Family Ministry

Parenting teenagers is one of the biggest challenges parents face. New realities make becoming independent more difficult. Teens are traveling a different road and are moving at a different pace than those of previous generations. Today's cultural environment is more complicated and confusing than ever. But fear not! Family expert Jim Burns provides a handy guide for parenting teens.

Mary Katherine Backstrom spends her days mending booboos, conquering the boogie man, comforting heartaches, laughing at knock-knock jokes, cooking pancakes, throwing baseballs, and mopping muddy floors. In other words she spends her days relishing in the beautiful, constant noise that is a life with children. In Mom Babble, Mary Katherine (MK) Backstrom, founder and personality behind the Mom Babble online community, offers up hope, humor, and spiritual inspiration to families in the trenches of parenthood.

Caring for elderly parents is challenging. It's a season of life requiring strength that comes only from God. In The Caregiving Season, Jane Daly openly shares her stories from the front lines of battling guilt, negotiating new boundaries, and dealing with exhaustion. Her message of grace and hope will help you honor your aging parents well, and deepen your personal relationship with Christ along the way.

In Long-Distance Grandparenting, you'll learn how to make the most of the opportunities you do have to connect with your grandchildren. You will also learn - how to pray for your grandkids more effectively - ways to use technology to keep your relationship strong - great ideas for grandkid visits, holidays, and special occasions. More important, you'll find practical tools and encouragement to connect with your grandchildren so that you can share God's love and invest in their faith like never before!

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.

Make a lasting connection with your kid by learning how to effectively discuss life's most complicated topics. Tough Stuff Parenting will equip you to have thoughtful, age-appropriate conversations with your child. The biblically-based wisdom and practical tools you'll find inside will help you confidently engage your kid in meaningful dialogue. And when questions arise, your child will look to you first for answers instead of friends or the Internet.

Author Heather Anderson Renshaw, mother of five, is a lot like you. She knows all about the wild, crazy, and often hilarious experience of motherhood. And she feels sometimes like she's barely keeping up and maybe even failing at the whole “mom thing”. Thankfully, as she shares in this book, motherhood isn't a trip that's meant to be taken alone. God's got this, and the more we let him lead, the more we find the fruits of his Holy Spirit taking root in our hearts and in our families.

Sacred Holidays is part audiobook and part resource: meant to help you avoid what has tripped you up in the past and give you insights, tips, and tools to make your holidays less chaotic and more about loving Jesus and others.

Jami Amerine, author of Stolen Jesus, returns with a totally relatable account of her experiences as a mom. She's eager to help you see how to let your Heavenly Father parent you so you can embrace peace as you parent. Come find the miracle in the mayhem and meet the one whose presence turns sticky floors into sacred ground.

The notion that some might have it better than others, for no good reason, offends our sensibilities. Yet, until we talk about privilege, we’ll never fully understand it or find our way forward. Amy Julia Becker welcomes us into her life, from the charm of her privileged southern childhood to her adult experience in the Northeast, and the denials she has faced as the mother of a child with special needs. She tells us how a life behind a white picket fence can restrict even as it protects and how it can prevent us from loving our neighbors well.

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.

God created sex to be good. But our culture is drifting away from a biblical worldview and is promoting an unhealthy view of sexuality. The church has taken a defensive approach, giving our kids a long list of "do nots" with few words of hope or redemption. Do you want something better for your child? Rediscover God's plan for sexuality and instill a positive perspective of sex and identity in your children.

On the day of their baby dedication, Eryn and her husband were given a jar of 936 pennies. The jar contained a penny for every week they would raise their child until graduation, and they were instructed to remove one penny each Sunday as a reminder, placing it into another jar as an investment. At some point every parent realizes time is moving swiftly, and they ask themselves, How am I investing in my child? Through personal stories and biblical examples, 936 Pennies will help you discover how to capture time and use it to its fullest potential.

The Christian viewpoint is desperately needed in the cultural conversations of our day, but Christians have been effectively muted because they are not equipped to engage and combat the aggressive arrogance of those who actively seek to silence all viewpoints but their own. In Speak the Truth, Carmen LaBerge aims to get Christians off the sidelines and back in the conversation.

Every parent wants the best possible education for their child - one that fits their child's unique needs, challenges them to grow, and equips them to succeed. But there are so many options - public, private, and charter schools, plus homeschooling and online schooling - that it's easy for parents to feel overwhelmed and, well, undereducated about the choices. What's more, while one schooling option may be right for one child, it may be challenging for another.

Every Christian isn't called to adopt, but everyone is called to care for orphans. The evangelical adoption movement is but one strand in a long cord of Christian care for orphans. While adoption trends have fluctuated over time in different contexts, the Bible has not changed its position. The gospel is decidedly pro-adoption and on the side of the orphan. Yet many obstacles stand in the way of the Christian's mission to provide care to the least of these. So, what now?

Harry Potter has captivated the imagination of millions of children. And Harry Potter has caused controversy in churches and schools. What's a parent to do with the magical, mystical world of Harry and his friends? Gina Burkart chose to read the books with her own children. As they read together, she discovered many parallels between Christian faith and the themes of these books. Indeed, the escapades of Harry Potter sparked significant conversation between Burkart and her kids.

Through the challenges of raising five young children, Susan Alexander Yates realized the need for an honest, practical book that helps parents. This best-selling book has helped thousands handle common struggles such as priorities, discipline, and fatigue. Yates is honest about parenting frustrations, yet encourages parents, offering a biblical perspective on shaping a Christian home.

Dirty laundry, crayon-smeared bills, smashed crackers...and there's your Bible, buried under a pile of diapers. Bleary-eyed from a lack of sleep, without a moment of peace and quiet, you wonder if the spiritual life you crave is even possible. But God sees you. He designed this parenting journey, after all. He understands the chaos of motherhood, and he joins you in everything - whether you're scrubbing the floor, nursing a fussy newborn, or driving your kids to soccer practice.

A generation is rising up to care for the hurting and oppressed. Committed to changing the world, they are passionate about justice and willing to fight for it. But what would that same justice look like if we lived it in our private lives - close to home, with our family and friends? In Chivalry, Zach Hunter dares young men and women to view their lives as a quest, challenging them to develop their own personal code that will prepare them to defend others and live with civility and integrity. Zach reframes chivalry in a modern context.