Resources for Individuals or Small Groups

Choosing to Cheat: Who Wins when Family and Work Collide
by Andy Stanley  (View Book)
We live much of our lives balancing two worlds: work and family. Such was God's design from the beginning. However, the pressure of living in these two worlds often threatens to tear us apart. We do not have enough hours in the day to give both these worlds all the attention they need and deserve. In order to cope with the pressure we often develop destructive habits, most often in the way we care for our families. In this book, Andy Stanley challenges his readers to recognize the value that God places upon both worlds and offers a strategic plan for making the most of the balancing act, a way to end the destructive habits and make the most out of the life God has called us to live.
 

Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connecting Relationships 
by Randy Frazee  (view book)
God has placed in each of us a great desire for community. However, the practice of community often is squeezed out by the numerous activities of life, all of which seem important. In this book, Randy Frazee offers a path to simplifying our lives with what he calls a "Hebrew Day-Planner," so that we can connect with God, family, and others. This is a practical book with room for notes, small group questions, and suggestions for various levels of re-orienting our lives. This resource is suitable for groups and for everyone that has ever felt they are just too busy with life, much less life in community.


Resources for Individuals

The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live within Your Limits
by Richard A. Swenson  (View Book)
We live our lives to the limit. Our planners fill every available moment of our time. We work hard. We play hard. We live the good life. If life is so good, why doesn't it always seem that way? Why are we tired, worn out, always on the edge of burnout? Why do the bills always seem to be greater than the paycheck and the demands more than our resources? In this work, Richard Swenson offers an answer to questions such as these. We are living in a state of overload, a state of busyness beyond the busyness God ever intended for us. Swenson calls this state in which so many people live the "Overload Syndrome" and offers practical advice for recognizing the symptoms and reorienting one's life to create the margin God intends as a buffer to overload and burnout. 
 
 
Freedom from the Tyranny of the Urgent
by Charles E. Hummel  (View Book)
Have you ever wished for a thirty-hour day? We seem to reach the end of each day and find that our time has expired well before our to-do list. Perhaps a few more hours would help. Since each day only has twenty four hours, many of us spend every waking moment at maximum capacity so that we might accomplish all that is important, many times without a real sense of achievement or joy. In this book, Charles Hummel argues that the problem is not really a problem of time but an issue of priorities. We live in a constant tension between what is urgent and what is important. Many times we allow the urgent matters, things that often are not very important, to drown out the truly important. Hummel offers advice for determining what is truly important in light of God's desires and how to reorganize and reprioritize one's life to make the most of the time God has given to us each day.