When people think of coach they usually think about sports and usually men, but a coach’s role is so much bigger than the tiny box we put them in.

Listen in as Ed Flaherty explains…[display_podcast]

Did you enjoy our podcast and think this is the perfect book for you or someone you know? Post a comment below for your chance to win a free copy of Coached for Life by Ed Flaherty!

What is the legacy of a great coach? When the players of the Great Falls Central Mustangs arrived for the first day of practice in the fall of 1962, they had their sights set on the unlikely goal of the state championship. But what their coaches delivered was far more lasting than a championship ring.

Coached for Life, by Ed Flaherty and Jack Uldrich, is the true account of how two high school football coaches, Bill Mehrens and John McMahon, molded an undistinguished group of young men into state champions. The book includes a dramatic 40 year retrospect from the players themselves (including Flaherty, a former team captain) describing how the principles instilled in them during the 1962 season continued to shape their lives in positive ways long after they left the football field.

Flaherty and Uldrich’s book is not just another feel-good football story. Rather, it is an amazing testament to the profound impact that any leader—the coach, the teacher, the boss, the minister, or the parent—can have on someone else’s life, particularly when he or she is leading young people. Coached for Life provides much-needed encouragement for weary leaders who sometimes wonder if their hard work really makes a difference.

Coached for Life also speaks to students. As Flaherty passes down the life lessons he and his teammates learned over forty years ago, the stories provide a compelling case for the values this generation so often overlooks—discipline, sacrifice, goal-setting, and responsibility, to name a few. Each chapter concludes with a summary of the key point and a set of thought-provoking discussion questions, making it the perfect vehicle for corporate leadership studies, ministry volunteer meetings, and teacher professional development.

Coached for Life by Ed Flaherty and Jack Uldrich

Bronze Bow Publishing/March 2010

ISBN: 978-0-615-27882-7/383 pages/softcover/$19.95

Website: www.coachedforlife.com ~ Blog: www.coachedforlifeblog.com

From Terror and Scars to Beauty and Redemption

A noted musician wrestles with God to find meaning, hope, and His glory

in the aftermath of family tragedy.

Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX—As her older brother battled for his life in the ICU, Candi Pearson-Shelton sat waiting and praying with her family for a miracle. The Scriptures were more precious to them in those hours than ever. As Candi poured over the words from Isaiah chapter 40, a song was born. A voice cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God…. Then every eye will see the glory of the Lord revealed. The days and months and years that would follow would be painful, but Candi and her family found in the words of this biblical song a sort of mission—a call to find the glory of the Lord shining through the sorrow and to reflect that glory to all those around them.

And when death finally came, by the grace of God, they were able to find purpose through the pain. In fact, they found a depth of beauty in the abyss of the loss that they never could have imagined. Candi discovered that her vision was too narrow, that her lens was too tainted by her own perceptions of fairness and justice and her own desire to control the outcome.

In the fiercely honest yet faithful book, Desperate Hope: When Faith in God Overcame My Despair, Candi shares the lessons that came to them along their journey, offering a song of praise to One who, in the midst of tragedy, pain and confusion, revealed not only His glory but also beauty, unexpected graces, a hope more grounded in faith and a shifted perspective that changed nothing but somehow made all the difference.

“I write these thoughts out of necessity,” the author reflects. “There is value in recording the gentle whispers and hard-learned faith lessons that make up the aftermath, springing up like tender shoots of vivid green grass through the contrasting blackened dry soot. These are my blades of grass, the lessons in the aftermath, told with the heart of an adventurer fresh from the adventure, brimming with tales of terror and scars, of beauty and redemption.”

All of the profits from the sale of Desperate Hope will go to the Rick Pearson Memorial Fund, a non-profit that exists to extend the hope of Christ to others by championing the interests and organizations that Rick passionately supported. Monies that are donated to the Rick Pearson Memorial Fund are used to help support organizations like Compassion International, Bigstuf Camps, The 410 Bridge, Passion Conferences and most recently, a scholarship fund for students who want to pursue a ministry of music with an emphasis on missions.

There is a song entitled “One Breath, Then Another,” that will accompany the book. There will be a code inside each book to redeem online for a free download of the song.

About the author: Candi Pearson-Shelton is a worship leader, songwriter and independent artist. Known for her involvement with the Passion worship movement, she also wrote and performed the title track on the Dove-award-winning album, Glory Revealed. She and her husband Jonathan live in Southern California with their son, Elias.

Desperate Hope by Candi Pearson-Shelton

David C Cook/February 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-1-4347-6614-4/224 pages/softcover/$12.99

www.davidccook.com

When trusted author and mentor Sally Clarkson noticed a lack of joy in her own life, she realized how easy it can be, especially for women with overloaded to-do lists, to feel weighed down by drudgery and disappointment. But rather than slogging through her days, Sally wanted to know the delight of God’s presence. She began prayerfully exploring how to cultivate deep-rooted joy even in the midst of difficult seasons.

In this warm and wise book, she invites you to experience for yourself what happens when you trust God to lead you into a life of anticipation, passion, and purpose.

Weaving biblical insights with real-life stories that reflect every Christian woman’s deepest longings, Dancing with My Father reveals how any woman, in any circumstance, can daily live in beauty and grace, joy and peace.

Unfortunately, even the best of intentions can go awry. There are so many challenges on the journey to adult friendship that the reality is fraught with friction and frustration. But a harmonious relationship is possible.

Award-winning author Cheri Fuller and her daughter, Ali Plum, have been there and have discovered the keys to a healthy relationship. In Mother-Daughter Duet they share their story—each from her own perspective—in which they have experienced distance and tension, growth and challenge, and, ultimately, acceptance and harmony. Filled with personal anecdotes and based on several basic principles (letting go; listening; respect; setting boundaries; and more), Mother-Daughter Duet helps moms repair the breach so that daughters want to draw close.

The mother-daughter dynamic is intense, personal, complex, and unique. But mothers and daughters can achieve mutual respect and learn to celebrate their differences when they learn the two-part harmony of the mother-daughter duet.

What does Jesus have to say to you?

Ever wonder what Jesus might say to you if you met him on the street? Chances are his message to you wouldn’t be all that different from what it was two thousand years ago, even though you live in a totally different world. You can discover what he said–and what it means for you–by reading his words preserved in the Bible.

Life offers you 90 short devotions that help you encounter Jesus’ words for yourself. Popular author Melody Carlson unpacks the message that Jesus wanted his followers to understand. Then she shows you how it applies to your life during the highs and lows of school, family life, relationships, and more.

If you want to read the Bible for all it’s worth, check out this second book in the Words from the Rock series.

Each of the nearly forty Points of Power encourages, uplifts, and comforts. The Points offer material for meditation and reveal a blueprint for harnessing the force of God. Key scriptures with practical applications, helpful prayers, and prompts for self-reflection all help you access the authority and benevolence of God.

The Points of Power themes–faith, love, forgiveness, confession, praise, confidence, prayer, peace, protection, and victory–are freshly presented in an entertaining gathering of stories and anecdotes. The message throughout is that God intends for you to be successful, victorious, and happy.

God has given you benefits and privileges, including the power to change your life, your attitude, and your outlook. POINTS OF POWER will show you how!

A collection of wise, compelling, and often uproariously funny essays built around the experience of music as a transformational element in a moment of truth, Hear No Evil mines Matthew Paul Turner’s humorous memories of his evangelical youth and invites readers to groove along on his journey.

From attending forbidden contemporary Christian concerts to moving to “Music City” Nashville, Hear No Evil chronicles Turner’s “life soundtrack” which morphs seamlessly into the stories of people, places, and experiences that have taught the music-editor-turned-author some new things about God, forced him out of his comfort zone, and introduced him to a fresh view of grace along the way.

If you’ve ever had the opening bars of a song transport you back in time or remind you of a pivotal spiritual moment, Matthew Paul Turner’s honest—and frequently hilarious—musings will strike a chord. Straight forward and amusing, Hear No Evil is an exploration of a life of faith lived to a personal soundtrack.

When you face a health-care need today, you have to be prepared for:

• less personal attention
• more complications with insurance and government programs
• a 40 percent national misdiagnosis rate, per recent surveys

Author Lisa Hall can help. Her years-long search for diagnosis has given her top-to-bottom expirience with the health-care system. Aided by the expertise of internal-medicine doctor Ronald Wyatt, Lisa provides a wide variety of practical guidance on how to:

• find the right kind of doctor, check qualifications, and increase the benefits of office visits
• maximize your Internet research
• navigate medical insurance, Medicare, workers’ compensation, and Social Security disability
• avoid being a victim of hospital mistakes
• organize your medical records in a way that helps practitioners help you

When you take charge of your own health, you’ll be ready to proactively take advantage of the help that’s out there.

How Does Your Parenting Stand Up to the Real World?

Introducing a new approach that swaps fear and guilt for grace and wisdom

I have a few extra copies of this book ready to give away! Would you like to learn more about what it takes to be a real world parent? Post a comment for a chance to win a FREE copy of Real World Parents!

Listen in to my interview with Mark Matlock…

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If news stories and some high-profile Christian leaders are to be believed, the task of parenting—particularly of parenting a teenager—has never been more difficult or terrifying. The often-quoted statistics, which, like a fisherman’s tale, seem to grow more fantastic with each retelling, have produced a groundswell of panic within many Christian circles. Pharmacy parties, oral sex, and apostasy…oh my! Many parents live in constant fear that they will fail, that their children will be devoured by the world—unless mom and dad can inspire good behavior for 18 full years. But what if parents are only hearing part of the story? What if the real world isn’t so scary, after all?

In his new book Real World Parents: Christian Parenting for Families Living in the Real World, popular author and speaker Mark Matlock offers a perspective that directly contrasts the usual fear and guilt-based parenting programs that focus on shielding kids from the evils of the world and producing good behavior. Parents, he says, become fearful and controlling because they are listening to the wrong story—the world’s story. Real World Parents is about a fundamental shift in focus towards God’s epic, timeless story and His understanding of reality, which is unchanging, regardless of the world’s traps and trends.

What readers won’t find in the pages of Matlock’s book is a rigid program or magic formula for churning out good kids because Real World Parenting is not about what parents do. It’s about who they are.

“Many Christian parenting books focus on helping parents figure out how to raise well-behaved, well-mannered kids. And while that’s an important element, not many focused on raising kids to have hearts that seek after Christ. The goal of parenting, in the long run, isn’t for our kids to be known for how well behaved they are, but for how well they know and respond to God,” Matlock says. “Our behaviors are ultimately driven by our understanding of the way the world works, of what we believe to be true and false about the universe, of our perception of reality. How can we communicate God’s worldview to our kids? What story are we telling them about the universe, both intentionally and—more importantly—in the way we live with and for God over time?”

Matlock teaches a wisdom-based approach to passing God’s story on to young people and teaching them by example how to navigate the real world. Along the way, Real World Parents will discover:

·         Why God likes us and is already happy with our families

·         Surprising statistics about teen sex, drugs, and smoking that raise the question: are things really getting worse?

·         The three most common parental responses to a scary world—and why they don’t work

·         Why parents should teach their children how to “fail productively”

·         What kids really need to become spiritually healthy—and how parents can provide those things

·         How to evaluate media through the lens of God’s story

Just like the Real World Parents seminars, the book guides parents through the seven marks of a wise person, encouraging them to examine their definitions of success, their management of resources, the sources they turn to for wise counsel, and the health of their relationships. Matlock believes it is only through embracing and modeling God’s wisdom to their families that parents will create an environment that promotes the true spiritual growth of their children.

Real World Parents is, at the heart, a message of hope for families. “We wonder how God could ever look at our families in the shape they’re in and grin. And the problem is that as parents we sometimes forget that we’re also children, that our God is our Father, that he’s even more lovingly inclined to smile

at us than we are to smile at our own kids. Our father likes us, and he forgives even our parenting shortcomings and our family failings,” Matlock says. “No matter how good or bad you think your family is God has plans for you that will unfold in the Real World. God will continue to move your family along in the journey he has in store for you. That’s what real world parenting is about—understanding that journey and communicating it to our kids.”

Real World Parents: Christian Parenting for Families Living in the Real World by Mark Matlock

Zondervan/Youth Specialties   March 2010

ISBN: 978-0-3106-6936-4/143 pages/softcover/$12.99

www.RealWorldParents.com

“Why am i so bored with Jesus?”

“Why are Christians so hard for me to like?”

There are many questions we’re not supposed to ask when playing by the religious rules. It makes people uncomfortable. So why is it that Jesus invited questions and even asked some himself? What is it that you’re afraid to ask God? It’s a risky prospect to begin asking-but far riskier to continue simply trying to get by without knowing. Author C.D Baker asked himself forty soul-searching questions, which started a conversation in his heart and ultimately showed him more about God than he never expected.

Can we become more honest with who we really are and fin who God says he really is at the same time? Come indulge yourself in daily readings with an honest exploration of your secret fears and thoughts, and know that you will always be welcomed in God’s unconditional love.

C.D. Baker founded an award-winning business before redirecting his career to write full-time from his small farm in Bucks Count, Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books, including more than five novels. Baker has a master’s degree in theological studies from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.