The Rakes' books
Reigniting Power and Purpose When Everything Goes Dark
Power is not merely about authority or titles; it’s about generating energy, transforming potential into action, and transmitting influence across an organization to create real, lasting change.
This book will show you how to use your personal influence, language, and political acumen to create real, lasting change in organizations. Through these pages, readers will explore the distinction between leadership and management and why that matters, the role of communication in creating new realities, and the importance of navigating organizational politics.
Discover how power, like a well-functioning grid, can illuminate new pathways to attain missional success and infuse limitless energy to power your organization for greater impact. By comparing organizations to power grids—vast, interconnected systems that require careful calibration—learn how the leaders in an organization play the role of energy generators which produce the energy that fuels progress, or transformers which channel and adapt energy into specific needs. But without strategic oversight, these systems can falter, leaving organizations in the dark or overloaded with inefficiencies.
At its core, leadership is about power; if your organization is going to move, grow, or serve, its power and energy will come from someone. This book shows you how that someone can be you.
Discover the Person God
Made You To Be
Humanity is having a major identity crisis.
In a fast-paced world, it’s easy to construct an identity based on how many likes you have on social media, how many degrees you have earned, or other materialistic achievements, but when everything is stripped away – who are you, really?
In The Real You, Darla Rakes invites you on a transformative journey to peel back the layers of misconception and discover the divine essence that defines the deepest you, Rooted in profound biblical narratives and illuminated by the life of Jesus Christ, this book guides you through the complexities of identity shaped by history, pop-culture, and your own mind and invites you into divine interaction.
Darla found herself on the precipice of a life-changing decision that would change the trajectory of her life. When faced with the decision to fully surrender and entrust her life to the Mystery, would she leap into the unknown, or dig her heels into the earth and settle for safety? It was during this time of great uncertainty, that she discovered the way to divine love, joy, and peace.
The Real You is an invitation to embark on the most important exploration you will ever undertake – an exploration into the depths of your soul and the discovery of a life aligned with its creator. prepare to be challenged, inspired, and transformed as you uncover the reality of your identity, crafted and cherished by God Himself.
What happens when the God of miracles doesn’t give you the miracle?
What happens when the God of miracles doesn’t give you the miracle? What happens when you pray fervently and God remains silent and unmoving? What happens when God lets you down?
Throughout his career, educator, intellectual, and pastor Mike Rakes has talked and written about the God who does the miraculous and answers sincere, fervent prayers. But when he lost his twenty-seven-year-old, worship-leading daughter, Whitney, to an incurable cancer in her bloodstream, Mike was left with only tormenting grief and no miracle.
Disappointments, questions, and contradictions abounded, sending him on a deeper spiritual quest to know more about the nature of God. In Surrendered and Unafraid, Mike takes readers on the blended journey—both Whitney’s and his—of how they came to know the God of mystery in her pain and his sorrow.
These pages share both the remarkable faith of a young woman who did not allow a terminal diagnosis to define what life she had left and also the wavering faith of a grieving father who has more questions than answers.
Combining personal stories, theological insights, and poignant depictions of a living and breathing faith, Mike’s words offer shelter to those who are enduring troubles and disappointments of their own.
Through looking at the life and death of Jesus, Mike reminds us that God doesn’t promise us a life without suffering but is always present with us, inviting us to trust Him and live surrendered and unafraid.
OVERCOME your personal mind wars.
YOU ARE IN AN INTERNAL WAR with an invisible giant who is relentlessly assaulting your thoughts, draining your energy, and keeping you from living a meaningful life. Deep down you’re a lover of God and are aware of your incredible potential, but you’ve run into an intimidating giant that has you blocked.
Negative thoughts are like invisible giants that live in the mind. Your thoughts will either strengthen or undermine the courage and confidence of your heart. They don’t carry swords and spears, but they sabotage your thinking and keep you from God’s best.
You can defeat these giants for good.
Slings and Stones looks at the classic underdog story of David and Goliath to help you see that you can be like young David, who defeated his giant. You can deconstruct the negative thoughts and attitudes that have infiltrated your mind, face down your giants, and triumphantly take hold of God’s plan for your life.