Mama Bear Apologetics

Ed. Hillary Morgan Ferrer

This book asserts that parents—not the church—have the primary responsibility to train their children how to think Biblically. The authors seek to harness mothers’ protective instincts (since they often spend the most time with their kids) by equipping them to address the cultural lies their kids encounter in worldviews like self-helpism, naturalism, postmodernism, and pluralism. A “Mama Bear” apologist is able to discern the good and bad; present a Biblical perspective; and reinforce with discussion, discipleship, and prayer. Each chapter ends with prayer points and discussion questions.

Afraid of All the Things

Scarlet Hiltibidal

Fear gripped Hiltibidal as a young girl when her parents divorced and her security evaporated. As she aged, it included everything from her appendix bursting to tornadoes, cancer, and home security. She writes with humor, honesty, and a unique perspective as the daughter of a Saturday Night Live cast member and adoptee of a SWAT cop and, later, a pastor’s wife and adoptive mother to a deaf girl from China. As she better understood the gospel, she realized she couldn’t fix or protect herself and began to overcome her anxiety: “Fear is still here, but it is defeated.”

The Brave Learner

Julie Bogart

Most parents want their children to love learning, but they stick closely to traditional methods of measurement, such as grade levels. Bogart, a veteran homeschooling mother of five, thinks this is problematic. She encourages mothers to add “enchantment”—surprise, mystery, intrigue, and adventure—to their homeschool routines. The book gives helpful tips about altering the home environment and family practices to facilitate more connections and enjoyable learning experiences. It also represents a growing emphasis on child-directed learning within the homeschool movement: As children get older, parents in their role as educators should be “collaborators,” not dictators.

The Burden Is Light

Jon Tyson

Culture pressures us to perform, achieve, and accumulate: One Manhattan mother told Tyson and his wife that their son would be disadvantaged if they put him into the wrong kindergarten. But this book urges readers to consider the wonder of God’s grace. It contrasts the world’s tyranny of comparison, competition, control, cursing, complacency, judgment, pride, and distraction with the freedom of calling, compassion, surrender, blessing, passion, mercy, humility, and presence. Tyson challenges readers to live “the way that produces the fruit of the Spirit … and the fruit of the kingdom as a preview of the life to come.”

AFTERWORD

In Until Every Child Is Home (Moody Publishers, 2019), Todd Chipman relates his own experience as an adopted child, a pastor, and a father of two adopted daughters from the foster system. He says orphan care is essential for Christians not only because the Bible mandates it, but for its transformative work in believers and local congregations. The book includes narratives from evangelical leaders and adoptive parents like Russell Moore, Rosaria Butterfield, and David Platt, whose stories illustrate specific areas of growth they and their local churches experienced through orphan care.

Discussion questions following each chapter are conducive to group study. Chipman provides a rich theological framework for those called to foster care and adoption, showing how it unifies ministries, cultures, and races—and disrupts the sex-trafficking pipeline. He challenges pastors to lead the way, calling orphan care “an opportunity to exemplify the gospel for their congregations and to the world.” —M.J.