Parenting Beyond Your Capacity: Connect Your Family to a Wider Community

I am a mom of young kids and also involved in our kid's ministry at church. This is one of the most influential books I've read on both parenting and ministry. It helped me realize that I need peers, other adults, grandparents to be involved in my kid's lives in a big way, not because I need help to survive parenting (which I do) but because it will help my kid's lives become richer and help them realize their need for Christ earlier. I've recommended this book to just about every parent I know. It will not disappoint. Buy it now. Read it tomorrow.

Parenting Beyond Your Capacity: Connect Your Family to a Wider Community (The Orange Series)  is the latest in the collection of books in the Orange tradition. Reggie Joiner has been the leader of this movement that has attempted to combine the yellow force (church) and the red force (family) to impact the lives of children and young adults in powerful ways. In this book, co-authored by Carey Neiuwhof, the orange philosophy is applied to parenting. Joiner and Neiuwhof demonstrate that parents need to partner with the church to go beyond their own abilities. As parents allow other Christians into the lives of their children, their children are influenced in powerful ways.Consistent with the Orange approach to ministry and family, Joiner and Neiuwhof encourage parents to find ways to discuss faith in natural family settings. They list some opportunities that work well with the resources that are available from the ReThink Group, though the book never offers up these resources specifically except in some advertising at the end of the book. They also encourage the spiritual growth of the parents as well, which can happen by taking time out from life and by getting involved with small groups in a church setting.What is great about this book is the honesty that the writers show. They are willing to admit their own parenting mistakes, and they never speak from the position of superiority. As they note, so many Christian parenting books only bring about feelings of guilt and inadequacy. This book says that we are all imperfect, and we need influences from outside the home to help us figure all of this out.

I'm the preschool director at my church. We give this book to EVERY new parent at our annual Baby Dedication because it's THAT good. Parents need to know that they will mess up - we all do.. it's okay, that's why we raise our kids in communities and don't keep them locked in our homes! But they also need to hear that as parents, they have the biggest responsibility in raising Christians for the next generation. The church is here to guide and to walk through parenthood with the parent, but not to be the sole influence on their Christian walk.

One I’ll keep coming back to over the years. Such a great tool for learning how the Church & family are created to work together & maximize our capacity to reach our children with the Gospel.

I love this book! My church gave all the parents getting their babies dedicated a copy of the book. I have been handed books at various churches before and they have been, for lack of better words boring and obvious. So when the head of the children's ministry handed me the book I really didn't intend on reading it, but then she started stressing how she wanted all the parents to read it. She basically pleaded with the parents to read it, so I had to read it... Needless to say I was very blessed by this book. I am a 20 year old mother of two young children and at times I feel like I am not qualified to parent my wonderful kids, but this book touched on almost all of the issues I have! I have purchased this book for all the parents in my family for Christmas. GREAT BOOK!

Using real-life stories, and practical examples, Carey and Reggie give some top tips to connect your family to other like-minded people who will be an essential part of your parenting journey. Great reading for parents and Church leaders alike.

This is a GREAT book for spiritual parenting novices and experts both. It outlines some fantastic principles and leaves the details to be determined by your own family. It really focuses on helping parents see their priorities and how to teach those priorities to their children. It's also very encouraging, a "you CAN do this" pep talk at times. None of it will have you feeling guilty over your current inaction or overwhelmed with their recommended action plans. It will simply inspire you to find ways to fit more faith into your family's everyday life.

I am really enjoying the book, it’s for a class that I’m taking on Wednesday night, it has really helped me a lot !

There sure arent that many books out there to help our kids grow in gods kingdom especiallynot in the area of money... this was a great book for faith and the other great book i readon money for my kids was "raising kids of increase" by Carmen Lynne both great books