Are you tired of playing the games those around us insist we play? I believe we are in a time when many Christ-followers are struggling to live in the freedom that Jesus’ death has bought us. Danna Batten has written a book that can truly help you navigate the games in Church life. As she says in the first chapter, “Life is full of games. They are played in relationships, work, family dynamics, politics, and even church.” So how do we find a way to live life the way Jesus intended us to live? How do we avoid the games in which so many of us are trapped? This book provides many of those answers.

I first met Danna in 2014. I truly believe God brought her to our church at just the right time. You see at the time, I had been in full time vocational ministry for around 35 years and I was beginning to realize that there were people in The Church as a whole, who were looking for answers about how to live life differently than they had always lived. They were looking for a way out of their brokenness and wanted to find freedom from the victimization of past traumas, abuses and injustices. I have spent so many hours counseling people during my ministry who have found themselves in broken places unsure of how to live in freedom and joy. Christ-followers do not escape the circumstances that can weigh us down. But fortunately, we have the truth of Christ to help us navigate the storms of life. Jesus came to give us life to the full. Danna states, “Jesus, with His last breath said, ‘It is finished;’ meaning everything has been accomplished. The healing you need from the trauma you’ve experienced is available. Jesus can heal any emotional, physical or spiritual wound you have…we must participate with Him in order to receive it.”

When Danna and her husband Mike began attending our church, I was in a season of life where I was seeing a Christian counselor. I was in the process of finding freedom and healing and knew that so many other people needed to experience that as well. I discovered early on, that Danna had the gifts to help others navigate life in a healthy manner. She is an expert in this area and has helped many people find their way after having faced many struggles herself. She is an active part of our leadership team and I regularly ask her to preach, teach classes and counsel in ministry at Tiffany Fellowship Church, where I am Lead Pastor. Her ministry has changed the lives of many and I love that this book extends that information to everyone. Just as in the game “Simon Says” Simon dictates what we do, we begin to let the voices around us dictate what we do. Those voices tell us how to play the games of life correctly; or so we think. Even the lie of negative self-talk becomes a loud voice. Jesus, the voice of Truth, needs to become the loudest voice in our lives.