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Engaging Today’s Prodigal: Clear Thinking, New Approaches, and Reasons for Hope (Carol Barnier)

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Can your family or church interact with a prodigal in ways that build a relationship bridge that can provide a way back home when they are ready? Let Engaging Today’s Prodigal equip you with clear, specific actions that can overcome the shame, hurt, and loss to bring real hope for the future. 

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Engaging Today’s Prodigal

Clear Thinking, New Approaches, and Reasons for Hope

Many families today experience the profound guilt and shame filled pain of seeing a child walk away from their faith and values. Churches and parents feel powerless to change the relationship and engage the prodigal in positive ways. Carol Barnier has the insight to help in Engaging Today’s Prodigal.  She left the faith of her pastor father, became an active atheist, debated Christians, and explored a variety of worldviews before she found the truth in a relationship with Jesus.

But far more than her personal story, Engaging Today’s Prodigal equips readers with a better understanding of a prodigal’s motivation, useful responses that won’t prevent reconciliation, clear boundaries to protect themselves and other children, actions to take when you know you have contributed to the problem, and the value of realistic expectations. With effective wit and humor, Carol provides material relevant for churches, parents and even the prodigals themselves.

Can your family or church interact with a prodigal in ways that build a relationship bridge that can provide a way back home when they are ready? Let Engaging Today’s Prodigal equip you with clear, specific actions that can overcome the shame, hurt, and loss to bring real hope for the future. 

Adult children who make poor life choices

This has been a reality since the garden of Eden. How do parents combat the fear, the guilt, and the shame caused when a son or daughter steps away from the plan God created for them? Their pain is fresh, real, and often . . . raw. So many families need ideas on what to do differently . . . what to do now that might change the cycle of angry words, bitter pronouncements, resentment, rejection, and regret that has played itself out yet again. But they need more than mere platitudes or “happy talk.”   They need real, practical hope.

About the Author

Part One: Myths Debunked
Myth 1: Perfect Parenting Makes for Perfect Children
2) It’s My Fault – It Says So in the Bible
3) I Can Rescue Him
4) This Child Just Wants to Push my Buttons
5) If I Can Say the Perfect Thing, My Child Will Finally “Get it”
6) If I Can Let Her Know How Badly She’s Hurting Us, She’ll Stop
7) My Mistakes Will Scar Her Forever
Part Two: Dos and Don’ts
8) Do Advise, Don’t Badger
9) Do Focus on Boundaries, Not on Behavior
10) Do Create a Connecting Place
11) Don’t Start a Sentence with “The Bible Says …”
12) Do Sit Down and Listen
13) Don’t Miss the Courage in Your Prodigal
14) Do Love When Your Prodigal is Most Unlovable
15) Do Create a Support System
16) Do Save Something for Your Non-Prodigals
17) Do Reach Out to Prodigals Who Aren’t Your Own
18) Don’t Pull Out a List of Expectations When Your Prodigal Returns
19) Do Not Lose Yourself During This Trial
Part Three: Hold Out Hope
20) The Long Walk Home – The Rest of my Story
21) God, the Artist
Bonus Section
  • Stepping Off that Coattail Faith
  • Why Do We Believe That?
  • What a Nice Story
  • Watch Out for the Ewww  Effect
  • A Better Look at Mom and Dad
  • Whatever Happened to Sin?
  • Dismantling the Club
  • What Some Other Prodigals Have to Say

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