Personal Ministries

Women: you're not alone in your marriage. You never have been, and you never will be. While it may not always feel like it, God desires for you to have a relationally healthy, emotionally engaged, and spiritually mature husband with whom you can share your days. In Loving Him Well, Gary Thomas builds on concepts from his best-selling book Sacred Marriage to reveal the inner workings of a man's heart and mind. He delves into Scriptures that help women gain biblical insight to influence their husbands.

Today's children and teens are growing up more anxious, depressed, and fearful than previous generations. But if we help this generation, often called "Gen Z", to discover true God-confidence, instead of chasing the illusive self-confidence, we can empower them to embrace their uniqueness and find their purpose, passion, and peace as they grow into humble, compassionate, and resilient young people. Cyndie Claypool de Neve, an associate marriage and family therapist, shares her personal journey from feeling anxious and suicidal to learning God-confidence.

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.

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.

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?

Realer than the most real conversation you’ve ever heard on the topic, Michael Todd’s honest, heartfelt, and powerful teaching on relationships has already impacted millions of people in all seasons of life around the world. Now, in Relationship Goals, Michael tells his own story of heartache and healing, unpacks explosive truths from God’s word, and tells it to you straight to help you win at relationships in every part of your life.

The Orthodox Christian tradition is filled with wisdom and guidance about the biblical path of salvation. Yet this guidance remains largely inaccessible to parents and often disconnected from the parenting challenges we face in our homes. Parenting Toward the Kingdom will help you make the connections between the spiritual life as we understand it in the Orthodox Church and the ongoing challenges of raising children.

In today's fast-paced ever-changing society, parents are hit with more controversial, pressure-packed decisions to make than ever before. With the Internet, cable television, and video games bombarding our children and attempting to make an assault on their minds daily, what are parents to do? In today's ever-changing economic and social climate, how do parents find the balance necessary to positively raise their children?

Best-selling author Bruce Wilkinson shows how to identify and overcome the obstacles that keep millions from living the lives they were created for. He begins with a compelling modern-day parable about Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream. With the help of the Dream Giver, Ordinary begins the hardest and most rewarding journey of his life.

Christians today are often not prepared to suffer well and have a short-sighted view of pain and trials. Ken Boa shows how God uses suffering to shape his children for eternity and to grow them in Christlike character. The book of 1 Peter tells us suffering is both a guarantee and comparatively brief; we shouldn't be surprised when it comes to us. The nature of our affliction is not as important as our response to it. God is at work through our hardships and wants to use them to prepare us for eternal life. Suffering can make us bitter or better. Rediscover living hope, present joy, and a glorious future.

We are not taught how to grieve, and yet grief comes to every one of us at some time. Bestselling author Lauraine Snelling discovered this truth when she began her own journey with grief in 1985, the year her 20-year-old daughter, Marie, lost her battle with cancer.

In this nonfiction book,A Hand to Hold, Lauraine helps us release the fears that make us uncomfortable around those who grieve. She urges us to offer those who grieve the gifts of touch, tears, talk, and time.

Probably no other dimension of human experience has been pondered, discussed, debated, analyzed, and dreamed about more than the nature of true love. Yet, for all our thinking and talking, where can we turn for genuine insight in matters of true love? Dr. Myles Munroe provides answers to the questions surrounding the true nature of love as he exposes the false images created in our culture.

Monica Swanson knew she'd tapped a heartfelt concern when nearly two million readers shared her blog post, "What a Teenage Boy Needs Most from His Mom". In this helpful audiobook, she takes mothers deeper into the insights they need for the boy-raising journey, covering topics from dealing with the daily influences of friends and technology to helping a boy grow to be physically, spiritually, and emotionally healthy. She also addresses learning and finding passions, perspectives on relationships and dating, and work ethics and money management.

Dave Ramsey is a businessman and entrepreneur who accumulated a $4-million real-estate portfolio, only to lose it all - and nearly everything else he owned - by making the same mistake millions of Americans make every day: he got too far into debt to get out. Dave Ramsey is also a Christian family man who, through the turmoil of his financial nightmare, discovered a new way of life. He shared the lessons he learned by writing Financial Peace, a simple but powerful guide that offers practical lessons on how to get out of debt - and stay out.

Nothing destroys trust like sexual betrayal. Beyond broken vows, a woman who discovers that her husband has been viewing pornography or having an affair must deal with devastating blows to her self-image and self-worth. She must grapple with the fact that the man she thought she knew has lied and deceived her. She may even bear the brunt of shame and judgment when the people around her find out.

Fields of Gold is a practical and inspirational book based on the principle of sowing and reaping. If we sow fear, what will be our harvest? And conversely, if we sow faith, what will we grow? This book moves the reader beyond fear and guilt about giving, and into confidence, security, and excitement. Andy Stanley unpacks our irrational fears about money, helping us to discover that generous giving is actually an invitation for our heavenly Father to resupply us with enough seed to sow generously throughout our lives.

In today’s polarized context, Christians often have committed, biblical rationales for very different positions. How can Christians navigate disagreements with both truth and love? Tim Muehlhoff and Rick Langer provide lessons from conflict theory and church history on how to negotiate differing biblical convictions in order to move toward Christian unity.

Trust can be rebuilt in your marriage! With patient, loving, self-sacrificing effort, it's possible that one day your wife will risk her heart with you again. And she may even have more respect and love for you than before. In Worthy of Her Trust, Jason Martinkus relates how he repaired his own marriage after revelations of sexual addiction. Along with Stephen Arterburn, Jason offers exercises and tools to help your marriage begin again.

All parents want their daughters to marry godly young men. But which qualities, specifically, should they be looking for? What He Must Be...If He Wants to Marry My Daughter outlines 10 qualities parents should look for in a son-in-law, including trustworthiness, a willingness to lead his family, an understanding of his wife's role, and various spiritual leadership qualities.

When someone leaves an abusive marriage, life isn't instantly fixed. Women who have experienced domestic violence feel shattered. Because of the trauma they've been through, a bond with their abuser has formed that keeps them tied together long after they've physically left. Karen DeArmond Gardner understands these difficulties all too well. And she intimately knows what women in this situation need in order to gain freedom from the lies of abuse - to be reborn as the people God longs for them to be.