Made For The Middle

This updated and expanded version of an industry classic by one of America's best-known youth pastors unlocks the keys to a healthy, impactful middle school ministry.

No longer a toddler not yet a teen-ager, the middle years can be a challenging time for parents. Yet it is a vital time to establish the kinds of family values that you want before the turbulent teen years begin. If you have ever felt challenged by your child's behaviour, have felt that you just don't know what to do next or that your parenting tool box' is empty then you need this book. Dr Anna Cohen draws on over 20 years of experience as a child clinical psychologist to come up with simple, effective strategies that you can begin using now to create stress-free family life in the middle years. Many parenting strategies rely on complicated behavioural management programmes and burdensome routines, when they fail to work families can become even more discouraged. Based in Dr Cohen's experience of what works, she has written a book that allows parents to use easy, simple and natural methods to create a happy home. These are strategies that don't cost money, don't require major changes to family routine and can be easily understood by every mum, dad and child. Dr Cohen's practical, evidence-based approach allows families to move from confrontation, frustration and threats to calm, collaboration and respect. This book can help every family negotiate the middle years and build the foundations for long-term parenting success.

With so many hot-button issues causing divisiveness in our culture, many Christians are struggling to live out their faith. There is a way, says Micahn Carter. Jesus modeled it perfectly: He stood strong in the middle of tension and loved people outside of His comfort zone. Growing up in a home mired in conflict, Micahn Carter learned how to unify people at an early age. As a young adult, he was skilled at understanding all sides of an issue and building togetherness. Then he became the pastor of a small, predominantly African-American church in downtown Yakima, Washington, where he reached out to people of different cultures, races, relationships, and opinions. Within a few years, Together Church grew into a thriving, multi-racial community of several thousand members that now spans three campuses. In Made for the Middle, he reminds Christians that God sent his Son to die for broken humanity so that reconciliation could be a new way of life—reconciliation between God and man, and through the power of Jesus, reconciliation among humankind. Made for the Middle provides a roadmap for resisting the urge to pick a side in the latest cultural debate and fighting instead for unity, for together, for love. Transformation is possible only when we take the time to build relationship, to seek to understand, and to follow Jesus’s example of creating unity.

The Citadel It stands unconquered, the last great summit of the Alps. Only one man has ever dared to approach the top, and that man died in his pursuit. He was Josef Matt, Rudi Matt's father. At sixteen, Rudi is determined to pay tribute to the man he never knew, and complete the quest that claimed his father's life. And so, taking his father's red shirt as a flag, he heads off to face the earth's most challenging peak. But before Rudi can reach the top, he must pass through the forbidden Fortress, the gaping chasm in the high reaches of teh Citadel where his father met his end. Rudi has followed Josef's footsteps as far as they will take him. Now he must search deep within himself to find the strength for the final ascent to the summit -- to plant his banner in the sky. His father died while trying to climb Switzerland's greatest mountain -- the Citadel -- and young Rudi knows he must make the assault himself.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.