Did you have a good Super Bowl party? Great to see you and Herb this morning!

2010/02/08

Your Unforgettable Life

Jennifer Schuchmann & Craig Chapin

In Your Unforgettable Life: Only You Can Leave the Legacy You Choose, authors Chapin and Schuchmann argue that it’s the seemingly insignificant things we do on a daily basis that eventually become our legacy, not one-time momentous events.  This book guides the reader through the seemingly inconsequential choices we face each day and examines the consequences of those choices in the light of the people we love and who love us.  Authors Chapin and Schuchmann discuss

  • Whether you have a legacy (you do)
  • How you create the legacy you leave
  • How the legacy you inherit affects the legacy you leave
  • How to choose or change your legacy

For those desiring to leave a positive legacy, this book provides motivation and a sense of immediacy.  Valuing application over theory, the authors teach Christian growth by modeling biblical principals through stories and anecdotes.  Readers will learn how the choices they make now affect their circle of influence for generations.  This book will appeal to the readers of The Purpose Driven Life and Wild at Heart.

Back Cover

What is your legacy?

You’re going to leave one, you know. Only you can choose how you will be remembered. The small choices and behaviors you repeat day-to-day will linger long after you’ve moved, changed jobs, or died.

You can deliberately build a legacy that will make a positive impact on the ones you love. The authors will help you develop a vision and start today to make wise choices that will outlive your unforgettable life.

Contents

Acknowledgements

I. A Legacy: Do We Have One?

1.  We Have a Legacy (Whether We Want It or Not)

2.  Deliberate Legacies

3.  Our Choices Matter

4.  Seemingly Insignificant Details

5.  To the Fourth Generation

II. The Legacy You Leave

6.  Minutes Make a Difference

7.  Indebted: Whom Do We Owe?

8.  Intentional Integrity

9.  Conscious Fidelity

10. Dare to be Disciplined

11. Give ‘em Something to Talk About!

12. Words: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

III. The Legacy We Inherited

13. A Legacy of Prejudice

14. Unhealthy Legacies

15. Spiritual Legacies

16. Dysfunctional Legacies

IV. Changing Your Legacy

17. A Change for the Better

18. Love for a Thousand Generations

Notes

Resources

So you want to have an unforgettable life but you’re not sure how to get started? If you read the book and need additional resources, here’s the place to find them.

Financial Management

Ronald Blue & Company – offers fee-only comprehensive financial and investment management services to over 5,000 clients through 14 offices across the U.S.

Ellie Kay – Ellie Kay is helping families around the world gain control of their money and find new meaning in life by expanding their roles in their communities. Read her new book “The Debt Diet.”

Crown Financial Ministries - For budgeting tools or to find a financial class near you.

Fidelity

Pure Online - Confidential help for pornography and sex addiction.

X3church.com – #1 Christian Porn site. Okay, it’s not what you think. These guys have a creative and much needed outreach ministry to the porn industry and those struggling with porn. They also offer information and resources.

People in the book

Patrick Borders – In the first chapter, Patrick is the guy who inherited a legacy from a great-grandfather he never met.

Nanette Thorten-Snipes – Nan is the woman in Chapter 12 who learned to forgive her mother.

Chuck Colson – We profiled Chuck Colson as an example of someone who deliberately changed their legacy. Learn more about him and his new book here.

Biblegateway.com – To learn more about any Biblical character discussed in our book use the search engines to search on the character at this site.

Kingdom Assignment.com – So many of you have told us how much you enjoyed the story in Chapter 7 about Pastor Bellesi handing out $100 bills to his congregation. Visit this site to learn all the details and to buy their books.

What They're Saying...

At Chick-fil-A, in setting our priorities we ask ourselves, "Ten years from now what will this matter?" Very few things will. Reading this book WILL matter 10 years from now... I'm glad I did... you will be too... I highly recommend it!!!!


-David Salyers, Vice President of Marketing Chick-fil-A

I would recommend this book highly for anyone who desires to leave a positive legacy. As a financial advisor, I know that a legacy is never about money; it is always about Christlikeness. Far too many people make the mistake of looking only at their financial legacy to the ultimate tragic consequences that are paid by their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. As Jennifer and Craig say “To the third and to the fourth generation.” May many as yet unborn children benefit from this book.

-Ron Blue, President of Christian Financial Professionals Network and author of Master Your Money and Splitting Heirs.

Jennifer Schuchmann has done an amazing job writing a book that will help people live amazing lives if they follow the advice the authors give. Their chapter on financial stewardship is particularly helpful as it will help the reader reach a new level of financial freedom as they focus on the fact that God owns it all. I would recommend this book to anyone who is serious about living a Christ-filled life that will make a difference.

-Ellie Kay, "America's Financial Expert" (R) National speaker, radio commentator on "Money Matters" and best-selling author of The Debt Diet

The book calls us to think with every action about the power of our legacy to touch our family and friends for decades; and to consider with every choice the only source for creating a legacy that matters eternally.

-Parker Hudson, Author of On the Edge and The President

An Unforgettable Life by Chapin and Schuchmann is an important read. It’s been said that you don't take anything with you when you go. An Unforgettable Life shows you how to make the things you leave behind important, meaningful—and unforgettable. If you want your life to have lasting value for generations to come, this book will show you the way.

-Wayne Homes, author/compiler of Caution: Children Praying, Heart of a Mother, and Heart of a Father

The impact one life can have for generations is humbling and inspiring. Craig and Jennifer are to be commended for helping us focus on the daily choices we make that impact others for years, and which may redeem cities and nations for Christ.

-Senator Judson Hill, Georgia State Senate

Your Unforgettable Life is easy-to-read, pragmatic, and impactful! Authors Schuchmann and Chapin do an outstanding job revealing how the legacies we all leave are not generally made up of one-time momentous events, but rather they result from the accumulations of our daily choices. Many people are held back in life by the negative legacies they inherited, and they continue to pass those negatives on to others. This book helps readers to break this cycle and to create a positive foundation for their lives and the lives of others they influence. Filled with true stories that illustrate their points, Your Unforgettable Life hits us all directly where we live.

-Scott Kays, President and Founder of Kays Financial Advisory Corporation and author of Achieving Your Financial Potential

This book belongs in every church library to help parents, teachers,and leaders influence young people to make choices and develop characters that please the Lord. Practical and biblical, An Unforgettable Life will challenge you to look beyond yourself to find ways to leave a positive impact on the next generation, regardless of what kind of legacy you inherited from your family.

-Lin Johnson, Managing Editor, Church Libraries

This book is designed to help you scrutinize and improve your daily walk as a Christian. It gives you the opportunity to consider how your daily "little" acts affect others and to be more conscious of the legacy you are creating.

- Rev. Leon Aalberts, Oswego Presbyterian Church, Oswego, IL

How do you want to be remembered? Jennifer Schuchmann and Craig Chapin offer a rich insight and warm encouragement for leaving a legacy that lasts.

-Michael Ray Smith, author of FeatureWriting.Net and Chair of the Department of Mass Communication, Campbell University

Having been the beneficiary of a godly legacy, I'm very thankful that Craig and Jennifer have written this book about how important that is. For whether you have benefited from such a heritage or not, we all have the opportunity in Christ to build a godly legacy for those who follow behind us.

-G. Bryant Wright, Pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, GA & founder of Right From the Heart Ministries

Chapin and Schuchmann’s "Your Unforgettable Life" is crucial for this generation. They richly use life stories and Scripture to help us understand how the decisions we make in everyday life shape and influence our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their families. This book will strengthen families & individuals for generations in a time when the currents of culture continue to erode away at virtues once held highly.

-Rev. Brian Stone, Visionary Pastor for Gen X Ministries, Haven Reformed Church, Kalamazoo, MI

I was so glad to read Craig and Jennifer’s great insight into the subject of legacy. By sharing Scriptural examples, personal experiences and addressing potential inherited problems, they clearly demonstrate that the legacy we leave is dependent upon the choices we make everyday. I found this book highly motivating and very encouraging.

-Elaine Helms, Prayer Associate, North American Mission Board, SBC