When Churches and Pregnancy Centers Partner Together Pt. 1
This is a guest post by Marcia Buterakos Marron, Executive Director for Life's Choices Women's Clinic in Eustis, Florida. It is the first in a two-part series on Marcia's experience finding and implementing Making Life Disciples in her Center. I will never forget how...
The Abortion Exception: ‘Don’t Speak For Me!’
It was one of the last scenes in the movie Unplanned. Abby Johnson, played by actress Ashley Bratcher, had left her job at Planned Parenthood and was at the clinic's gate boldly sharing with a young woman about protecting the life inside of her. It was while watching...
Shame-based vs. Grace-based Churches
In my role as Executive Director of Church Outreach and Engagement at Care Net, I'm constantly talking about the need to refer pregnancy center clients to "grace-based churches." Often I'm asked what I mean by this term and, although there are several things I have...
Why your church needs to welcome post-abortive women
For several weeks leading up to Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (SOHLS), I had been puzzled over what I would say, which video I should play, as well as how to combine our upcoming Walk for Life, the work of pregnancy centers, and Making Life Disciples (MLD) - all into...
How the Church helped this pregnancy center client in need
I am the Executive Director of a pregnancy center in Pennsylvania. Last November, my client advocate came to me with a seemingly impossible request: did I know of an individual or a church that could help her client's family? A Muslim client had come to America with...
Internet Debates: Recovering the Lost Art of Civility
Believe it or not, my biggest challenge in my role as Executive Director of Church Outreach and Engagement at Care Net is to de-link pro-life efforts from politics. If I can't do that, I can't gain a hearing among those who most need to hear my message about how to...
Mental Illness in the Church – What You Need To Know
Recently, I heard a pastor speaking on Daniel 4, the chapter where God humbled Nebuchadnezzar by stripping away his reason for a time so that the king lived like an animal. The pastor surprised me by comparing Nebuchadnezzar's descent into madness with schizophrenia....
Making Life Disciples in Real Life
If you've read this blog before, you have probably heard of Making Life Disciples, Care Net's curriculum for equipping the Church to offer compassion, hope, help, and discipleship to women and men considering abortion. At Care Net, we believe that "life decisions...
4 Reasons Why You Should Start a Life Team Around Making Life Disciples
I want to bring to your attention an effort that I believe will not only reinforce your efforts in walking through Making Life Disciples, but enhance, sharpen and add necessary longevity to them. This effort comes by starting what we call at Churches for Life, a Life...
How Our Life Team Implemented the Vision of Making Life Disciples
I'll never forget the year 2016. It's the year God equipped our Life Team at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, CA for the ministry we'd been passionate about since 2011. He blessed us with ministry leadership training from Churches for Life, followed...