About the Book

Book: Unison Parenting: The Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Christian Parenthood with One Voice

Author: Cecil Taylor

Genre: Parenting/Family, more specifically Christian Parenting

Release date: September 17, 2024

Singing in unison is when all voices sing the same note, at the same time, to emphasize the text. Similarly, families need to parent in unison to emphasize the message they want to send to their children.

Cecil Taylor uses his personal parenting experience, and those of the families he’s taught and ministered to over decades, to create unique foundational strategies for unison parenting within a Christian context. Learn how to stay on the same page throughout the trials of parenting, provide children with a solid faith foundation, and balance loving nature with firm boundaries to create a warm, stable environment where the child and parent can eventually collaborate to bring the child to full, responsible adulthood.

Whether in a traditional or nontraditional family structure, Unison Parenting leads parents through the ages and stages of childhood into mature adulthood. Additionally, Cecil lays out parenting fundamentals to manage your child’s growing need for independence during their teen years, while gradually building trust through incremental decision-making.

Click here to get your copy!

I received a complimentary copy of this book, and all opinions given are my own and not an endorsement of all author’s opinions.

Author Interview

What was your process to align your book with your target audience?

I first had to realize that my book is not designed from cradle to diploma. I don’t address the diaper days. My book really starts when children are old enough to realize their role in the family and do their first chores, perhaps age three to four.

I also realized that families exist in many combinations. Only 46% of U.S. children live in households that are considered traditional: Man + Woman + First Marriage. That means the majority of children live in what are considered non-traditional families, and I needed to address their unique living situations as well. That’s why I have a chapter dedicated to just non-traditional families.

What was the most challenging part of writing your book?

A majority of the material first came from parenting classes that I taught for fifteen years to seven hundred families in my church. I quickly discovered that a given lesson doesn’t necessarily map well to a book chapter. So the challenge was in deconstructing and reconstructing the material in a format that would make sense to readers. Just because something was taught in a lesson series didn’t mean it qualified for the book.

After creating the new construct, the next challenge was how to supplement and enhance that base with my new thoughts, new material, and new research.

Was your writing process spontaneous as it came to you or very planned and organized? Why?

Oh, every book is very planned and organized. I don’t write anything until I know where I’m going end to end. From teaching adult Sunday School for decades, I have developed a style where I lead the learner to a particular point, so I need to understand the beginning, the middle, and the conclusion.

The same applied to this book. Actually, I created one chapter and content sequence, didn’t like it, and started over. I didn’t completely rip it up, but I did move chapters and content within those chapters quite a bit. You might think of it as a puzzle. Once the puzzle took shape, I began writing.

Did you learn anything new during your writing process?

This book is the first that I’ve written through a more traditional publisher. Part of the learning was their publishing process, but a part was also understanding another way to write the book itself.

A major transition arose because I have always used Associated Press style standards, coming from a journalism background. But the publisher required Chicago Manual style, which contains substantial differences. I rebelled against this at first before realizing that the styles are pretty much six of one and half a dozen of another. I had to get over myself and return to the Oxford comma I learned in grade school and had wrenched out of me by journalism.

How many books do you personally own?

This question sent me on a counting expedition, because I had no idea. I estimate that I own a little over two hundred books. My wife, who both reads more and buys more than I do, probably has 350, from which I borrow. A retired musician, she also owns perhaps two hundred books of sheet music. These 750 books are spread across five bookcases and a pile along one wall of our bedroom.

About the Author

With more than 30 years’ experience as an adult Sunday School teacher and as many in youth ministry, Cecil Taylor has impacted lives in local churches throughout his adult life. He founded Cecil Taylor Ministries to broaden that impact, teaching Christians to live a 7-day practical faith through books, video studies, and speaking engagements. His ministry is cross-denominational, focused on the common struggle Christians face in putting their faith into practice and applying scripture and faith principles to life situations.

Cecil has written three previous books, all of which have been awarded across international, national, and regional contests. For each book, Cecil has created a study guide, a video study, and downloadable free leader guides.

More from Cecil

Would you like to know the surefire, guaranteed way to get your teen to open up and talk to you? You’ll find it in my new book, Unison Parenting: The Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Christian Parenthood with One Voice.

Unison Parenting is the culmination of my fifteen years leading parenting classes in my church, my thirty years of youth ministry, and my raising of three children (one adopted) to adulthood. I taught and tested the parenting advice with seven hundred families that attended my classes, so I am convinced the structure and tips you’ll find in the book are well-proven.

One of those tips is how to get your teen to talk to you. I have never had anyone return to me to say that the technique doesn’t work; in fact, they laughingly complain that the technique works too well, and they can’t get their teen to stop talking!

An overarching theme of the book is, of course, getting and staying in unison as parents, but not only as parents – as a family. Another way to put it is a spirit of collaboration. You begin building this collaboration when the children are young, and as they grow, you expand the collaboration to partner with them on the common goal of helping them become mature adults who make good decisions.

I can tell you from experience that the collaborating spirit of such a family continues into adulthood, fostering solid on-going relationships and a desire for family community, even across distance.

This is not to say that my wife and I were perfect, nor that our children were perfect. We all made regrettable mistakes along the way. Our learnings, plus the positive and negative experiences of families I encountered over decades, will help you avoid pitfalls as you create a unison atmosphere among parenting partners and with your children.