November is Adoption Awareness Month!
 
To celebrate this, I asked my friend, Tera Swaney, to join us and share her testimony and journey as a foster parent (and soon to be adoptive parent!). Most importantly, I want to highlight why foster care and adoption, while different, are so similarly part of God's redemptive plan in the world to care for the orphan and the widow.

Tera is currently a stay at home mom to her three boys, while her husband Jon is in full-time ministry. Their hearts are so clearly seen through the way they engage and love people where they've began to plant their roots as a family.

I sincerely hope that their story will encourage you to boldly ask God, "could I be doing more?" and to listen for that answer.                                                                                                                                                       
Here are some things we mentioned in the podcast:

• Tori Hope Petersen
• Foster the Family
• The Connected Child
• Tera's Contact Info

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

In this episode, Sammie sits down with her sister, Michelle (or Meesh as everyone calls her) to discuss how to teach kids from a young age to honor their bodies, who God made them, and to understanding the Gospel. Meesh is the kids director at their church and has an extensive background in ministering to kids of all backgrounds and multiple age ranges. This is such an important conversation as we head into the thick of a new school year, new beginnings, and new transitional periods for a lot of families. We pray that it blesses you and encourages you! 

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Happy Summer, everyone! We've been in the full swing of all the summer activities in my house, but I wanted to take the time to share an online message I shared with parents, grandparents, youth leaders, and students in our larger church community, in an effort to encourage and equip them in whatever their role in relationship education is.

It has been encouraging to me as I have been in this line of work to see that contrary to all the digs at evangelical purity culture over the years, God’s way of doing things actually works. This should not surprise us. On of my favorite quotes is from C.S. Lewis. He says, “God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine.” This makes Him preeminently qualified to tell us how that engine functions best.  

Join us as we highlight where our current culture is regarding relationships, sex, intimacy, and ultimately life. We want to equip YOU as you head into a new school year next month to really do what God has called each and every one of us to do... To share His word and make Him known.

Here are some things we mentioned in the podcast:

• You Were Made for More Resource Page 
• What to Say and When To Say It 
• Uprooting Lies and Planting the Truth
• Biblical Critical Theory 
• Lila Rose Appearance 

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Sexual integrity is often not modeled in today’s culture. As your child’s parent, you have the unique opportunity to share the truth and model what it means to pursue sexual integrity and live a life of purity. In today's episode, we sift through the definition of what sexual purity exactly means and how to give the kids & students in our lives practical tips to pursue it.

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Travis Deans and his wife Judy are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both Travis and Judy are graduates of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Travis has been in full-time youth ministry since 1996 as a youth pastor, campus ministry director, and youth network coordinator - that's 28 years! Through his role he mentors youth workers, consults for churches, assists youth workers to collaborate through evangelistic outreaches, equips students to share their faith, shares strategy for students to form campus ministries in their schools, and organizes youth ministry conferences. Travis has been an integral player in the Pittsburgh youth ministry scene for years, which is how he and Sammie originally connected.

In today's conversation, we're going to chat about why creating a safe space for teens to ask questions and ponder theological ideas is so important. Questions are most definitely okay - and knowing how to shepherd them as a youth leader or parent is equally important! I'm truly so excited for this episode to encourage and spur you on in the work that the Lord has called you to. Buckle up and join us!

Here are some things we mentioned in this episode: 

• Travis and Judy's Ministry Page 
• 9 Month Mission Trip 

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Many of the ethical issues our culture is wrestling with have an underlying issue in common. The growing confusion we see around us on matters such as abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, transgenderism, and sexual promiscuity all flow downstream from our lack of understanding of what the human body is and means.

One person who has sought to account for this confusion and to offer a corrective is Nancy Pearcey, professor of apologetics at Houston Baptist University, where she is also a scholar in residence. Many will be familiar with her previous books, such as Finding Truth and the award-winning Total Truth. Her book, Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, addresses the worldview that lies behind the huge cultural shifts we have recently experienced in the West—and provides a biblical account of what it means to be made in God’s image as men and women.

There is a reason the Ten Commandments start with the command to love and worship God above all other things: when our hearts are centered on God, only then are we empowered to fulfill the rest of the commandments that deal with behavior—what we do with our bodies. In this conversation about honoring our human bodies, Sammie and Nancy explore tough questions that Christians face as we navigate what this means in light of our identities.

Professor Pearcey is the author of Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, as well as The Toxic War on Masculinity, The Soul of Science, Saving Leonardo, Finding Truth, and two ECPA Gold Medallion Award Winners: How Now Shall We Live (coauthored with Harold Fickett and Chuck Colson) and Total Truth. Her books have been translated into 19 languages. She is professor and scholar in residence at Houston Christian University. A former agnostic, Pearcey has spoken at universities such as Princeton, Stanford, USC, and Dartmouth. She has been quoted in The New Yorker and Newsweek, highlighted as one of the five top women apologists by Christianity Today, and hailed in The Economist as "America's pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual."

Here are some things we mentioned in the episode: 

• Love Thy Body - link to purchase! 
• Professor Pearcey's Website

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

It’s true that if we don’t seek to understand before we seek to equip and mentor, all our efforts will fall short.

In today's episode of the podcast, Sammie covers some myths and relationships that this current generation of students tends to lean toward and believe. 

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Dr. Christina Francis discusses the importance and need for life-affirming healthcare for both the patient and the physician providing the care. She reviews the various ways reproductive health issues are impacted by policy, education, research, and the Hippocratic Oath, and why we must help protect healthcare providers right to conscientiously object to providing treatment that goes against their values.

Dr.  Francis is a board-certified Ob/Gyn who currently works in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dr. Francis completed medical school at Indiana University in 2005 and completed her Ob/Gyn residency at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis in 2009. She is chair of the board of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and a board member of Indiana Right to Life. As a professional speaker, Dr. Francis offers her medical expertise, knowledge of bioethics, and pro-life reasoning both here in the U.S. and around the globe. She has always had a passion for human rights, spending a significant portion of the past 10 years in various countries working tirelessly on behalf of women and children. Dr. Francis spent time working with orphans in Romania and Burma, discussing the importance of life issues with university students in Israel, and working for three years as the only OB/GYN at a mission hospital in rural Kenya. Dr. Francis left Kenya in 2014 to work on behalf of women and children in her home state and beyond who are often victims of the abortion industry, and to educate people on the greatest social injustice of our time.

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

As a former Planned Parenthood Director, Abby Johnson shares her testimony and discusses how we as a movement can better serve the needs of pregnant women amidst the new realities of living beyond Roe in America. She talks about how you can model God’s mercy to those who seem undeserving, and respond with grace when others err or offend, while bearing witness to God’s unrestrained compassion so that others may know Him.

Abby Johnson has always been fiercely determined to help women in need. This desire is what led Abby to a career with Planned Parenthood, our nation’s largest abortion provider, and caused her to flee the organization, becoming an outspoken advocate for the pro-life movement.

During her eight years with Planned Parenthood, Abby quickly rose through the organization’s ranks and became a clinic director. However, Abby became increasingly disturbed by what she witnessed. Abortion was a product Planned Parenthood was selling, not an unfortunate necessity they were fighting to decrease. Still, Abby loved the women that entered her clinic and her co-workers. Despite a growing unrest within her, she stayed on and strove to serve women in crisis.

All of that changed on September 26, 2009 when Abby was asked to assist with an ultrasound-guided abortion. She watched in horror as a 13 week baby fought for, and ultimately lost, its life at the hand of the abortionist.

At that moment, she fully realized what abortion actually was and what she had dedicated her life to. As it washed over Abby, a dramatic transformation had occurred. Desperate and confused, Abby sought help from a local pro-life group. She swore that she would begin to advocate for life in the womb and expose abortion for what it truly is.

Planned Parenthood did not take Abby’s departure sitting down. The organization is fully aware the workers who leave are their greatest threat. They took immediate action to silence Abby with a gag order and brought her to court. The lawsuit was quickly seen as the sham it was and it was ultimately thrown out of court.

The media was, and continues to be, intensely interested in Abby’s story as well as her continued efforts to advocate for the unborn and help clinic workers escape the abortion industry. She is a frequently requested guest on Fox News and a variety of other shows. She is also the author of the nationally best-selling book, Unplanned, which chronicles both her experiences within Planned Parenthood and her dramatic exit.

Today, Abby travels across the globe sharing her story, educating the public on pro-life issues, advocating for the unborn, and reaching out to abortion clinic staff who still work in the industry. She is the founder of And Then There Were None, a ministry designed to assist abortion clinic workers in transitioning out of the industry. To date, this ministry has helped over 630 workers leave the abortion industry. Abby lives in Texas with her husband and eight precious children.

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Once we understand the depth and breadth of the problems we face as the Church in defining the value of humanity, Dr. Trueman will share strategies and tools he believes the Church can employ to respond to the cultural upheaval we encounter daily. He will discuss how understanding what it means to be a created human being, and employing the creeds, the Anglican Catechism, and the counsel of God can equip believers to respond with love to our neighbors with different worldviews.  Both Keynotes will feature time for Q & A.

Carl is a Christian theologian and ecclesiastical historian. He was Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he held the Paul Woolley Chair of Church History. In 2018 Trueman resigned his position at Westminster to become a full-time undergraduate professor at Grove City College, serving as Full Professor in their Department of Biblical and Religious Studies.

Among Trueman's books are John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man, The Creedal Imperative, Fools Rush in Where Monkeys Fear to Tread: Taking Aim at Everyone, and Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative.In 2020, Trueman published what is probably his most popular and widely read book: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. His most recent book, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, is a condensed version of his previous book. He contributes to First Things (Journal of Religion and Public Life) blogs regularly at Reformation21 and co-hosts the Mortification of Spin podcast.

Trueman is also an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Be sure to stay up to date with Abundant Life: You Were Made for More by visiting our blog - and if you're loving the podcast, send guest recommendations to us or leave us a star-rating/review on your favorite listening platform to spread the word about the you were made for more message.

You Were Made for More Social Media: 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram