In Hope When You’re Hurting, Drs. Larry Crabb and Dan Allender consider four key questions hurting people ask: What’s wrong? Who can help? What will the helper do? And, What can I hope for? In answering these questions, Crabb and Allender shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of different counseling models. They consider the psychological, medical, and spiritual aspects of emotional pain. They examine the role of the church as a vital agent for restoration and growth. And most important, they offer guidance, choices, and hope for people struggling with spiritual and emotional pain. “A thought-provoking book. It calls us to the restorative power of a healing Christian community.” — Gary Smalley, President of Today’s Family ” . . . a good and deep book.” — Siang-Yang Tan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary

No matter where our leadership roles find us–on the football team or in the corner office; organizing family activities, creating public policy, or teaching from the pulpit–all leaders are marked with character, the result of their being made in the image of God. All also are marred by sin and shortcomings. The most effective leaders, though, are the ones who embrace those realities as they are re-made by God, into the image of Christ. Author and speaker Dan Allender draws on humor, real-life stories and biblical truth to argue that every leader must both have a character and be a character. How can we proclaim resurrection without naming death and darkness? Likewise, how can we be renewed and restored without acknowledging the reality that we are marred? “It is in our brokenness,” he concludes, “that we have our greatest opportunity to reveal the heart of God’s goodness.” And the greatest opportunity to enhance and strengthen our leadership.

Find freedom and healing from painful memories and relational struggles and learn how your past has uniquely prepared you to experience more joy. 

Tragedy and pain inevitably touch our lives in some way. We long to feel whole, but more often than not, the way we’ve learned to deal with our wounds pushes us away from the very restoration we need most. Renowned psychologist Dr. Dan Allender and counselor and teacher Cathy Loerzel present a life-changing process of true connection and healing with ourselves, God, and others.¬†

With a clear, biblically trustworthy method, Allender and Loerzel walk you through a journey of profound inner transformation–from the shame and hurt of old emotional wounds to true freedom and healing. Drawn from modern research and their pioneering work at The Allender Center, they will help you identify your core trauma in one of the three outcast archetypes–the widow, orphan, or stranger–and chart your path of growth into the God-given roles of priest, prophet, or leader. This book will help you learn:¬†

• What to do about feeling out-of-place and directionless
• How your coping mechanisms create a false sense of health
• How to embrace your divine calling and find lasting reconciliation
• How your heart wounds are your unique invitation to true strength and purpose.

Your past pain does not dictate your life. Answer the call to healing and discover your life’s beautiful story and a future of hope and freedom.

Application questions are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

What would you do for twenty-four hours if the only criteria were to pursue your deepest joy?

Dan Allender’s lyrical book about the Sabbath expels the myriad myths about this “day of rest,” starting with the one that paints the Sabbath as a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance. This, he says, is at odds with the ancient tradition of Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. Instead, the only way we can make use of the Sabbath is to see God’s original intent for the day with new eyes. In Sabbath, Allender builds a case for delight by looking at this day as a festival that celebrates God’s re-creative, redemptive love using four components:

• Sensual glory and beauty
• Ritual
• Communal feasting
• Playfulness

Now you can experience the delight of the Sabbath as you never have before–a day in which you receive and extend reconciliation, peace, abundance, and joy.

The Ancient Practices

There is a hunger in every human heart for connection, primitive and raw, to God. To satisfy it, many are beginning to explore traditional spiritual disciplines used for centuries . . . everything from fixed-hour prayer to fasting to sincere observance of the Sabbath. Compelling and readable, the Ancient Practices series is for every spiritual sojourner, for every Christian seeker who wants more.