Family Ministry

Life hit Pat and Tammy McLeod hard when their son Zach collapsed on a high school football field; he had sustained a severe brain injury. Facing the devastating possibility that things would never be the same for their beloved son, they committed to staying strong as a family and finding a way to maintain their footing. But the journey would reshape their faith, their family, and their future in ways they never saw coming.

This inspiring, upbeat, life-affirming book shows teenagers and their families how to navigate through the moral minefields of contemporary life and how to truly enjoy the opportunities and blessings that the modern world has to offer. Drawing upon his faith as well as his personal experience, Gordon B. Hinckley provides his readers with a game plan for discovering and embracing the things in life that are valuable and worthwhile.

"Children don't fail, the adults around them do - and it is up to us to light the candle of excellence within each one we know and love," begins Marva Collins, one of America's foremost educators, in her important work, Values. This practical guide is for those of us who strive to be role models, who want to know the important values, live them, and teach them to our children.

Reveal God to your children by parenting them like he parents us. Tired of all the parenting books full of strategic checklists, how-to advice, and quick tips? If so, this audiobook is for you. Instead of focusing on parenting techniques, it’s about who God is, who we are in light of that, and how God’s character gives form and shape to our parenting. Christina Fox wants you to explore the scriptures with her and discover the goodness of the God who makes us his own. As God’s beloved creatures, we bear his image - that is, we show others who He is as we glorify him.

Today, everybody seems to be trying desperately to pander to young people in the church, even as growing numbers flee from it. This is largely because the church today does not expect what it ought to from children or their parents, and this can be attributed, at least in part, to a flawed concept of youth ministry. This need not, and should not, be so.

Family is difficult because family - every family - is an echo of the gospel. Family can be the source of some of the most transcendent human joy, and family can leave us crumpled up on the side of the road. Family can make us who we are, and family can break our hearts. Why would this social arrangement have that much power, for good or for ill, over us?

What and who should get the best of us? And why is it so enticing to choose lesser things instead of lasting things? As moms, we know the magnetic pull to steer away from what's important and choose what feels irresistible in the moment. In Shiny Things, Amanda Bacon and Anne-Renee Gumley bring to light the distractions moms face every day.

A woman marries a man, not his ministry. But all too often her husband’s calling complicates their life together. What if ministry life isn’t what she bargained for? What happens when her children make mistakes? How does she deal with church gossip, or even slander? As a pastor’s wife of almost 50 years, Jani Ortlund addresses these questions, along with many others, as she offers encouragement and guidance to ministry wives. Jani reminds listeners that God works out his delightfully good purposes in and through their sacrifices.

Whether you're in the midst of difficulty right now or being proactive rather than reactive, Ready for Anything gives finite simple steps for preparing your mind, your heart, and your home for any unfortunate circumstance. Full of stories and humor along with facts, tips, and lists, Kathi offers a down-to-earth guide that will show you how to face the unexpected with confidence, relying on God's strength and plan rather than giving in to our fear and anxiety.

Spilt Milk is a collection of brief, hilarious stories and meditations mixed with biblically based applications that encourage women in their spiritual journey. Written by a Gen-X mom, these stories remind busy mothers that God's grace is always there in the messes and marvels of life, love, and being a mom.

Based on research from more than 10,000 surveys from children and parents of divorce, Collateral Damage presents parents with an overview of the impact that divorce has on their children and offers ways to better serve their needs at this critical time.

Cutting. It’s become a buzzword lately, but very few books address it from the perspective of a youth worker or concerned friend. Marv Penner has lived in this world for the past few years, talking with teenagers online and meeting with them to understand what drives them and why they self-injure. In this timely and helpful book, youth workers, coaches, teachers, and others will get the information they need to begin to understand and help (or point to help) kids who cut.

In this poignant and vulnerable book, Leslie shows you how each hodgepodge piece of your life, no matter how haphazard, represents a part of what you do and who you are. While on the surface, none of these pieces may seem to make a terribly dramatic impact, Leslie will show you how they are your life and how when they are collected into a jar, a loving human heart, they become a treasure.

This book equips readers with proven principles to help them have life-changing discussions with kids about how Jesus changes lives, explain the plan of salvation, or lead a child in prayer to begin a relationship with Christ.

Love-Powered Parenting is written out of a love for parenting and a deep desire to encourage parents. Yes, there are experiences in parenting that can cause deep hurt. Yes, there are realities in parenting that certainly will cause you to feel inept. Yet at the core of it all there is a deep gratefulness for the gift that God gives in the opportunity to love a child. This audiobook is a biblical guide to parenting. And by "biblical guide" we mean that it is intended to take you on a journey through what the truth of God's word has to say about parenting.

We live in a fearful, anxiety-driven age where the problems and challenges of the world assault us from every direction and every media source, and they far exceed our abilities to respond to them. The sense of desperation that often comes of this leads to discord and violence: from bitter, cutting remarks to the atrocities of war; from pervasive racism to knee-jerk micro-aggressions. It contributes to our current, peace-bankrupt social discourse, leading to patterns of dismissing, dividing from, condemning, or hating people.

What does it take to be a great dad? The world is full of examples of men who weren’t there for their kids. But there are good and even great dads out there, who inspire their children and the men around them to reach for more. How do you become a dad like that - even if your own dad wasn’t such a good example? In The Dad Difference, Bryan Loritts explores the four gifts every kid needs from their dad: Relationship, integrity, teaching, and experiences. He walks you through what each of these mean and how to put them into practice.

Social media star and author CA Miljavac believes with all her heart that laughter is a gift, providing a sliver of distraction from life's struggles...relief when you need rescuing...hope in the midst of hardship. Though her life has been dotted with disaster, it's through laughter that she found the strength and courage to persevere...joy for the journey. And she'll help women of all ages discover the ways laughter can carry them through their very own painful situations.

Calm the H*ck Down is filled with stories from Melanie’s own life, as well as real-life research for learning how to lighten up about every aspect of parenting - from poopy diapers and germs to family vacations and adolescent angst. She also discusses the pressure to knock it all out of the Pinterest park, the challenge of instilling some kind of faith into your kids, and worrying about their future while still trying to live in the present.

New research finds that Christians are less involved in spiritual conversations today than we were twenty-five years ago. As society has changed, it seems we have become more uncomfortable talking with people about our faith. We are reluctant conversationalists. As a result, many of our churches and communities are shrinking instead of growing. What can we do about this?