an unusual and compelling combination of conversational pictures, humorous prose, and practical suggestions firmly planted in biblical theology.

This audiobook, inspired by God, has two parts. Part One: The author was to tell how God chooses certain people to follow a plan or a set of paths laid out for him/her. Part one tells how God trains them, guides them, and even protects them from harm. Part Two: God wants all people to know how our culture is going down the wrong paths. The paths we are taking are diametrically opposed to what God has instructed us to do in the Holy Bible.

Brian R. Webster is a physician assistant, who has pursued God most of his adult life. He lost his two best friends in high school, due to an amusement park ride accident. He came close to dying, as well. He’s practiced medicine in various specialties, Substance Abuse, and in maximum security prisons.

When we talk about pregnancy, we too often end up talking clinically and sentimentally. Pregnancy is medical details and a whirl of emotions. It is vitamins and baby showers and feelings. But it is so much more. In Showing, Agnes Howard takes us beyond clinical reductionism and fluffy sentimentality to show us how to take pregnancy seriously as hard but important work. It is not just a bodily process, she argues, but an active work of care - one that underscores the generosity and mutual dependence we all require in order to live.

En este revolucionario libro devocional, Peter Scazzero reintroduce y desarrolla la antigua disciplina espiritual del Oficio Diario. La premisa básica es simple: los cristianos deben pausar intencionalmente dos veces al día para estar con Dios, de modo que la práctica de la presencia de Dios sea una realidad en sus vidas. Con el mismo ritmo poderoso que el devocional Espiritualidad emocionalmente sana, cada día presenta dos oficios.

With real-life talk, humor, and convicting biblical truths, Kristin Funston helps hardworking mamas to look at each day and each facet of their life to discover what happens when they believe God has more for them than what they think the world needs from them. And what He has available is a whole and holy life, just waiting to be claimed - a salvation and day-to-day reality complete just as it is. The pieces of each mom’s life - the work life, mom life, social life, etc. - are mended together through Christ to complete her one whole life, set apart because of Him.

Normal for Me tells the story about the author hitting rock bottom when she received the diagnosis that her second oldest son was on the autism spectrum. One evening she fell to her knees asking God, “Why can’t we be a ‘normal’ family?” God whispered, “This IS normal for you.” This epiphany began her journey from anguish and grief to acceptance, peace, hope, and joy. This audiobook is ideal for not only families struggling with autism but anyone who has had to face a life detour or help someone along the way.

The stakes have never been higher as daughters of every age are navigating a world of hyper-sexualization, social media hangover, extreme loneliness, and a flood of confusing messages. Whether listeners desire to know more of who they are created to be or are raising daughters who are just beginning their own journeys, Courageous leads women and those they love through transformation as they experience confidence in who God made them to be.

Loving your neighbor as yourself would be easy if your neighbors were all people you understood, people you agreed with, people like you. But what about playground bullies, colleagues, refugees, online adversaries? They're all our neighbors, and Jesus said to love them. Every one. But how? Lauren Casper believes the key is the lost art of empathy, stepping into other people’s shoes and asking what if? - what if it were my child? What if it were me? Learn to connect in simple but life-altering ways and shine God’s unconditional love into a dark world.

On the scale of stranger to bromance, where do your friendships land? As guys, we tend to get a bum rap when it comes to our ability to relate to other men. We talk work, sports, and buffalo wings, but struggle to move into meaningful conversation with our friends. Justin Erickson has identified seven kinds of friendships every man needs to thrive and grow as a Christian. Based on the biblical role models of men like David, Paul, and Timothy, these are the relationships that ultimately make you the man that God has called you to be.

Maybe you entered marriage with some pretty high expectations - most couples do. Jonathan and Wynter Pitts did. Until the reality of married life spilled into their expectations. Jonathan and Wynter invite you on a journey to explore a different approach to your happily-ever-after marriage. Join them for an honest look at the lessons learned as they navigated the ups and downs of early marriage while raising four daughters.

Life is a pressure cooker, and, more and more, being overwhelmed is just considered normal. Author, blogger, and mother-of-five, Kay Wills Wyma, has learned that if we're going to be overwhelmed by anything, let's have it be truth with all its grace, hope, peace, and love. In this freeing book, she shares how to confront life's pressures we face - at home, online, at work, in our relationships, on our calendars - and replace all those heavy expectations with the liberating truth that we were made for something better.

Enter the Ring takes a fresh, powerful, vulnerable approach to marriage by framing it as the fight that it is. The world uses different assaults and tactics to distract us, tempting us to walk away, in order to destroy our marriages. But there is hope: The constant forgiveness, grace, and intervention of God can preserve and protect us from not only the world but also ourselves. D. A. and Elicia Horton explore the tension of two people becoming one and how spouses often fight over which "one of us" they become.

To be human is to long for home. Home is our most fundamental human longing. And for many of us homesickness is a nagging place of grief. This book connects that desire and disappointment with the story of the Bible, helping us to see that there is a homemaking God with wide arms of welcome - and a church commissioned with this same work.

In the midst of a Christian subculture that idolizes families, an evangelical history of overcelebrating families, and a secular culture that overprograms families, one American family identifies the danger they’re in the midst of and embarks on a radical adventure. Household Gods offers an examination of the culture that spawned family idolatry and the steps we can take to flee this idolatry and escape to the Cross.

There are many families that are separated from their grandchildren, children, nieces, and nephews due to them living in different countries and different states. This heartfelt story bridges the gap between time and space and allows these families to show that true love is never separated. It’s only a word, and in Bryson the Bear’s case, a plane ride away.

How you parent directly impacts who your children are and who they will become. No one is naturally born a good parent. It takes hard work, determination, and passionate intention to raise our kids right. In the end, we can either parent on purpose...or idly sit back and allow everything else in the world to shape our children into the men and women they will become.

Pregnancy books for couples abound, but You Got This, Dad is just for guys. Aaron Sharp, a dad of four, draws from his experiences to help husbands, especially first-time dads, navigate the amazing, uncertain, and sometimes scary process of pregnancy and childbirth. With self-deprecating honesty, plenty of humor, and amusing asides from his lovely wife, Elaina, Aaron steers soon-to-be dads through the complex events and emotions surrounding pregnancy.