Family Ministry

For Christian parents, there is no greater joy than seeing their children learn to walk with the Lord. And there is no greater fear than that their children will walk away from God. After serving together in pastoral ministry for 40 years, Phil and Diane Comer know those hopes and fears well. Thirty-seven years ago, they became parents themselves. And like all new parents, they were intimidated and unsure about how to take on the task of spiritually training their young children.

The relationship between a father and a son is like none other. Dads have a God-given role to protect and provide for their families, always striving to teach their sons the life skills they'll need to grow into honorable men. But many dads struggle with feelings of inadequacy regarding their fathering abilities. They want to be better dads. Rick Johnson can tell them how.

In I Can’t Believe You Just Said That!, Ginger Hubbard provides a practical, three-step plan to reach beyond the behaviors of tongue-related struggles - such as lying, tattling, and whining - to address your child’s heart. After all, as Matthew 12:34 tells us, “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Midwife Kim Osterholzer ushers listeners behind the doors of Amish homes as she recounts her adventures answering God's call to the craft of midwifery. Kim chronicles her nine-year apprenticeship grappling with the nuances and idiosyncrasies of homebirth. She recounts the beauty and painstaking effort of those early years spent catching babies by the light of crackling woodstoves, oil lamps, and lanterns. Every birth enthralled her, whether it involved halting hemorrhages, sharing breath with tiny lungs, or bouncing through wild rides in ambulances.

What does it take to raise great kids? If you've read any books on parenting, conflicting opinions have probably left you feeling confused. Get tough! Show acceptance. Lay down the rules. Lighten up, already! There's got to be a balance - and there is. Joining their expertise with the wisdom of MOPS International (Mothers of Preschoolers), Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend help you provide both the care and acceptance that make grace real to your child and the firmness and discipline that give direction.

Leading stepfamily expert Ron Deal offers a revised and expanded edition of his signature resource, which addresses key concerns and practical issues facing every stepfamily.

Experienced pastor and seminary teacher R. Robert Creech helps pastoral leaders increase their effectiveness by applying family systems theory to congregational life and ministry. Creech introduces listeners to the basic concepts of Bowen Family Systems Theory, applies family theory to the work of ministry in church settings, and connects systems thinking to the everyday aspects of congregational ministry, such as preaching, pastoral care, leadership, spiritual formation, and interpreting biblical texts. Each chapter contains discussion questions and helpful information about Bowen theory.

What if you could experience a calm, peaceful, and glorious pregnancy and childbirth as God intended it from the absolute beginning? We have prepared more than 300 affirmations, declarations, and words to meditate on and to catapult you into that new way of life. There is a chapter for every trimester of your pregnancy and the last chapter for preparation of the day your child is born. Listen to these declarations throughout your whole pregnancy, and most importantly, repeat them on a daily basis.

In this helpful and encouraging book, Elizabeth Liebert introduces the practice of discernment and guides listeners through the process of faithful decision making. Following the way of discernment means becoming increasingly able to notice where God is at work in the world and in one's own life - and becoming increasingly generous with one's own life in response.

Dr. Kathy Koch (pronounced “cook”), author of Screens and Teens and 8 Great Smarts, will teach you proven strategies for training your child’s heart and parenting in a way that honors God. She’ll help you move your child from “I can’t, I won’t" to “I can, I will, and I did”.

Pastor Scott Kedersha has worked with more than 5,000 premarital couples to prepare them for the biggest decision of their lives. In Ready or Knot?, he offers practical and Christ-centered guidance for couples for all of the days after the wedding day.

As a teenager, Kristin Berry had heard all the horror stories surrounding foster care and adoption - abuse, neglect, rejection, anger, and misunderstandings. But instead of closing her heart, God opened it wide. This is Kristin's honest, unvarnished story of some of her experiences as a foster parent of 23 children over the course of nine years. What she learned is that living in a foster home is like living with a revolving door. You never know who will arrive or who you will have to say goodbye to. Leaving the door open means there will be heartache and pain, but also adventure and unexpected joy.

Former English teacher and homeschooling mother of three, Jessica Smartt felt the weight of helping prepare her kids for life, especially with all the outside pressures and influence of the world. She struggled with how she could raise her children with a sense of adventure, self-confidence, manners, faith, and the ability to utilize technology wisely. Let Them Be Kids is Jessica's offering of grace and confidence to moms, giving them practical ideas to meet these challenges.

Let's face it. With all the demands of the workplace and all the details of a family, it's only a matter of time before one bumps into the other. And many of us end up cheating our families when the commitments of both collide. In this practical audiobook, Andy Stanley will help you establish priorities and boundaries to protect what you value most.

Sexual abuse, sex addiction, gender confusion, brokenness, and shame plague today's world, and people are seeking clarity and hope. By contesting long-held cultural paradigms, this book equips you to see how sexuality is rooted in the broader context of God's heart and his work for us on earth. Instead of arguing with the world about what's right and wrong about sexual choices, this practical resource equips you to share the love and grace of Jesus as you encounter the pain of sexual brokenness - your own or someone else's.

Ken Ham is joined by his brother, Steve Ham, in presenting this powerful look at how the principles and truth of Genesis are vital to the strong and lasting foundation of a family. Sharing their own stories of growing up in a “Genesis” family and sharing this legacy within their own families, it is an intensely personal and practical guide for parents.

From successful parents, learn how to train up your children rather than discipline them. With humor and real-life examples, this book shows you how to train your children before the need to discipline arises. Be done with corrective discipline; make them allies rather than adversaries. The stress will be gone, and your obedient children will praise you and bring joy and peace into your home.

Sometimes moms see the never-ending laundry, dirty diapers, and skinned knees as relatively insignificant when compared to activities and callings that seem more important and lasting. But there is eternal value in even the most mundane moments if the great commission informs how we're thinking about all of life, including what it means to be a mom. Tracing motherhood in the story of the Bible and drawing out key implications for moms today, Gloria Furman helps women live out God's story.

Find the balance between tough love and tender love. In The Two Sides of Love, best-selling authors John Trent and Gary Smalley explain how to find a healthy balance between the protective, consistent, "hard side" of love and the tender, understanding, "soft side" of love. This is the groundbreaking book that introduced the four "animal" personality types and it will show you how to best demonstrate both sides of love in all your relationships-with your spouse, children, and friends. Included in this thoroughly updated edition is a free assessment of your core personality type.

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?