Location: United States
Member Since: Nov. 22, 2013

3 readers have added this author as a 'Favorite Author'.

Sign in to subscribe to email alerts for D. Dean Benton

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 12 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.

Smashwords Interview

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I am a Des Moines, Iowa Southsider. When I graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, the faculty sang "It Took A Miracle." My mother and uncles were business people. I began waiting tables and washing dishes in Mom's restaurant at age 12. I pumped gas at my uncle's service station in my teens. That experience of interaction with customers was instructive.
When did you first start writing?
One of my great mistakes was cheating in high school English classes. I really did cheat and I didn't pay attention. After all, I reasoned, who would know? When I began pastoring, I wrote my sermons in manuscript form after making a strict outline. I preached at least two sermons on Sunday, so I hammered out a communication style. My wife did take English classes seriously, so she has helped me as have editors and friends who read letters with blue pens in hand to circle and return corrected grammar, which on a grumpy day can be irritating. But helpful.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find D. Dean Benton online

Website: https://www.deanbenton.org
Blog: http://bentonquesthouse.com

Where to buy in print

http://bentonministries.com

Series

The Southwood Collection by
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.
Gone To Southwood--The Community You've Always Wanted
You set the price!
The Whales Are Singing
Price: $3.99 USD.
Pillars & Porches
Price: $2.99 USD.
Depot--On Track: Heritage, Destiny, Legacy
Price: Free!

Books

Mining for Reality & Truth by
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 by
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 by
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 by
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 by
Series: The Southwood Collection, Book 3. Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 28,320. Language: English. Published: September 30, 2016. Categories: Fiction » Inspirational
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 by
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 by
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 56,440. Language: English. Published: August 25, 2015. 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 by
Price: Free! Words: 55,340. Language: English. Published: March 31, 2015. Categories: Fiction » Christian » General, Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Emotional healing
(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 by
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 44,320. Language: English. Published: March 21, 2015. Categories: Nonfiction » Relationships & Family » Anger, Essay » Author profile
(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 by
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 34,680. Language: English. Published: September 7, 2014. Categories: Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Personal Growth / Success, Essay » Sociology
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 by
Series: The Southwood Collection, Book 1. You set the price! 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 by
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 by
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 by
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

achievement    addiction resources    addictions    adventure    adventure christian    am i meandering or just wandering around    anger management    authenticity    belief system    biblical mind    biblical principles    biblical truth    biography inspirational    character development    community building    defeating dispair    destiny    destiny or dead end    devotionals christian    dispensing hope    divorce all about coping and surviving    divorce and children    divorce and effect    divorce and relationship    divorce civilly for children    divorce counseling    divorce estrangement children fatherson relationships parents separation child custody    divorce in civilized way    divorce with teens    emotional heailing    emotional healing and health    emotional health    emotional intelligenece    encouraging curiosity    excellence    faith and character driven    faith development    faith in jesus christ    family and marriage    family coping strategies    family dynamics    family heritage    family life    family relationships    favorat what price    goal setting    growth and renewal    healing abuse    healing after divorce    healing and counselling    healing and happiness    healing and recovery story    healing anger    healing anointing    healing broken soul    healing for emotional turmoil    healing hopelessness    heritage    hope building process    how does god speak to us    how to discern visions    humor    inspiration    inspirational and motivational    inspirational christian growth    inspirational divorce    inspirational educational    inspirational message of life    inspirational personal growth    inspirational self help personal development self improvement empowerment for survivors motivation for change motivation and students    interpreting life events    is it faith or a crazy idea    legacy family conversations generation    legacy foundation    life planning    life purpose    living fully alive    making decisions    mentoring    ministry and marriage    ministry calling    ministry development    ministry environments    ministry gifts    motivation and inspiration    motivation and the bible    motivational    nurture    parenting after divorce    parenting tools    personal development    personal empowerment    personal reflection    quest for truth    reality shift    self awareness    self awarenness    skill development    spirit filled life    spirit led life    spiritual formation    success and confidence    the road back from a bad pilgrimage    warfare prayer    what if we misunderstand    what is the catch to gods provision    when hope is lost    when you are different   

Smashwords book reviews by D. Dean Benton

  • The Naked Truth About Small Group Ministry: When It Won't Work and What To Do About It by Randall G Neighbour on Dec. 17, 2016
    (no rating)
    I read this when it was new. I think of it as one of the treasures in my library. I keep it within 3 feet of my desk. His description of discipleship is practical and well designed. He talks about the need for a deliverance weekend for the new believer. I know what a deliverance weekend might look like for a Charismatic/Pentecostal, so I asked Neighbour how a Baptist would do that. His answer was so helpful and on target. Glad for the Kingdom to have this book on this platform.