Endorsements of Video Series

“Here is a one-stop guide for relationships. It is filled with Scripture. It will point you to Jesus at every opportunity. It is very practical. And Tara’s style makes it uniquely for women. As a man, I might not seem authorized to recommend something by a woman and for women, but I appeal to my years of being surrounded by women — a wife, then two daughters, and now a granddaughter. Tara speaks clearly to them, and I’m sure she doesn’t mind that I learned some things, and felt some conviction, as I sneaked around watching the videos.” —Ed Welch, faculty and counselor at CCEF

“It’s with overwhelming joy that I can highly recommend The Peacemaking Church Women’s Study: Living the Gospel in Relationships by Tara Barthel. I am recommending these teaching sessions not only because they beautifully avoid the moralistic strategies so common in our me-centered churches but because she connects our struggle for peace to the only source of peace, the one who is called the Prince of Peace. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not only for new believers. It’s for every one of us who longs to love our neighbor and yet falls so short everyday. Only when my love for others is motivated and impelled by responsive love for Christ can I say that I’m loving as he loves. And only the gospel makes me do that. Thanks, Tara, for reminding me again. We love because he first loved us.” —Elyse Fitzpatrick, author of Comforts from the Cross: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time

I love women’s material that doesn’t shy away from sound theological categories.

I love women’s material that doesn’t shy away from sound theological categories. I’m not a woman (surprise!), but I can identify with women like my wife who wearied to no end with the significant number of “women’s books” and studies that aim to be “devotional” with no theological heart. The amount of sentimental, pietistic, touchy-feely stories masquerading as Bible teaching is just plain staggering. So, I’m thankful for material I can recommend to women, material that does not shy away from good biblical truth.” —Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor and author

“This health-giving series is for women, but this man found it very helpful. With practical insight grounded in the Scriptures, it gets to the core of some of the key issues that we need to address along the path to maturity in Christ.” —Ajith Fernando, National Director, Youth for Christ

“Tara Barthel speaks lovingly and candidly to women about what it means to live out the gospel day by day in their relationships. Looking at Scripture, she points out how many women look to the law without fully grasping what Christ has done for them in the cross, and is doing in them by the Spirit. Tara shows how the Christian walk is one of growing repentance, confession, and faith as we learn to identify and close the gap between what we believe and how we live. Keeping the cross front and center in our walk keeps us from pride and legalism or from presuming on God’s grace. Tara demonstrates how the gospel speaks into our everyday lives, enabling us to live victoriously because of who we are in Christ. I recommend this series enthusiastically.” —Colin Smith, Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church, Arlington Heights, IL

“In The Peacemaking Church Women’s Study: Living the Gospel in Relationships, Tara Barthel brings profoundly biblical and grace-centered insights into the source of our interpersonal conflicts and God’s solution in the cross of Christ, and she brings the message home to hearts through her own transparent honesty, humility, humor, and realism. As she emphasizes frankly (and illustrates abundantly from her own and others’ experience), biblical peacemaking and peace-keeping are hard (“if it weren’t, more people would do it”); but the assurance of what God has done for us in Christ gives us both motivation and hope as we seek to glorify God by reflecting to others the union of truth and mercy that is found in Jesus, who is our peace. I enthusiastically recommend this series to my sisters in Christ.” —Dennis E. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Practical Theology (Westminster Seminary California), co-author of Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ