Your Battle against Porn Isn’t about Porn. It’s about Hope. Pornography may seem inescapable, but God can free us from its destructive power. The gospel replaces the dehumanizing lies of pornography with this surprising truth: God created us as royalty. How then can we reclaim our God-given identity to take a stand against—and ultimately starve—the predatory porn industry? In The Death of Porn, Ray Ortlund writes six personal letters, as from a father to his son. Ideal for individuals and small groups, it will give hope to men who have been misled by porn into devaluing themselves and others. Through Scripture and personal stories, Ortlund assures readers that God loves them the most tenderly in their moments of deepest shame. The Death of Porn inspires men to come together in new ways to fight the injustice of porn and build a world of nobility for every man and woman—for the sake of future generations. Ray Ortlund is the President of Renewal Ministries, the Pastor to Pastors at Immanuel Church Nashville, and a Canon Theologian with the Anglican Church in North America. He is the author of several books, including the Preaching the Word commentaries on Isaiah and Proverbs and Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. He is also a contributor to the ESV Study Bible. Ray and his wife, Jani, have been married for fifty years.

Messiah Community Radio Talk Show

How Can You Break Free From Pornography?

With what seems like more than 78 million books about fixing your posture, what makes this one different? Three things: We bust the myths surrounding good posture, pain, muscular tightness, and how to approach them from a scientific standpoint.Instead of a cookie-cutter routine, we’ll show you how to select the right exercises for your own needs.Since even the best routine is useless if you don’t actually do it, we’ll show you how to integrate better movement habits during the other 23.5 hours of the day. Written by two physical therapists who have worked with thousands of people around the world, Overcoming Poor Posture is based on one simple idea: there is no such thing as perfect posture. No two bodies are alike, and we’ll teach you how to find your own best alignment so you can live each day in health and comfort while performing your best in all the activities that matter to you. Instead of a painful issue to fix, you’ll learn to think of your postural alignment as a dynamic component of how you sit, stand, and move in your body. Inside, you’ll find: Practical, real-life explanations about the factors that have shaped your posture, the link between poor posture and pain, and how your posture impacts lifestyle.Clear pictures demonstrating exercises for alignment, mobility, strength, and motor patterning, all with detailed instructions.Tips for making a habit of better posture throughout your day.Instruction for choosing the right exercises and structuring a routine that fits your body and goals.An appendix with sample programs you can use to get started right away. Put it all together, and you’ve got a systematic approach to refining your posture for better health and performance in everything you do. If you’re already aware of many of the different exercises for posture, many of the exercises may be familiar to you. However, we teach and show you to put them together coherently with progression to work toward specific goals instead of just throwing them at your body hoping they will work. Buy Overcoming Poor Posture on Amazon today. I approached GMB earlier this year about this project because there are a lot of myths surrounding good posture, bad posture, pain, muscular tightness, and a lot of other things that contribute to posture, alignment and overall well being. I though it would be a good fit to work with them because they’re all about not just posture but overall movement and wellness, especially from a bodyweight fitness perspective. Overall, our goal was to approach posture from a scientific and practical perspective as both Jarlo and I are physical therapists. We took a look at what the science says about posture, pain, tightness and different factors, and we distilled it into information that everyone can understand. From there we combined the science with an approach which integrates flexibility, mobility, stability, and strength training to help you systematically refine your posture for health and performance as you need to. There are no “set routines” in our book as there is no one perfect posture or alignment for everyone. Instead, we chose to go the route of teaching you the concepts and introducing sample plans so that you have the knowledge to utilize the exercises in the book (and even those we didn’t include in the book) for your body as you need them. I hope you enjoy the book! Steve

How Can You Overcome Poor Posture?

When we quit sabotaging intimacy in our relationships by demanding unconditional love, we discover something much greater―the deeply satisfying, transformational love that is companionship. In these pages psychologist Kelly Flanagan shows how each of us has within ourselves, exactly the way we are, the gifts that are needed to cultivate the life-long relationships we are longing for, whether it is within marriage or friendship. He shows us how self-knowledge leads the way to growing in love for both God and others. He shows us how understanding our own loneliness can help us relieve the pressure on our companions. And he shows us how understanding our own psychological and emotional defenses can help us to make the choice to love more vulnerably. More than a marriage book, this is a companionship book. Anyone―from single young adults to elderly married couples, from the divorced to the widowed, from siblings to friends―can benefit from the wisdom it uncovers about what it means to be human and to be true companions. Groups, couples, and individuals can use the companion study guide for five sessions on how to show up in your most important relationships. Dr. Kelly Flanagan is a clinical psychologist, author, consultant, and speaker who enjoys walking with people through the three essentials of a truly satisfying life. Kelly has a Ph.D. from Penn State University and is the founder of Artisan Clinical Associates in Naperville, IL. In 2012, he began his now popular blog, where he writes regularly about those three essentials: worthiness, belonging, and purpose. His writing has been featured in Reader’s Digest, The Huffington Post, The 5 Love Languages, and in 2014 a letter he wrote to his daughter led to their appearance on the TODAY Show. In 2017, Kelly published his first book—Loveable: Embracing What Is Truest About You, So You Can Truly Embrace Your Life—and it debuted as the #1 New Release in Interpersonal Relations on Amazon. In 2021, his second book, True Companions, debuted on Amazon as a #1 New Release in several categories related to friendship, marriage, and ethics. Kelly is married to another clinical psychologist named Kelly—because they decided to make life more complicated than it already is—and they have three children: Aidan, 17; Quinn, 13; and Caitlin, 11. They live in a small town outside of Chicago. Connect and learn more at www.drkellyflanagan.com.

What Are the Effects of Loneliness on Your Life?

This is the book that people tell their friends about, that trainers suggest for virtually every sport and activity, and that medical professionals recommend to people just starting to get back in shape. Stretching first appeared in 1980 as a new generation of Americans became committed to running, cycling, aerobic training, and workouts in the gym — all of which are commonplace now. It features stretching routines specific to a variety of people, including sports enthusiasts, travelers, children, gardeners, and people in wheelchairs. There is also an abbreviated version of each routine for people in a hurry, new information on the stretching vs. warming up debate, and new and improved drawings. This 30th anniversary edition features two-color inks to better define the muscle groups helped by each stretching exercise. A new section focuses on office fitness exercises, helpful for both home and office computer users. Bob Anderson was born in 1945 in Fullerton, California and is a graduate of California State University at Long Beach, with a lifetime teaching credential in physical education. He has taught stretching to the Denver Broncos, the New York Jets, the California Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Lakers; set up stretching programs for the football teams at Southern Methodist University, University of California at Berkeley, Washington State University and the University of Nebraska; has taught emotionally and physically handicapped children; worked with executives at the North American Rockwell Space Division; taught professional rodeo riders, as well as swimmers, cyclists, weight lifters, tennis, racquetball, handball, and volleyball players. He has also worked with members of the U.S. Olympic Ski and Figure Skating teams, and for the last seven years has taught stretching at the Pikes Peak High Altitude Running Camp in Colorado. In 1968, at the age of 23, Bob began a personal physical fitness program, since he felt he was overweight and out of shape. He changed his diet, started eating less, and began running and cycling. His weight went from 190 to 135 pounds over a period of time, and he soon was in much better physical condition. One day, while in a conditioning class in college, he discovered he could not reach much past his knees in a straight legged sitting position. After discovering how tight he was, Bob started stretching. In several months he became much more limber; he found that stretching made running, cycling and other activities easier and more enjoyable and that it eliminated most of the muscular soreness that usually accompanies strenuous physical exertion. After several years of exercising and stretching with Jean and a small group of friends, Bob gradually developed a method of stretching that could be taught to anyone. Soon, he was teaching his technique to others. He began working with professional teams, then college teams, other amateur athletes, and with a variety of people at sports medicine clinics, racquetball clubs, athletic clubs and running stores throughout the country. Bob and Jean first published their book Stretching in 1975 and in four years sold over 35,000 copies by mail. Articles on their stretching techniques have appeared in The Runner, Runner’s World, Powder: The Skier’s Magazine, Swim-Swim, Down River, Esquire, Playboy, Organic Gardening, House and Garden, Glamour, and Vogue. Bob’s public appearances created such a demand for information on stretching (8,000 letters received after his first appearance on “The Today Show”) that in 1979–80 this revised version of the book was published. Bob has recently toured Japan and Germany, conducting stretching workshops. Stretching has been translated into 19 foreign languages, and has sold over 3 million copies. A second major revision was published in July 2000, with over 1000 new drawings by Jean Anderson. Jean Anderson was born in 1945 in Long Beach, California and has a B.A.

Does Stretching Make You Healthier?

Ergo21’s website slogan reads, “Comfort. Joy. Happiness.” It’s a fitting description for the company’s product, the Ergo21 Extreme Comfort Seat Cushion, which uses advanced LiquiCell Technology to help customers sit hours and hours without aches or soreness. Company president Steve Gambhir used to drive four to six hours a day in LA traffic setting up merchant credit card processing accounts. “I tried using a different cushion every month to relieve the back pain from long hours in the car,” Steve recalls. “Finally, my wife said, ‘Why don’t you design your own cushion?’ so I did.” LiquiCell: – reduces the stretching and tearing of the soft tissues, thereby improving blood flow. – does not interfere with the individual’s positioning or stability. – is thinner, lighter, more flexible, and more durable than gel, foam, or air. – provides unsurpassed long-term comfort to improve quality of life. LiquiCell Technology strategically places low viscosity fluid inside the cushions’ ultra-thin cells to reduce discomfort associated with prolonged contact between the body and an object. The liquid stays in constant motion, letting the body glide and float. This provides instant comfort, reduces numbness and improves circulation by 150 percent. “We’ve had countless reviews on Amazon from people who sit for long periods in office chairs or wheelchairs,” explains Steve. “These customers report that their sores went away and they can now sit for hours without any discomfort.” Since LiquiCell performs better than gel, foam or air, it’s even being used in hospital beds to prevent pressure sores and skin breakdown for patients who cannot move. Steve quickly discovered that one cushion size definitely wouldn’t fit all. Ergo21’s biggest challenge has been to accommodate all kinds of users and their different sizes, weights and needs, plus the seemingly endless variety of office and home chairs, car and truck seats, wheelchairs, patio chairs, and travel seats – all of which demand cushions of varying sizes and shapes. “We poured over thousands of marketplace reviews and cushion designs and every review we received for our own cushions,” says Steve. “I even called many Ergo21 users personally to see how we could improve our product line, and then it was back to the drawing board.” The result: Ergo21 now offers five cushions specifically designed for different applications. Each model reduces fatigue and helps with tail burn and buttock, hip, leg, and sciatica pain. Many of Steve’s customers have tried 10 to 12 cushions before finding a Ergo21 solution, and they’ve contacted him about their success stories. One man who had injured his tailbone seven years ago and couldn’t drive more than 10 minutes without pain called to say that the first time he tried the Sports Cushion, he drove 180 miles pain free. Ergo21 has recently introduced pillow cushion, mattress overlay and bike cushion. Another interesting fact: All Ergo21 seat cushions are proudly made in USA. Daredevil legend Bob Gill began as a motorcycle racer in 1962. Unsatisfied with the money he was making as a racer, he switched to jumping full-time in 1970. After several long jumps, including one jump 152 feet over the Cajun Canyon in Louisiana, he jumped over a set of Ryder trucks on May 10, 1973. The jump was filmed for a television commercial that was aired during Super Bowl VIII. On July 17, 1973, Bob set a world record jump of 171 feet (52 m) when he jumped over 22 cars with no landing ramp at Seattle International Raceway in Kent, WA. On August 18, 1974, Bob Gill was scheduled to attempt a world record jump over the 200-foot (61 m)-wide Appalachia Lake in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia. Heavy rains in the area forced the postponement of the jump to August 25. The jump was performed without the aid of a landing ramp. He landed three feet short on the embankment of the far side of the lake. Thrown from the bike, he suffered severe spinal cord injuries that left him perm...

The Best Seat Cushion and Daredevil Legend Bob Gill

Why does happiness get harder in your 40s? Why do you feel in a slump when you’re successful? Where does this malaise come from? And, most importantly, will it ever end? Drawing on cutting-edge research, award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch answers all these questions. He shows that from our 20s into our 40s, happiness follows a U-shaped trajectory, a “happiness curve,” declining from the optimism of youth into what’s often a long, low slump in middle age, before starting to rise again in our 50s. This isn’t a midlife crisis, though. Rauch reveals that this slump is instead a natural stage of life―and an essential one. By shifting priorities away from competition and toward compassion, it equips you with new tools for wisdom and gratitude to win the third period of life. And Rauch can testify to this personally because it was his own slump, despite acclaim as a journalist and commentator that compelled him to investigate the happiness curve. His own story and the stories of many others from all walks of life―from a steelworker and a limo driver to a telecoms executive and a philanthropist―show how the ordeal of midlife malaise reboots our values and even our brains for a rebirth of gratitude. Full of insights and data and featuring many ways to endure the slump and avoid its perils and traps, The Happiness Curve doesn’t just show you the dark forest of midlife, it helps you find a path through the trees. It also demonstrates how we can―and why we must―do more to help each other through the woods. Midlife is a journey we mustn’t walk alone. JONATHAN RAUCH, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is the author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book, published in 2021 by the Brookings Press, is The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, a spirited and deep-diving account of how to push back against disinformation, canceling, and other new threats to our fact-based epistemic order. In 2018, he published The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50, a lauded account of the surprising relationship between aging and happiness. His multiple-award-winning column, “Social Studies,” appeared from 1998 to 2010 in National Journal. Among the many other publications for which he has written are The New Republic, The Economist, Reason, Harper’s, Fortune, Reader’s Digest, Time, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Slate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Public Interest, National Affairs, The Advocate, The Daily, and others. In his 1994 book Demosclerosis—revised and republished in 2000 as Government’s End: Why Washington Stopped Working—he argues that America’s government is becoming gradually less flexible and effective with time, and suggests ways to treat the malady. His 1993 book Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (published by the University of Chicago Press; expanded in 2013) defends free speech and robust criticism, even when it is racist or sexist and even when it hurts. In 1992 his book The Outnation: A Search for the Soul of Japan questioned the then-conventional wisdom that Japan was fundamentally different from the West. In 1996, with Robert Litan, he also co-authored a report for the U.S. Treasury Department on the future of the financial-services industry (American Finance for the 21st Century). In 1995 he spent a year as a visiting writer for The Economist magazine in London, and in 1997 he returned as guest editor of the Christmas special issue. Rauch was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and graduated in 1982 from Yale University. He went on to become a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina before moving to Washingt...

The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50

Are you one of the countless people who grew up with emotionally immature parents? If your parent's needs came first, you may still recall painful moments of childhood emotional neglect, when your feelings were dismissed, or when you took on adult levels of maturity in an effort to compensate for your parents’ behavior. And although you likely cultivated strengths such as self-reliance and independence along the way—strengths that have served you well as an adult—having to be the emotionally mature person in your relationship with your parent is confusing and exhausting.       Emotionally immature parents take a toll on their children. Emotional loneliness is often the result of having parents who were so wrapped up in their own issues they neglected your needs for connection and attention, and even expected you to make them feel better.       You can free yourself from the depleting role of catering to the needs of the emotionally immature. Once you understand how these immature people function, you will no longer feel guilty or ashamed for not helping them more. You will learn how to reconnect with your true self while interacting with others in ways that keep you from being emotionally drained.  ​This book has been an Amazon bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages. With the recent publication of my latest book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, I have answered a question that has intrigued me for years: why do so many psychotherapy clients seem so much more together and self-aware than their family members? In other words, why are the least problematic people the ones seeking treatment? Realizing that many of my clients’ family members were highly emotionally immature, I set out to explore and explain their destructive interactions in a way that could free people to live their own best lives without being worn out by these draining personalities. By understanding our loved ones’ emotional immaturity, we can regain our trust in ourselves and get free from the destructive and confusing effects of early programming from childhood.             In my previous book, Who You Were Meant To Be, I focused on how people can reconnect with their true self and sense of purpose. I have devoted my professional life to helping people learn how to rely on their own emotional guidance, strengthen their self-awareness, and increase their energy for full living.             After obtaining two graduate degrees in clinical psychology – a Master’s degree from Central Michigan University, and a Doctorate of Psychology from the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology – I became licensed as a clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia. For many years I was also an Assistant Adjunct Professor for the College of William and Mary and Old Dominion University, teaching classes of doctoral students in the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology. I have specialized in adult psychotherapy and personal growth counseling, as well as doing years of intensive personality and intellectual testing. In-depth psychodynamic training helped me understand people’s problems from a developmental perspective, leading to my livelong fascination with the striking differences between adults in their levels of psychological maturity.             I came to clinical psychology from a background in art and literature, fascinated by all aspects of human creativity and conflict. Beginning in college as a studio art major, I then briefly switched to psychology, where I was disappointed to find an emphasis on animal experimentation instead of understanding people. Seeking to explore human nature, I finally found what I was looking for in English literature, where human desire and motivation could be studied endlessly. Finally in my senior year, a developmental psychology class introduced me to the field of clinical psychology, providing the scientific fascination I had been seeking.

How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents

Life is not a problem to be solved. ACT shows how we can live full and meaningful lives by embracing our vulnerability and turning toward what hurts. In this landmark book, the originator and pioneering researcher into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) lays out the psychological flexibility skills that make it one of the most powerful approaches research has yet to offer. These skills have been shown to help even where other approaches have failed. Science shows that they are useful in virtually every area - mental health (anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, PTSD); physical health (chronic pain, dealing with diabetes, facing cancer); social processes (relationship issues, prejudice, stigma, domestic violence); and performance (sports, business, diet, exercise). How does psychological flexibility help? We struggle because the problem-solving mind tells us to run from what causes us fear and hurt. But we hurt where we care. If we run from a sense of vulnerability, we must also run from what we care about. By learning how to liberate ourselves, we can live with meaning and purpose, along with our pain when there is pain. Although that is a simple idea, it resists our instincts and programming. The flexibility skills counter those ingrained tendencies. They include noticing our thoughts with curiosity, opening to our emotions, attending to what is in the present, learning the art of perspective taking, discovering our deepest values, and building habits based around what we deeply want. Beginning with the epiphany Steven Hayes had during a panic attack, this audiobook is a powerful narrative of scientific discovery filled with moving stories as well as advice for how we can put flexibility skills to work immediately. Hayes shows how allowing ourselves to feel fully and think freely moves us toward commitment to what truly matters to us. Finally, we can live lives that reflect the qualities we choose. Steven C. Hayes is a Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology in the Behavior Analysis program at the University of Nevada. An author of 47 books and nearly 670 scientific articles, his career has focused on an analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. He is the developer of Relational Frame Theory, an account of human higher cognition, and has guided its extension to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a popular evidence-based form of psychotherapy that uses mindfulness, acceptance, and values-based methods. He is a co-developer of Process-Based Therapy (PBT), a new approach to evidence-based therapies more generally. Dr. Hayes has been President of Division 25 of the APA, of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. He was the first Secretary-Treasurer of the Association for Psychological Science, which he helped form and has served a 5 year term on the National Advisory Council for Drug Abuse in the National Institutes of Health. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, and is on the Advisory Board of USERN, which represents scientists who are in the top 1% of their field. He is President of the Institute for Better Health, a 45 year old charitable organization dedicated to excellence in clinical training. In 1992 he was listed by the Institute for Scientific Information as the 30th “highest impact” psychologist in the world and Google Scholar data ranks him among the top 1,100 most cited scholars in all areas of study, living and dead (http://www.webometrics.info/en/node/58). His work has been recognized by several awards including the Exemplary Contributions to Basic Behavioral Research and Its Applications from Division 25 of APA, the Impact of Science on Application award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior...

How to Pivot Toward What Matters

Most of us are constantly plugged in and stressed out—tethered to our phones and e-mail, overworked and inactive at our desk jobs, and out of touch with what our bodies and our brains really need. Clean Mind, Clean Body is your reset button, an immersive experience in mental and physical self-care that will transform your daily routine and your habits. Tara Stiles is the founder of Strala, the revolutionary approach to being, moving and healing.  Strala teaches yoga, tai chi, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, to help people release stress, let go of bad habits, and move easily through all kinds of challenge.  Strala is practiced in more than 100 countries, and thousands of Guides are leading Strala classes daily around the globe.  Even more Strala training graduates bring what they learn into their office work, healing practices, and all of life.  The mission we share is to help people accomplish far more, through softening and connecting with our creativity and purpose. Tara has authored several best-selling books including Yoga Cures, Make Your Own Rules Diet, and Strala Yoga, all translated and published in several languages. She has been profiled by The New York Times, Times of India, The Times (UK), and featured in most major national and international magazines.  Tara is a sought-after speaker on topics of entrepreneurship, health, and wellbeing. Harvard profiled Tara's work in a case study, and she has spoken with students at Harvard and New York University about her experience, and approaches to creativity and leadership.  Tara supports The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, an initiative with the American Heart Association and Clinton Foundation, to combat childhood obesity. This brings Strala classes to more than 30,000 schools around the United States. She also supports the BOKS program, which delivers Strala classes and wellbeing resources to educators across North America. She lives in New York City with her husband Mike Taylor and their daughter Daisy.

Is Wellness an Important Part of Your Life?

The Handbook of Denominations in the United States has long been the gold standard for reference works about religious bodies in America. The purpose of this Handbook is to provide accurate and objective information about the most significant Christian traditions and denominations in the United States today. It contains descriptions of over 200 distinct Christian denominations as well as overviews of the several major Christian traditions to which they belong—based on shared historical and theological roots and commitments. The information for each denomination has been provided by the religious organizations themselves and focuses on the denominations' doctrines, statistics, and histories. The 14th edition is completely updated with current statistics, new denominations, and recent trends. The book has been made more useful and manageable by moving very small groups into broader articles while giving more detail and description to the large and influential denominations. Roger E. Olson (Ph.D., Rice University) is professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He is the author of The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform, The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity (both InterVarsity Press) and The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology (Westminster John Knox). He is also coauthor of 20th-Century Theology: God & the World in a Transitional Age and Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God (both with Stanley J. Grenz, InterVarsity Press), and of The Trinity (with Christopher A. Hall, Eerdmans).

How to Make Sense of Denominations

Microsoft Teams. Slack. Zoom. Google Workspace. Every day, hundreds of millions of people use these über-popular collaboration tools, but only in decidedly limited ways: as email and Skype replacements. Because these folks are merely scratching the surface of what these robust collaboration hubs can do, they fail to realize their massive benefits. Blame ignorance, not malice. With rare exception, organizations, executives, and rank-and-file employees have historically worked in piecemeal fashions. They have lacked a holistic framework to fully understand the remarkable power of these applications, much less unleash them. At least until now. Reimagining Collaboration--the eleventh book from award-winning author and world-renowned collaboration expert Phil Simon--provides this essential gestalt. Simon introduces a bold new model of work. Ideal for HR professionals, knowledge workers, executives, remote workers, and small business owners, this timely, ambitious, and provocative book offers concrete tips for companies and groups on how to transform the way they work by embracing hubs and spokes. Phil Simon is a sought-after speaker and recognized authority on technology, collaboration, communication, and analytics. He advises companies on how to use technology. His eleven books include Reimagining Collaboration, Message Not Received,and The Age of the Platform—the last three of which have won awards. His contributions have appeared in Harvard Business Review, CNN,& Inc., The New York Times, Wired, NBC, CNBC, Wired, The Huffington Post, BusinessWeek, and many other prominent media outlets. Simon holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University. Stalk him on Twitter at @philsimon. Speaking of which… (How’s that for a segue?)

Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and the Post-COVID World

The average attention span today has dropped to 8 seconds (which means you may want to send out detailed bullet points reviewing what was discussed at your last staff meeting). With more distractions today than ever before for the average person, it has become as difficult as it’s ever been to get a message across. To get heard in this ADD-filled, phone-addicted culture, one must focus their message, be slightly different, and deliver with finesse. In You’ve Got 8 Seconds, high-stakes communications expert Paul Hellman uses fast, fun, actionable tips to explain what works and what doesn’t, what’s forgettable and what sticks, when it comes to getting your message to land. With stories, scripts, and examples of both good and bad messages, the book reveals three main strategies for getting your point across:• FOCUS: Design a strong message--then communicate it in seconds• VARIETY: Make routine information come alive• PRESENCE: Convey confidence and command attention. Hellman also shares many practical techniques that have been proven successful, including his very own Focus Method™ that he uses with leadership teams; 10 actions that spell executive presence; and his own unique plan for how to stand out in the first seconds of a presentation. Get their attention. Get understood. Get results! Paul Hellman consults and speaks internationally on how to excel in high-stakes communications. His columns and advice have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNBC.com, The Boston Globe's online Job Doc column, and on public radio's Marketplace and CNN's Business Unusual.

Communication Secrets for a Distracted World

How are Christians to understand and undertake the discipline of psychology? This question has been of keen interest (and sometimes concern) to Christians because of the importance we place on a correct understanding of human nature. Psychology can sometimes seem disconnected from, if not antithetical to, Christian perspectives on life. How are we to understand our Christian beliefs about persons in relation to secular psychological beliefs? This revised edition of a widely appreciated text now presents five models for understanding the relationship between psychology and Christianity. All the essays and responses have been reworked and updated with some new contributors including the addition of a new perspective, the transformative view from John Coe and Todd Hall (Biola University). Also found here is David Powlison (Westminster Theological Seminary) who offers the biblical counseling model. The levels-of-explanation model is advanced by David G. Myers (Hope College), while Stanton L. Jones (Wheaton College) offers an entirely new chapter presenting the integration model. The Christian psychology model is put forth by Robert C. Roberts (Baylor University) now joined by Paul J. Watson (University of Tennesee, Chattanooga). Each of the contributors responds to the other essayists, noting points of agreement as well as problems they see. Eric L. Johnson provides a revised introduction that describes the history of Christians and psychology, as well as a conclusion that considers what might unite the five views and how a reader might evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of each view. Psychology and Christianity: Five Views has become a standard introductory textbook for students and professors of Christian psychology. This revision promises to keep it so. Eric L. Johnson (PhD, Michigan State University) trained as an academic psychologist and is Lawrence and Charlotte Hoover Professor of Pastoral Care at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of Foundations for Soul Care and the coeditor of God Under Fire and Christianity and Psychology: Four Views. An associate editor of the Journal of Psychology and Theology, he is the director of the Society for Christian Psychology and the Institute for Christian Psychology.

How to Better Understand Christian Psychology

How can I develop a team if they're not in the same place? How can I build a company culture that works for employees in an office, working at home and in co-work spaces? How can I maintain organizational oversight if I can't see my employees? Remote Work answers all these questions and more and provides guidance on how to build a successful remote working strategy that engages employees, allows them to perform to their full potential and improves business performance. The COVID-19 pandemic has put remote work into the business norm, but demand from employees to work remotely was already increasing, with a 2019 report stating that 34% of people surveyed would even take a pay cut if they could work remotely part of the time. HR professionals and business leaders need to address this demand to attract and retain the talent the business needs. Remote Work is written by two industry experts who have successfully transitioned their workforces to remote models. It provides essential guidance on how to implement policies, processes and strategies for remote working, including meeting types, measuring performance and creating virtual 'water cooler' environments. Featuring advice on technological solutions to adapting processes and driving engagement, this book also outlines the business benefits of a remote workforce including improved productivity and output and how it allows for faster expansion and execution. With insights from leading experts such as Marshall Goldsmith and case studies from Cornerstone OnDemand, Buffer and United States Marine Corps, Remote Work is essential reading now that increased home and flexible working is here to stay. Chris Dyer is the founder and CEO of PeopleG2, where he manages 30 full-time remote employees and 3,000 independent contractors. PeopleG2 is routinely ranked one of the best places to work and has been listed as one of Inc.’s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies. Having made the transition to remote during the recession in 2009 with stunning success, Chris Dyer is now a world-renowned expert on remote leadership and productive company culture. My company, PeopleG2, is routinely ranked one of the best places to work and has been listed as one of Inc.’s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies. As a leadership speaker, I’ve helped businesses all over the world transform their strategies and become industry leaders. But this success did not come from some inherent skill for leadership. Rather, I succeeded because I almost failed.  My company was already struggling when the 2008 recession hit. We had strong talent and a great product, but something wasn’t working. Faced with the potential collapse of everything I worked so hard to build, I had exactly two choices. I could watch it all fall down around me, or I could get serious about building new skills as a leader and discover what separated more successful companies from my own. Through research, countless interviews, and deep exploration of my own company culture, I developed the Seven Pillars of Successful Company Culture. These seven pillars represent the cultural foundation of an organization. I learned that as long as we had this solid base on which to build, my company would be free to innovate, explore, adapt, and ultimately thrive. These ideas saved my business. They enabled me to live out my dreams and dream even bigger. In fact, these principles have allowed me to run the kind of business in which all team members discover their greatest potential, explore new possibilities, and build fulfilling, prosperous lives. Now, as a speaker, coach, and author, I do the same for businesses like mine… businesses that have strong talent and a solid product, but are still missing those illusive traits that separate good companies from exceptional companies.  Leaders like you—who are driven, smart, and possibly a little exasperated—are the reason I do what I do. I know you and your company are capable of tremendous things.

Is Working Remotely Better for Your Health?

Many popular atheists are very confident in what they assert to be true. However, not everything they say actually makes sense. This book sheds light on 36 statements made by atheists of the present and the past - Sam Harris, Stephen Hawking, Christopher Hitchens, Alex Rosenberg, Richard Dawkins, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Bertrand Russell - to name a few. While deconstructing their statements in light of evidence and reason, the case for theism grows. It's further supported by the stories of former atheists who changed their minds.  There is a new breed of atheist in town. They’re intelligent, vocal, and sometimes very aggressive. They communicate with boldness and conviction, but are they correct? Many of them are well-known and highly regarded, but does everything they say really make sense? Is their case for atheism sound? This book addresses thirty-six of the most common things atheists say when they challenge people of faith. After examining what prominent atheists passionately proclaim, in light of evidence and reason, it seems the case for God’s existence emerges stronger than ever. Patrick Prill is passionate about theism - that God exists. He is also passionate about family and business. It is, after all, possible to be passionate about more than one thing. Patrick earned a MA in Theology and a MA in Church History from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He also earned a BBA in Economics from the University of Memphis. He's been active in advancing the case for Christian theism and has partnered with college ministries for years. Among them are CRU, InterVarsity, Rutgers United, Chi Alpha, Young Life and Ratio Christi. Since retiring, he has increased his involvement in teaching, writing and helping campus ministries.​ Before retiring, Patrick was Managing Director, Partner, Chief Information Officer, COO and Executive Committee member of some of the world's premier investment firms. He was also President and Board Member of a leading hedge fund and private equity fund administrator.

Things Atheists Say That Simply Make No Sense

Interviews with high profile guests who are leaders in every field.

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Messiah Community Radio Talk Show

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