Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

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Created for Communion

September 5, 2023 by Kristin Leave a Comment

I thought I’d start by sharing the first line: I was introduced to God through my friends.

Created for Communion: Discovering God’s Design for Biblical Friendship is about coming alongside each other and uses Biblical relationships to show us how to give and receive that side-by-side love—even in our human imperfections.

As believers, we have communion with each other because Jesus’ death and resurrection made a way for us to have fellowship with God. Even before God sent Jesus, he showed his love through His people—people who had friends and were friends.

Each chapter in Created for Communion explores a different Biblical relationship, showing how those friendships transformed each person. Study the remarkable

examples set by David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, Jonah and his friends, Mary and Elizabeth, Jesus and his disciples, the friends of the paralytic man, and Paul and Timothy (and others!)

In this book on Biblical friendship, we’ll learn how God has created us for communion, allowing His people—then and now—to befriend one another in holy ways.

Purchasing Notes

Here on launch morning, I am waiting for Amazon to sync the paperback and Kindle versions and move them from pre-order status. Hopefully, that happens at any moment. You can also buy from Barnes & Noble. I also have copies at my house, if you’d like to buy one from me directly. Those are $10 locally or $15 shipped — and, yes, they’re autographed. I accept PayPal, Venmo, and cash.

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Nine Ways to Go for God

August 8, 2022 by Kristin Leave a Comment

We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission trips and hope to go on more. They’ve served locally. We support missionaries. We want our kids to be open to wherever God calls them and incorporating missions into our small-town life is one way we, as parents, have hoped to teach that. 

I’m incredibly thankful our church – Hardin Baptist Church – comes alongside us with the same message. The middle and high school youth spent the summer looking at different aspects of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Youth minister Chase Bright spent the last Sunday of the series looking at nine practical ways that students – yes, even middle and high schoolers – could participate in and pray about going for God. 

Chase shared these 9 Ways to Go with students’ parents, and I asked him for permission to share them with you because even as an adult I want to remember to live on mission – even right where I am. 

*****

In his final marching orders to his disciples, Jesus beckons all of his followers to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). Today, we refer to these last words as The Great Commission. 

In my experience with students, they want to be faithful to this Great Commission. Many of them are passionate about the gospel being spread to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8), and they want to play a role in this high calling and participate in what God is doing across the globe. Many times, however, they don’t have a very good idea as to where to start. They need something practical. To that end, it’s my aim to provide nine brief yet practical ways for students to “go,” if not now then in the very near future. 

It’s my hope and prayer that students and families would prayerfully consider what God may have them do both now and in the future in order to proclaim the gospel and make disciples among all the nations of the earth. 

1. Share the Gospel HERE & NOW 

You don’t have to be in another culture to make disciples. All followers of Christ are called to make disciples wherever God has us now by sharing the gospel with the people around us. A great way to do this is to “Find your One” and commit to praying and sharing with that person. Who’s Your One? 

2. Short-Term Mission Trips

Each summer our high school students get the opportunity to go on short-term mission trips through our church. Take advantage of these great opportunities. Be on the lookout for any information about short-term mission trips our student ministry will be taking. 

(Note from Kristin: These students went to Chicago this summer and my 15-year-old Cate had a great experience outside her comfort zone serving and sharing. Here’s my post about that.)

3. The Radical Gap Year

After graduating high school, you can take a “gap year” before you begin college or your career for the sake of disciple-making and figuring out what God may be calling you to do in the future to make his glory known among the nations. The Radical Gap Year is an amazing way to do this. 

4. Theological Education

How about going to a Christian college or theological seminary that will intentionally equip you to go on mission and equip others in the local church to do the same? There are so many great options that will prepare you to do this. Here are just a few: 

  • The College at Southeastern (Undergraduate)
  • Boyce College (Undergraduate)
  • Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Graduate/Seminary)
  • The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Graduate/Seminary) 

5. GenSend – Summer Missions 

Even as a youth student, you can already begin to think and pray about how you might spend your college summers and breaks. Why not spend them on mission? GenSend, through the North American Mission Board, is a great option for you to be able to do this. 

6. Go2 – Give 2 Years

After you graduate college, what if you spent the first two years in a big, strategic North American city while beginning your career, serving with a church plant, and working to further advance the gospel? Check out Go2, also through North American Mission Board, and begin praying through what this may look like for you. 

7. IMB Journeyman Program

Similar to Go2, the IMB Journeyman Program is for recent college graduates or young adults who desire to spend two years on missions. IMB Journeymen are sent internationally (as opposed to domestically) to strategic nations around the globe. On top of that, IMB Journeymen are fully-funded! 

8. Full-Time Missionary

May God be calling you to be a full-time missionary? What about a church planter? You don’t have to wait to start praying and seeking where or how God might send you in the future. You can start NOW! 

There are so many ways you can be a missionary or church planter. Here are just a few ways that you can begin to research and pray about: 

  • Be sent by your local church. 
  • Be sent through mission sending agencies such as the International Mission Board or the North American Mission Board. 

9. Careers for Missions 

Teacher. Nurse. Farmer. Businessman. These are but a few of the career occupations you might find yourself doing in the future. But what if you pursued these careers somewhere else, like in a place with little to no gospel presence? Start thinking about what career you might want to do in the future, and begin praying for where God might have you do this career so that you can further advance the gospel to the nations. 

By no means is this list exhaustive. However, I pray that it’s a helpful starting place for many youth students looking for some practical ways they can participate in the Great Commission by going. 

To God alone be the glory!

*****

Chase Bright serves on staff at Hardin Baptist Church in Hardin, Kentucky, and as a theology teacher at New Covenant Christian Academy. He also is an MDiv student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Kaitlyn, have two children.

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God always finds them

August 1, 2022 by Kristin Leave a Comment

Bedtime is always full of shenanigans around here – and most of the time, I rush through the bedtime routine with my youngest two kids because I’m ready for my own bed. But I have a different story from a recent night. 

I was tucking in my 6-year-old Rachel. And by “tucking in,” I mean getting the blankets right, praying, singing, and answering 85 million questions. She asked if I’d read her story. That’s usually her daddy’s job, but he wasn’t home that evening, so I said okay. She had “The Jesus Storybook Bible” by Sally Lloyd-Jones sitting right here, so I told her to pick out one of those stories. 

“I want to read the pig sty one,” she said as she was already flipping the pages to find it. 

When I saw what she meant, peace washed over me. “Oh, I love this one.” I read “Running Away,” which is retold from Luke 15, better known as The Prodigal Son.

A boy starts thinking he will be happier if his dad wasn’t telling him what to do. He wanted to look after himself. His father was sad, but he didn’t want to force him to stay. So the son went and did whatever he wanted to do until he runs out of money and gets a job feeding pigs. Being in this low spot, showed the boy maybe his dad’s home wasn’t so bad after all.

Then Lloyd-Jones writes: “The dad leaps off the porch, races down the hill, through the gap in the hedge, up the road. Before his son can even begin his I’m-Sorry-Speech, his dad runs to him, throws his arms around him, and can’t stop kidding him.” The father proceeds to have a party to celebrate his son’s homecoming. 

“Jesus told people this story to show them what God is like. And to show people what they are like. So they could know, however far they ran, however well they hid, however lost they were – it wouldn’t matter,” Lloyd-Jones writes. “Because God’s children could never run too far, or be too lost, for God to find them.”

I was teary when I finished. While this Bible story was retold for children, the words brought to mind when I decided to follow Christ on Jan. 20, 1996, after hearing someone speak about The Prodigal Son during a Chrysalis weekend. I nailed some sins to a wooden cross in the sanctuary, representing surrender. I remember thinking of the beauty of the father welcoming his lost son home, understanding how the younger son thought he could hold together his own life, and relating to the older son who stayed and did what he was supposed to and found himself not quite willing to celebrate his brother’s homecoming. 

I told Rachel an abbreviated version of that story of being a 16-year-old girl hearing that story and making a decision that truly changed my life. Here more than 26 years later, I’m thankful God welcomes me home over and over again. I’ve surrendered and squandered and sulked, and God keeps opening his arms, which led me to salvation initially and continually prompts surrender.

*****

If you don’t know about “The Jesus Storybook Bible,” I definitely recommend it for the kids in your life. Let’s be honest, I love reading too and I’m thankful it’s back in the rotation around here. 

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About Me

Telling stories is my therapy and I love sharing them with friends on my porch.

The main characters in my stories are my entrepreneur husband, our high school girl who never forgets, our middle school boy who has no fear, and our joy-filled first-grade girl. As we live out our stories, we seek God as the author of them all.

Learn more about my story here.

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Y'all have been so awesome celebrating my new book Y'all have been so awesome celebrating my new book! If you've had a chance to read it, I'd really appreciate you leaving a review. For authors, Amazon is the best place, but you can copy and paste the same review on Goodreads and Barnes & Noble too: 

📚 Amazon: bit.ly/createdforcommunion
📚 Barnes & Noble: mavely.app.link/e/RHD4MooDGCb
📚 Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/197602230-created-for-communion

Of course, if you haven't gotten your copy yet, you can buy "Created for Communion" at Amazon or Barnes & Noble (from those links above!) and from the trunk of my minivan! 

🌸 Plus there are FREE resources, including a sample chapter, on my website: kristinhilltaylor.com/created-for-communion

#linkinbio #authorlife #KHTreads #bookstagram #bookrelease #author #book #booklaunch #amazonbook #goodreads #marketrefinedpublishing #MRPbook #bookshelf #nonfiction #selfhelpfbooks #christianbooks #christianauthors #CreatedforCommunion #GodsDesign #BiblicalFriendship #KristinHillTaylor #communion #friendship #faithlife #community #bettertogether #friends #holyfriendships #bookreviews #freebies
To live in communion with one another, means to sh To live in communion with one another, means to share meals, space, advice, and prayers. It also means sharing hope, disappointment, dreams, and forgiveness. 

We explore what this looks like in “Created for Communion,” along with other biblical foundations for friendships and community.

🌸 FREE RESOURCES & SAMPLE CHAPTER: 
kristinhilltaylor.com/created-for-communion

🌸 GET THE BOOK:
bit.ly/createdforcommunion

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So many of my Facebook friends shared lovely pictu So many of my Facebook friends shared lovely pictures of their daughters yesterday for the completely made-up National Daughters Day. Regardless, today I'm all in my feelings about my daughters. 

They're 16 and 8 right now. Both of their classes have been studying ancient Egypt and had a joint feast today. Sweet, huh? 

BUT THEN TIMEHOP GOT ME! Apparently, NINE years ago today, when Cate was a second-grader, her class had an Egyptian feast. I think about a particular picture of Cate and her friend Kilee from that day AND THEN IT CAME UP IN MY TIMEHOP TODAY. Facebook also told me that same day nine years ago, Monica and I became Facebook friends. We probably were at the Egyptian feast and decided we'd be friends because our girls were friends. Y'all, God has been so good to me through my friendship with Monica. Our families click in a special way with our three sets of same-aged kids, most of whom have been adopted. 

Anyway, my daughters. They're lovely, funny, and smart. I love that Cate helped Rachel with her Egyptian eye makeup this morning and made her a Nutella and banana sandwich. I love that they got to have a party today at school together. I love that even though they're eight years apart, they're sisters. 

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do. 💛

#momlife #timehop #documentlife #bettertogether #sisters #siblinglove #nationaldaughtersday #daughters #reallife #schoollife #adoption #adoptionislove #PeaceInTheProcess #CreatedForCommunion #choosingJOY @ncca.lions
I’m pretty much always thinking about my next tr I’m pretty much always thinking about my next trip! Be it a weekend getaway or a family vacation, I’ve always got ideas of where I want to go next. The rest of my family always has suggestions too. Yes, take the (next) trip!

In the blog post HOW TO TAKE THE TRIP, I share lots of links and suggestions on where to go, who can help you, and what to take with you. 

✨ https://kristinhilltaylor.com/2023/09/how-to-take-the-trip.html

Where do you want to go? What do you always take with you?

#linkinbio #ontheblog #roadtrip #vacation #documentlife #takethetrip #bloggerlife #adventurers #choosingJOY #traveltips
I was thankful for some rest time on the couch on I was thankful for some rest time on the couch on Saturday afternoon — and a chance to finish this suspense book. 

“Between Two Strangers” by @katewhite_author had such an intriguing plot that pulled me right in. I was close to figuring out how it was all intertwined, but I didn’t quite get there through all the twists. Good, quick read!

#KHTreads #bookstagram #booklover #librarybooks #weekending #latergram #suspensebooks #goodreads
Recently, in random snapshots. This is a full life Recently, in random snapshots. This is a full life, but it’s a good life. 💛

#momlife #siblinglove #bettertogether #reallife #latergram #documentlife #soccermom #boymom #girlmom
When you subscribe to emails from my porch, you ge When you subscribe to emails from my porch, you get some free goodies! Plus, it's a fun way to chat about life, books, and faith. 

I just updated the free gifts to include a lovely PDF that has links to 27 (!!!) how-to posts about life, home, and parenthood. I'm going to give away more goodies when I meet some subscriber goals, so, if you haven't already, please join me on my virtual porch. 

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Well, don't they look lovely together! ✨ Find Well, don't they look lovely together! 

✨ Find them all here: https://amzn.to/3sRUHd7

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You’re a light wherever you go! And you like to You’re a light wherever you go! And you like to go! You’re always making friends, asking about our next adventure, wanting to know what’s next, and talking if you’re not singing. You’re the joy our family needed in 2015 and you continue to be the one who makes us laugh and love better than we did before we knew you. 

... You ask a million questions, know the words to thousands of songs, have so many ideas, and still try to sneak into my bed at night. You say I’m the best snuggler in this family. I’ll take it – and your hugs and love, although the middle of the night will never be my favorite time. 

Happy birthday to the girl who loves loudly! 

✨ kristinhilltaylor.com/2023/09/rachel-is-8.html

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