Genealogy is, widely considered to be, one of the fastest growing hobbies in the U.S. We have become consumed with constructing our family tree in an attempt to trace our lineage. Fortunately, the Bible does an excellent job helping us trace the ancestry of our faith family. Pastor and author Jacob Armstrong takes an in-depth look at our faith lineage focusing specifically on the messy family dynamics found in the book of Genesis. As we begin to understand the life stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau we find that their pattern looks a lot like ours—we are called, we mess up, and God continues to redeem us. Find out how your “messy family” fits into God’s family and how you are a part of God’s plan for the world. Additional components for a six-week study include a DVD featuring pastor and author Jacob Armstrong and a comprehensive Leader Guide. Also available for your church is a helpful guide to small groups titled The Connected Life: Small Groups that Create Community. Chapters include: The Myth of the Perfect Family The Gap Between What God Says and What You See No, Nothing Is Too Hard for the Lord Loss and Promise in the Family of God Promise Maker and Promise Keeper The Beauty of Imperfection

When you look at the church today, what do you see? A corporation with a CEO at the helm? A social organization that does good things for the community? Pastor Ross Parsley believes that neither of those pictures is God’s desire. Instead, God wants His church to function as a family—a group of real people who love each other and care for one another’s needs, no matter how messy. Our culture is dying for the kind of community that only the church can provide—if we are living as God intended: as a family, protecting one another, extending grace, and loving unconditionally. We are not called to be consumers who ask what the church can offer us. We are called to love deeply, fight fairly, and bring hope to a generation of people starving to belong to something greater than themselves. Welcome to the family. You belong here.

Genealogy is, widely considered to be, one of the fastest growing hobbies in the U.S. We have become consumed with constructing our family tree in attempt to trace our lineage. Fortunately, the Bible does an excellent job helping us trace the ancestry of our faith family. Pastor and author Jacob Armstrong takes an in-depth look at our faith lineage focusing specifically on the messy family dynamics found in the book of Genesis. As we begin to understand the life stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau we find that their pattern looks like a lot like ours—we are called, we mess up, and God continues to redeem us. Find out how your “messy family” fits into God’s family and how you are a part of God’s plan for the world. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.

Find beauty and hope by facing and dealing with the messiness of family life. The family is an imperfect institution. Broken people become broken parents who make broken families. But actually, broken is normal and exactly where God wants us. In The Beauty of Broken, Elisa Morgan, one of today’s most respected female Christian leaders, for the first time shares her very personal story of brokenness—from her first family of origin to the second, represented by her husband and two grown children. Over the years, Elisa’s family struggled privately with issues many parents must face, including: alcoholism and drug addiction infertility and adoption teen pregnancy and abortion divorce, homosexuality, and death Each story layers onto the next to reveal the brokenness that comes into our lives without invitation. “We’ve bought into the myth of the perfect family,” says Elisa. “Formulaic promises about the family may have originated in well-meaning intentions, but such thinking isn’t realistic. It’s not helpful. It’s not even kind.” Instead she offers hope in the form of “broken family values” that allow parents to grow and thrive with God. Values such as commitment, humility, relinquishment, and respect carry us to new places of understanding. Owning our brokenness shapes us into God’s best idea for us and enables us to discover the beauty in ourselves and each member of our family.

Parents know the drama of living with a teenage girl. Teen girls struggle to honor their closest relationships while finding their unique identity during adolescence, especially in today’s families which can be messy, complex, and even painful. But family—however messy—can also provide the perfect training ground to make us more like Christ. Family: How to Love Yours (and Help Them Like You Back) is written to come alongside a young woman and equip her as she navigates her roles, responsibilities, and responses from a Christian perspective. With tender, funny, and hope-filled insight, Jessie Minassian digs in deep where parents sometimes struggle to be heard. Jessie offers trusted advice and wise, Godly counsel for a young woman to honor her closest relationships, see her family’s dynamics in new ways, and have some fun along the way!

Sometimes, grace gets messy. Caleb Kaltenbach was raised by LGBT parents, marched in gay pride parades as a youngster, and experienced firsthand the hatred and bitterness of some Christians toward his family. But then Caleb surprised everyone, including himself, by becoming a Christian…and a pastor. Very few issues in Christianity are as divisive as the acceptance of the LGBT community in the church. As a pastor and as a person with beloved family members living a gay lifestyle, Caleb had to face this issue with courage and grace. Messy Grace shows us that Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t have an exception clause for a gay “neighbor”—or for that matter, any other “neighbor” we might find it hard to relate to. Jesus was able to love these people and yet still hold on to his beliefs. So can you. Even when it’s messy. “Messy Grace is an important contribution to the conversation about sexual identity for churches and leaders. Caleb's story is surprising and unique, and he weaves it together compellingly. He states his views clearly, leaves room for disagreement, and champions love no matter where you are in this conversation.” —Jud Wilhite, Sr. Pastor, Central Christian Church

Most Christians believe that the Bible holds the answers to their questions about daily living, and that reading the Scriptures will show them good examples to follow for their own lives. Think for a moment and try to list a few examples of healthy families in the Bible who are ideals worth emulating. Having trouble? The families of the Bible were far from perfect, and not so different in that regard from our imperfect families today. In Flawed Families of the Bible, a New Testament scholar (David) and a professor of social work (Diana) take a real and close look at the actual families of the Bible. This honest book will inspire and encourage readers with its focus on the overarching theme of hope and grace for families, showing that it is in the "imperfect places" that we can catch a glimpse of grace. Perfect for pastors, counselors, and anyone in a flawed family.