Religion publishers looking to guide and encourage families are not shying away from tough topics related to relationships and parenting. Among ever-popular and more traditional books on Christian living, there are bracing new and forthcoming titles covering everything from infidelity and financial hardships to infertility and the loss of a child. Acquiring editors point to a hunger among readers of faith for authentic, trustworthy wisdom from authors with shared experiences.

“As a person of faith who believes in the mission of faith publishing, I want to speak to the real issues real readers are facing now,” says Jonathan Merritt, VP and executive editor of Simon & Schuster. He highlights Overcoming Infidelity: 10 Conversations to Help You Heal the Hurt (Oct.), the debut title from the house’s first dedicated religion and spirituality list. The book can certainly claim authenticity and shared experience; it’s written by former pastor Carl Lentz, who lost his pulpit at the famous Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, when it came to light that he’d been cheating on his wife, Laura Lentz—who coauthored the book.

“We know that there are many, many marriages every year that are destroyed because of betrayal and infidelity,” Merritt says. “But there are few resources out there to help couples to authentically wade through those tumultuous waters. I have spent enough time in evangelicalism that I am skeptical of the comeback stories. The Lentz couple lost their ministry but they didn’t lose their faith. They did the inner work on themselves in therapy and found their way back. They acquired a lot of wisdom along the way that they want to share.”

Years ago, these sorts of hard-hitting issues and frank conversations wouldn’t have been on religion publishers’ frontlists, according to Drew Dixon, executive editor for Penguin Random House Christian’s WaterBrook and Multnomah imprints. But today, the publisher is embracing them. “We’re updating these conversations to bring them into line with modern realities that—because of AI, because of apps and technology and smartphones, because of the culture wars over the meaning of gender—the world of singleness, the world of dating, and the world of marriage just aren’t the same as they used to be,” Dixon says. “Families are not the same as they used to be.”

Dixon notes that faithful readers are hungry for this new breed of books. He cites how Manouchka Charles, an unmarried Miami megachurch pastor, saw her sermons on singleness go viral, landing her a deal for her debut, Singleness Is a Piece of Cake: The Ingredients to a Life That Doesn’t Settle (WaterBrook, Jan. 2027). Dixon calls the book a recipe for living with intention and relying on God’s design.

And for couples dealing with sorrow and struggle, there’s Weathering Together: Enduring Life’s Storms, Hand in Hand, Anchored in Faith, coming in April from PRHC imprint Align Insight. Written by the husband-and-wife team of actor Kellan Lutz and Embraced by Grace podcaster Brittany Lutz, the book explores how the authors leaned into each other and toward God while dealing with job losses, sick parents, fertility struggles, and the grief of losing a child.

Different Families, Different Books

Beth Adams, acquiring editor for the Hachette imprint Apiary, says she looks for books that address—and in some cases upend—the unique issues and challenges facing today’s families. “What sparks my curiosity now are the books that shed a critical lens on the way we see things,” she says, pointing to a title that looks to redefine typical family life: Stephanie Hanrahan’s That’s Not Normal: On Expectations, Belonging, and the Freedom Found in a Different Life. (Feb. 2027).

In the book, Hanrahan describes how her family life bore no resemblance to what she had once imagined for herself: she has two autistic children, her husband faced a life-threatening illness, and she had lost her faith. But everything changed when she registered for Mothers of Preschoolers, a community program that met at a local church, and was embraced by women who cared—and prayed—for her family.

“It was not a divine intervention that got me back in the pews for the first time since my teen years,” Hanrahan writes. “It was coffee and free childcare. I was completely suffocating in the version of motherhood I’d been handed.... I needed a few hours to breathe.”

The central argument of the book, Adams says, is that things people view as abnormal aren’t the problem. “It’s the way we look at them,” she explains. “God does enter in, but he doesn’t wave a magic wand and make it better. Her family’s needs and issues remain.”

In Welcome, Weary Parent: An Invitation to Hope When Regret Comes to Call (MennoMedia, May 2027), author and pastor Osheta Moore addresses parents who fear they’ve failed in sharing their faith with the next generation because a child has rejected religious teachings or made choices that don’t align with the church. But Moore is not here to right what parents fear went wrong.

According to acquiring editor Sara Verslius, the book doesn’t provide a parenting formula or claim to produce specific outcomes. Instead, it’s an invitation for parents to let go and trust that God cares for their children, too. “It’s actually a book about spiritual formation for the parents,” she says. “Through personal stories, contemplative practice, and fresh encounters with the Gospels, Moore invites readers to make peace with their emotions.”

Because of the challenges facing today’s parents, readers are looking for advice that’s both spiritually and scientifically sound, according to IVP trade editor Kelli Trujillo. She highlights Praying with Kids: Whole Body Practices for Families and Church Communities by Kate Lawson-Hedger (IVP Formatio, Nov.), which includes the author’s research on the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of children. “She addresses how we can support and understand kids who may be neurodivergent, kids who may have other disabilities, kids who may be nonverbal, kids who may be very active,” Trujillo says. “She lets parents know you don’t have to bow your head and fold your hands to pray. You can dance a prayer that you made up.”

And finally, maybe today’s parents just need to chill out. Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, worship correspondent for Christianity Today and coauthor (with Melissa Franks Burt) of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Failed a Generation of Evangelicals (Brazos, out now), suggests parents eschew fears about getting it right and just trust themselves.

These new books—prayerful, pragmatic, and ultimately positive—are what readers need now, Merritt says. “Ten years ago, you could write a relationship book that was merely interesting,” he adds. “Now, people want to know if they are going to spend $30 on a book rather than on the inflated cost of groceries, that the book will make them healthier, happier, stronger, enrich their relationships, and deepen their spiritual life.”

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