Ben Freudenburg has established himself as one of the most respected Christian Education directors of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. His glimse into home-based Christian education, as opposed to the conventional church-based Christian education, has changed many individuals views on how the church reaches out through traditional Christian education methods. This book presents a wonderful philosophical basis for beginning the shift to a home-based Christian education system. Check it out.

The Family Friendly Church is the chronicle of personal discovery by Ben Freudenburg. The discovery may seem simple but it is an area missed by many churches. How about yours? Ministry to children and families with young children is often overlooked and undervalued.

Often when a church grows or adds staff, the first position to be filled is the youth pastor. Unfortunately this is a plan that follows traditional practice and not conventional understanding. One must look no further than current statistics to determine this.

According to the Barna research group, children are the most available to receiving and accepting the Good News. If you are spending the majority of your church's momentum, manpower, and resource on something other than children, you may be unwisely using your talents. Children are the future and most likely the best way to reach the adult population in your community.

The Family Friendly Church will offer suggestions and simple resources to reach families with children. Employ your leaders and families in the process of building a strong Family Friendly Church.

Should the Christian family support the church and be church-centered, or should the church support the family and be family-centered? The Family Friendly Church, by Freudenburg and Lawrence argues that to reach the needs of Boomers and their families a shift needs to take place from a church-centered family to a family-centered church. By facilitating ministry with the families, not to them, the church accomplishes its mission and develops strong families.

I just returned from Argentina; I also read Imagining Argentina. This one is the best. It creates a world of magical realism in which you are drawn into each & every character. Not to be missed.

The lyrical power of Thornton's prose gets better and better with each new book. In this book, he follows the trail of the missing "adopted" children and the determined search of the grandmother from the time when so many people disappeared, either killed or kidnapped by the Argentinian military - stories that began in his wonderful, earlier books: Imagining Argentina and The Naming of the Spirits. There is a truthfulness to his writing that bypasses logic and goes straight to the heart. I couldn't put this book down. From one novelist to another, I want to congratulate Thornton on producing some of the most powerful literature I have read in the past few years.

I'm so glad I read this book. It satisfies on many levels. The senseless tragedies of the "disappeared" is made personal in a well written tale. The community of grandmothers who marched every Thursday is the foundation for an incredibly constructed story that, at its core, embraces two boys raised in a family not their own.

This is a very good book. After seeing the reviews regarding this book in the hardbound version, I will agree that this is very helpfull for those seeking a career in advertising.

Imagining Argentina is a novel that would be best described as unique, profound and very extordinary. It is focused on the topic of how imagination becomes the key element in survival and strength. It reflects the actions of a young man named Carlos Rueda who comes across a unique ability to percieve the fate and wherabouts of people who have been kidnapped by their corrupt government. Imagination is used as a tool of what appears to be war between the government and the citizens, which proves to show how powerful it really is. The power of imagination is not just something Carlos can do but is something that anyone can do in order to stay strong. The theme of the novel revolves around how imagination is an act of hope. Hope of never giving up. We enjoyed reading this novel very much. Lawrence Thornton writes with great creativity and imagination which makes the novel so intrigueing to read.

I read this book, Imagining Argentina, for a class on conscience and political struggle. Of the books we read (Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, and others), this book quickly emerged among my classmates as a favorite. This is in part due to the fact that it is an easy read. The language flows smoothly, unburdened with cumbersome wording. Also, the crafting of the story is quite artful. Imagining Argentina takes its material from historical events. Argentina's so-called "dirty war" was an internal conflict, waged by the military government on the people. Anyone who publicly decried the generals or their policies risked being disappeared. The main character of Thornton's novel, Carlos Rueda, is a playwright who discovers a gift for seeing both past and future events through the eyes of the disappeared after his own wife is taken away. People start coming to him to hear the stories of their disappeared loved ones. Though many of the characters are fictional, the stories Rueda tells are taken from actual experiences of victims of the dirty war. Thus, Thornton blends mysticism with factual information to create a novel that is both a compelling read and a moving account of Argentina's dark, not-so-distant past.

A brilliant and inspiring novel, Lawrence Thornton's "Imagining Argentina" effectively portrays the turmoil and struggle in Argentina in the 1970's as people were taken from their loved ones by corrupt government officials and became members of "the disappeared". Using exceptional and eloquent writing techniques, Thornton is able to portray a story of love, imagination, despair and most provocatively, faith. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this novel, is its ability to establish a relationship between the reader and the protagonist, Carlos Rueda. So deeply intriguing and stimulating is this central character, that the reader cannot help but communicate with him, by sympathizing the losses of his wife and daughter, understanding his desperation and desperation and inhaling his words of wisdom and bold faith in humanity. The story emphasizes on the theme of faith and the power of the human spirit. Carlos' unbreakable belief in his wife's survival is never tarnished nor questioned, as he able to unite a lost community and bring hope that their loved ones will return someday. The only negative aspects of this novel is that sometimes the book is so plotted out that it feels like you are watching a movie rather than reading a book. The novel also starts off slow but picks up very quickly towards the middle. I highly recommend this novel, "Imagining Argentina" and hope that it moves you just as much as it has moved me.

In "Naming the Spirits' Lawrence Thornton manages to tell the stories of Argentina's disappeared without overstating the torture and murder. He tells just enough to make the reader feel the fear and tension, without making you want to turn away. The story has a quiet, spiritual pace with different chapters narrated by different victims, survivors, and even murderers. While it took me a few chapters to figure out how the different stories were related , the narrations themselves were always fascinating. This is one of those books that you might not fully appreciate until the final pages when all the parts form a whole.

Its good in the form of detail, but the opinion of the author comes through too much. She dwells to much on her own life during the trial and the other jury members, then the trial itself. If you enjoy learning about criminal law, its a must. If looking for a book on the Menendez case and trial, read 'Blood Brothers'.