Personal Ministries

Lets make love. Lets have sex. Is there a difference? You bet there is! While sex is the joining of two bodies, love is the joining of two souls. Sex without love will never be ultimately satisfying, but sex that grows out of love will take a marriage to a whole new level of satisfaction. In his trademark simple, straightforward style, Dr. Gary Chapman explores the Judeo-Christian teachings on love and sex and teaches couples that if they desire greater sexual satisfaction, they must first learn how to love.

Our lives are minefields of challenges that take their toll on our courage, our conviction, and even our faith. But God whispers to the weary, Don't give up. Drawing from inspiring biblical stories and first-person testimonies of perseverance, best-selling author and pastor Kyle Idleman encourages listeners to cast their concerns on God, trust in his love and timing, pray for patience and strength, and seek out support in the family of God.

The Bible provides ancient wisdom and values that can lead to a life of great success today. After years of biblical study and personal experience, William Douglas and Rubens Teixeira have identified 25 key principles that are of central importance to the pursuit of a successful career and life. In this practical and powerful book, listeners will learn 25 biblical laws of success; cures for seven sins that block success; what Solomon teaches in Proverbs about professional accomplishments; the mindset that encourages personal development.

Most Christians know they should be trying to tell their friends and family about Jesus. But in a post-Christendom world, personal evangelism is viewed negatively - it's offensive, inappropriate, and insensitive. Recent studies confirm that the majority of Christians rarely evangelize, worried they might offend their family or lose their friends. Here, author Sam Chan equips everyday Christians who are reluctant and nervous to tell their friends about Jesus with practical, tested ways of sharing their faith in the least awkward ways possible.

Marriage is all about sharing: sharing space, sharing joys and sorrows, sharing hopes and dreams. Yet we often hold back a part of ourselves because we fear that being wholly transparent - about our past, our desires, our failures, our faults - will bring judgment, rejection, or even just unwanted friction to our relationship. We are afraid to be fully known. As a result, we never experience being fully loved. In this paradigm-shifting book, Ryan and Selena Frederick show you how to develop a see-through marriage, one that is marked by full transparency and confident vulnerability.

Building on their work at Chaddock, a nonprofit organization that has worked with some of the most challenging kids in the nation for more than 150 years, the authors empower frustrated parents with practical tips and real-life examples on how to minimize behavioral meltdowns, reduce conflict, increase cooperation, promote healthy attachment, and improve family relationships. The strategies they share work both for the child who is going through a difficult phase brought on by life disruption or trauma, and for the child who faces chronic struggles.

From every side - the internet, social media, interactions with friends, in both their public and private lives - teens are persuaded to follow the world's way over God's every day. Culture's mantra "live for today" has become the slogan of this generation! But, one thing remains true - mom and dad are still the greatest influence in the life of their child. Based on timeless biblical truths, Raising Successful Teens equips parents with positive, encouraging, and practical advice.

Adolescence now lasts longer than ever before. And as world-renowned expert on adolescent psychology Dr. Laurence Steinberg argues, this makes these years the key period in determining individuals’ life outcomes, demanding that we change the way we parent, educate, and understand young people.

Only when you and your mate know and respect each other's needs, choices, and freedom can you give yourselves freely and lovingly to one another. Boundaries are the "property lines" that define and protect husbands and wives as individuals. Once they are in place, a good marriage can become better, and a less-than-satisfying one can even be saved. Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, counselors and authors of the award-winning best seller Boundaries, show couples how to apply the 10 laws of boundaries that can make a real difference in relationships.

This audiobook incorporates Pastor Dan's principles, which provide practical and proven ways to pick a spouse, and is your guide to finding - and keeping - a lifelong partner. You will discover how to test your relationship for key differences using a variety of methods including the Seven Cs: Character, Chemistry, Competency, Cultural Differences, Commitment, Communication and Core Values.

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.

Your husband learned from an early age to deny his true feelings - and to be silent about his deepest needs. Most men long for greater intimacy with their wives, but they have no idea how to find it. Best-selling author David Murrow breaks the silence, uncovering the central secret of your spouse’s heart. He reveals what every husband since Adam has felt but has been unwilling or unable to say. If you really want to know what’s stored up in your husband’s heart, listen to this audiobook.

Offering solid, practical advice and a fresh perspective on making this gift a bigger part of our families, The Blessing powerfully communicates these biblically based elements as necessary to prepare children for positive future relationships, including their relationship with a loving God.

In Mother to Son, Jasmine Holmes shares a series of powerful letters to her young son. These are about her journey as an African American Christian and what she wants her son to know as he grows and approaches the world as a Black man. Holmes deals head-on with issues ranging from discipleship and marriage to biblical justice. She invites us to listen as she reminds Wynn that his identity is firmly planted in the person and work of Jesus Christ, even when the topic is one as emotionally charged as race in America.

This book combines professional insights along with the author's own experience and insights to speculate on how believers can make sense of their Christian faith when confronted with tragedy and suffering.

The Orthodox Church's reverence for Mary the Mother of God can be a stumbling block for converts, and a fulfilling relationship with her can prove elusive for converts and lifelong Orthodox Christians alike. In this deeply personal but beautifully universal memoir, Brandi Willis Schreiber relates her own quest to know and love the Virgin Mary and to incorporate her as a vital participant in her spiritual life. Brandi's sparkling, vulnerable account invites the listener to join her in this quest.

In the years following the senseless and tragic shooting on the campus of New Life Church in Northern Colorado Springs, Colorado, senior pastor Brady Boyd has received countless questions from the faith-filled and faithless alike. As the nation watched the suffering congregation reel from the gunman's rampage and, later, steady their stance once more, the one question on everyone's mind was, "How has new life weathered such a horrible storm so well"?

This book is for everyone who has a father. And for all those who know what it's like to long for a father's blessing: his approval, affection, and attention. It's for anyone who's ever longed to hear your dad say, "I love you. I'm so proud of you." You may already know what it's like to live in the rays of such a blessing, to flourish in the marvelous light of a father's love. Yet, in this "fatherless generation", it's also likely you've never known the blessing of your earthly dad.

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?

Dr. Ray has spent his career helping to strengthen families through a combination of Catholic theology, common-sense insights, and wry humor. Now, having become a new grandpa himself, Dr. Ray is turning his attention to the joyful, rejuvenating, and sometimes complicated subject of grandparenting.