D. Dean Benton

Biography

A native Iowan, husband of one, father of two and grandfather of three. A pastor, seminar leader, author of 27 print books and 15 ebooks, singer, songwriter. After 14 years in the pastorate, Dean and his wife Carole, with family, worked in concerts, seminars and conferences for three decades before returning to the pastorate. The Bentons worked in forty states in about 3000 venues.

Where to find D. Dean Benton online

Series

The Southwood Collection
It had been a plantation with no name. Now the acres house a faux antebellum mansion, a glass and steel seminar structure, Bethany Lodge houses court appointed kids and pieces of families in healing mode and a fine coffee shop. Populating other buildings is a core of teachers, counselors, healers, builders and those with day jobs like Sally who is a UPS driver, a native of Sudan. The TV-Internet visibility draws clients and conferences. This tribe authentically live their faith to embrace, equip, encourage and empower each other and those who visit for a weekend and those who stay until they are well.

Books

Carafe Conspiracy
Series: The Southwood Collection, Book 5. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 51,570. Language: English. Originally Published: March 9, 2024 by D. Dean Benton. Categories: Fiction, Fiction » Christian » General
Carafe Conspiracy is about "Walking beside and pouring into" is a discipling, mentoring and nurturing phrase. How do we walk beside an experienced person like Chad? What would we pour as he enters a new life-stage? Lance, a run-away or thrown away? Or Jason a 14-year old, questioning, achiever? How about Ross, 22-year old addict? Virginia at 28 is sexually confused. It's a conspiracy!
Mining for Reality & Truth
Price: Free! Words: 27,780. Language: English. Published: March 24, 2022 . Categories: Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Spiritual awakening
Questioning reality? What is true? Wondering about Truth? Few things will determine, define or detour life more than our worldview. Our worldview is the filter through which we interpret all things. Stunning: few examine personal worldviews. If a miracle you pray for contradicts your worldview, you will not recognize it even if delivered to you by FedEx. Time to dig preferences & paradigms.
Seizin' the Season
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 36,160. Language: English. Published: February 14, 2022 . Categories: Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Christian Life / Personal Growth, Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Christian Life / Professional Growth
Position yourself for season changes. The verbs of Psalm 37:1-9 show universal principles, virtues & values that make room for who we are and what we produce. There is no road to Camelot where seasons are controlled by wishes and executive decree. Someone will influence your seasons. Psalm 37 verbs are tools for the prepared. "Those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land" (Psalm 37:9).
Meanderings -- Swapping Road Stories With Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar, Ishmael
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 71,810. Language: English. Published: August 13, 2018 . Categories: Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Christian Life / Personal Growth
Why Abraham? He became known as the Father of Faith. The stories that grew out of Abraham's family's response are an outrageous adventure of failure and God's faithfulness. They heard God make laughable promises. The Bentons' traveling ministry--34 years' meanderings--led us to crises, laughter, lives impacted, silence, disappointment, many questions and His faithfulness. Come, meander with us
The Whales Are Singing
Series: The Southwood Collection, Book 2. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 76,360. Language: English. Published: January 19, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » Inspirational
Felicia had been separated from her husband for eighteen months. She was in a government protection program while her husband managed and rehabilitated Southwood Christian Conference Center. He and colleagues had become a dynamic national community. Felicia had never met this new tribe. When released, she didn't know if she wanted to or could renew her marriage. Then the whales began to sing.
Pillars & Porches
Series: The Southwood Collection, Book 3. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 28,730. Language: English. Originally Published: September 30, 2016 by D. Dean Benton. Categories: Fiction
Pillars & Porches is the prequel to eight ebooks. Non-fiction adventures set in a fictional antebellum mansion and a diverse community of visionaries, entrepreneurs, a family from Sudan, a cop/pastor, a former New Orleans stripper whose vision is to embrace, encourage, equip the divorced, depressed, abandoned and those focusing their dream. Antebellum to high-tech tv studio in a rail depot.
Depot--On Track: Heritage, Destiny, Legacy
Series: The Southwood Collection, Book 4. Price: Free! Words: 52,410. Language: English. Published: February 4, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » Christian » General, Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Personal Growth / Success
An abandoned crate purchased by a Midwest pastor on eBay from a Maine salvage company is delivered to a retreat center in the South. The box contents reveal the pastor's family secrets and shadowy heritage. What he finds in the box unlocks the pathway to his healing and his purpose. The conference center staff helps him release his wounded past, embrace and activate his family's mysterious legacy
HopePushers--with intent to deliver
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 57,420. Language: English. Originally Published: August 25, 2015 by D. Dean Benton. Categories: Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Personal Growth / Success
(5.00 from 1 review)
Hope is an energy generator, the mental-spiritual capital that funds your idea infrastructure. If your dream/goal is not happening, something has gone wrong with hope. Hope is not a feeling or a certain style of teeth clenching. Hope needs an objective and focus. Hope building requires process and people. HopePushers--tells you what hope is, how to get it, how to maintain it, how to dispense it.
Caught In The Tail Lights
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 55,820. Language: English. Originally Published: March 31, 2015 by D. Dean Benton. Categories: Fiction » Christian » General
(5.00 from 1 review)
"Powerful words," a friend said. "I wish I had heard them when I was a kid." Seventeen-year old Timothy Raymond Kendall time travels into his sixty-seventh year where he grasps and describes the impact of parental divorce. He is different than his peers. He returns to build a future he prefers. He finds resources in people, principles and a place. Caught in the Tail Lights is not a sentence.
Turn Back The Tirade
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 44,940. Language: English. Originally Published: March 21, 2015 by D. Dean Benton. Categories: Essay » Author profile, Nonfiction » Relationships & Family » Anger
(5.00 from 1 review)
Anger is a gift. Violence is not permissible. Hostility can kill you. Turn Back The Tirade tells stories of people stunted, stuck and devastated by out of control, negative anger. There are stories of disempowered people who don't know what to do with legitimate anger. Jesus and Paul encouraged anger that empowers. Fun success stories. Healing, understanding and skills for productive use of anger.
Seams To Me--Ready When They Hand You The Ball
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 35,260. Language: English. Originally Published: September 7, 2014 by D. Dean Benton. Categories: Essay » Sociology, Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Personal Growth / Success
Be ready when they hand you the ball and say, "Okay. It's up to you." It "Seams To Me" that solutions, skills, strategies and participating in our healing, equip us to break out of addictions and being stuck. God gave Joshua instructions to conquer and govern the Promised Land. With stories, experiences, Bible application, Dean uses these principles for spiritual-emotional growth and achievement.
Gone To Southwood--The Community You've Always Wanted
Series: The Southwood Collection, Book 1. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 107,350. Language: English. Published: August 28, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Inspirational, Fiction
(5.00 from 1 review)
The Southwood vision and mission: "...when Jesus saw the multitudes...the worn out, knocked down, wandering about." The broken, beaten, bruised and worn out come to Southwood to be healed, to learn skills, to find their life purpose, to be empowered, to be equipped, to be energized and to participate in the community they have always wanted--authentic, intimate, challenging, supporting, engaging.
Mockingbirds at Dawn
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 36,510. Language: English. Published: May 19, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Biblical Studies / Paul’s Letters, Essay » Sociology
Mockingbirds at Dawn is not about mockingbirds. It is about people who seek a larger repertoire of responses to God’s lush, lavished gifts. This is a collection of bite-sized interactions with Divine resources to deal with horizon shrinkage and resource leakage. This is a consideration of topics in the biblical book of Ephesians. These stories repel clouds or darkness with a fresh daybreak.
On My Family Watch
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 50,670. Language: English. Published: April 28, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Relationships & Family » Life stages / general
As the adult child of divorced parents and grandparents, I looked for principles and behaviors that would enable me to combat that predisposition. Why does trauma paralyze some people and motivate others? The stories of world leaders and addict- friends reveal the path to personal satisfaction has three components. Where am I? Where do I want to be? What plan will get me from here to there?
Rahab's Place--Position Yourself for a Change
Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 26,540. Language: English. Published: December 9, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Christian Life / Personal Growth, Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Christian Life / Personal Growth
Her life was about to change. Forever. It had seemed like a wise decision to build her business and home on the wall. High visibility, major traffic. Second thought--on the Jericho wall? Rahab may have been a hooker. She became one of Jesus' great-grandmothers. She leveraged her business and family against change. Use your "place" to position yourself to benefit from threatened change.

D. Dean Benton's tag cloud

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