Family Ministry

Everyone experiences pain at one time or another. For some of us, a few days of pain turn into weeks, months, years, and then decades. What do you do when you feel betrayed by your own body? How does faith fit into a life of pain? What can you do when, like Paul, God says, “No” to your request for healing? Can God receive glory from your life? Can you be used in spite of your limitations? These are a few of the questions I have asked as I’ve had to learn to live with chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia.

On the lovely spring afternoon of April 20, 2018, a backyard tree cracked, and a heavy limb fell. Twelve-year-old Evelyn suffered a devastating blow to her head as she shielded her puppy. A significant, compressed skull fracture required emergency neurosurgery. This freak, life-threatening event shook the Overlease family to the core, and an unbelievable experience was instantly set in motion that may take a lifetime to fully understand.

Traditional psychiatry, psychotherapy, and pastoral counseling - many Christian parents have tried these methods to help their troubled tweens, teens, and young adults, but have found that nothing works. These parents are frustrated, feel criticized by their church community, and no one seems to understand their teen, with caregivers providing outdated advice. In Your Teen’s Miraculous Brain, Dr. Nina Farley-Bates combines Christian principles and scientific methodology to bring relief to struggling families, gleaning from her 20 years of experience to help teens thrive.

Loving a prodigal is a long and desperate journey, filled with fear, worry, anger, self-recrimination. You wait for the phone call - will it be from jail or the hospital? You plead with your loved one. You search for help. You feel the shame. You cry out to God, "How long, Lord?" Author Judy Douglass knows these lovers of prodigals well. She is one herself and has created a large and growing community with others. When You Love a Prodigal is a collection of 90 essays - 90 days of perspective on what God offers to you as you love your prodigal.

Understanding Manna is written to explain God's plan including life's biggest questions, such as the meaning of life and the purpose of creation. In Understanding Manna, Dr. Daniel James Branagan systematically and clearly examines and explains Christian doctrine, including who is Jesus. Furthermore, the book focuses on explaining Jesus's love for all mankind and how his sacrifice on the cross established a clear path to salvation, for those who choose to take this path.

Almost overnight, America's public schools have become morally toxic. They are especially poisonous for the hearts and minds of children from religious families of every faith - ordinary families who value traditional morality and plain old common sense. Parents' first duty is to their children - to their intellect, their character, their souls. The facts on the ground point to one conclusion: Get out now.

"Write that book. Love God and Isabelle." Amy Lyon took her orders seriously, and in this transformative memoir, the author takes listeners on a gut-level journey as she shuffles (less than perfectly) through postpartum depression, the tragedy of losing an infant, and intense anger toward God - all while asking the question that plagues so many of us: What on earth am I here for? In time, she proves that - buried beneath the thick layers of sorrow - hope and joy can exist...even if you refuse to believe.

Mama Made the Difference comes straight from the heart of the Jakes family to yours. In his uplifting and powerful voice, Bishop Jakes shares personal stories about growing up in his mother's home, revealing the time-honored lessons and values she taught him. Woven into his personal vignettes are inspirational biblical stories about mothers, heartfelt advice for modern-day moms, and testimonials from other prominent African-American figures about the importance of motherhood.

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.

Eating Disorders, depression, gender confusion - these sound like problems for other people, but the reality is your students are dealing with them every day. The issues that girls face are growing in complexity and number. Written with the end user in mind, this resource will be one that won't leave a youth worker's hands.

How to connect with what’s most important in a hyperconnected world. Social media has the power to do a lot of good, but it can also get in the way of authenticity and create a sense of disillusionment. In Overliked, pastor and author Rob Singleton asks listeners to take a closer look at the optics in their lives and in the world around them. This is an audiobook about understanding how to see “likes” and “selfie” culture for what they really are and how to connect with the heart of God to build out a new way of thinking about social image.

This inspiring compilation of nearly 50 supernatural stories reveals God's miracle power in action today. Each story will move you in a fresh, new way to expect God's power in your own life and in the lives of your family and friends. Miracles still happen today and can happen to your readers just as they have for more than 50 individuals in the pages of this awe-inspiring book.

As your children grow, will their faith grow too? As both stories and statistics attest, the number of evangelical children who abandon Christianity in adulthood is staggering. To see effective change, parents cannot leave their child’s faith to chance. Rather, families must start nurturing faith early - you cannot start once your child is grown, you must start at home. Strengthening family and home life is the best way to encourage your children to maintain a lifelong faith. It Starts at Home upholds marriage and family as the proving ground for lasting success.

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.

Whether your idea of camping is in a tiny tent, a luxury RV, or somewhere in between, nothing beats having fun with family and friends in the fresh air. Relive favorite memories of childhood vacations and get excited for future outdoor adventures with these humorous and heartwarming recollections from best-selling author and camping enthusiast Melody Carlson. Pack your gear and hit the road with Melody.

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.

Millions of online fans have flocked to Susannah B. Lewis's hysterical, take-no-prisoners rants about her pet peeves in everyday life. Now, in How May I Offend You Today?, Lewis turns her trademark humor to ordinary events that work her nerves - from people who wear T-shirts with indecent images to public displays of affection in the plumbing aisle of Lowe's - while keeping a wry eye on herself and her own temptation to vent grievances "like a teenage girl in overalls and Birkenstocks."

Past Present shows listeners how to change destructive relationship patterns by identifying the root issues from their pasts and finding the source of healing for their unique stories.