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Confessions of a Pastor: Adventures in Dropping the Pose and Getting Real with God | 
 enlarge | Author: Craig Groeschel
Publisher: Multnomah Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $11.30
You Save: $8.69 (43%)
New (33) Used (14) Collectible (1) from $8.71
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 47555
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 1590527208
Dewey Decimal Number: 277.3083092
EAN: 9781590527207
ASIN: 1590527208
Publication Date: September 30, 2006
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Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Dark Side of a Pastor’s Life?A Breath of Fresh Air
Are you tired of pretending? Living walled up? Going only skin deep? Craig Groeschel , pastor of the thriving LifeChurch.tv, sure was. And in his refreshingly raw and real book, he comes clean. Not that he has anything other than typical, human stuff to confess. Check out a few of his musings: I have to work hard to stay sexually pure, I hate prayer meetings, sometimes I doubt God , and I can’t stand a lot of Christians . Through his incredible honesty, he opens the door for you to follow suit. Are you ready to dig deep and let God shine through the genuine you? No more living just to please others. No more hiding. You can be who God called you to be. You can live for an audience of One.
Is the real you getting lost
because the fake you is just so annoyingly
impressive?
“Stepping onto the platform to preach that morning, I admitted to myself that I was not a pastor first, but a regular, scared, insecure, everyday guy whose life had been changed by Jesus. And if Jesus really loved me as I was (I knew He did), then why should I go on trying to be someone I wasn’t?”
Why do we fake it so much? Why do we spend so much time trying to please everyone else and make so little effort trying to please God? When Craig Groeschel asked himself those questions, he couldn’t come up with a good answer. So one day he decided to drop the act and start getting real. With that one choice, his life began to change in a big way. And yours can too. Craig’s passionate, funny, warts-and-all confessions?and the lessons he learned from them?will help you find your own path to authentic living and a deeper relationship with God (you know He’s on to you anyway!).
Story Behind the Book
“For too many years my life had been a show?my lines well rehearsed and every performance polished. By college, I played so many different roles I lost track of the real me. I began to wonder if there was a real me. Exhausted from playing the parts, I finally took off the masks?and met a God who loved me unconditionally. Confessions of a Pastor reveals in graphic detail my inner struggles, questions, doubts, and fears?to inspire others to abandon lives of pretending?and to meet the authentic love of God like never before.” ? Craig Groeschel
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Very Interesting and Very Convicting at Times December 28, 2008
I've been kind of tough on Craig for encouraging pastors to preach his sermons freely without attribution, even though I personally love his sermons. I still believe in acknowledging sources and all that.
Now on to the book. This book is great! Craig challenges us to drop the pose and get real with God. He wants us to be honest with God and with certain selected others about our struggles and hangups. He talks about how he doesn't always like certain Christians, and he hates going to prayer meetings where people just drone on and on (and especially when people are holding hands and he is left holding a limp, sweaty hand or is being gripped by an intense prayer partner with a grip so tight that it digs into his ring finher). He contends that we should learn to talk lovingly and spontaneously with God wherever we are.
He also shares his struggle with keeping sexually pure. He is doing pretty well in this area now, and he encourages people to find someone to pray with over this issue, and to have an internet accountability partner.
Craig also shares his battles with doubting God and how God has used professors and friends to help him out.
He has a good chapter on how he worries all the time and how he has learned to let God handle stuff. He emphasizes Philippians 4:6-7, that we should approach God with all our worries.
There is also a chapter on Pastor Craig's struggle with inadequacy. He shares inspirational scriptures from the lives of Moses, Peter, and others.
He also talks about handling criticism, something he knows he doesn't always do well with. He shares the story of Gideon and how he ably answered the Ephrathites who were offended that Gideon didn't call on them for help when he went into battle.
Craig has a wonderful sense of humor. Some will think that he is too honest at certain points and that his confessions come off as being nit-picky and petty. Others will say Amen! That's exactly how I feel!" I am mostly in the latter camp.
A fun book with lots of humorous personal anecdotes. Definitely recommended for pastors and parishioners.
Craig Groeschel gets it December 3, 2008
"Confessions of a Pastor" is quite the read. It requires reflection and self-examination while providing loads of laughs. These are not things that are often brough together! Craig does a very good job in breaking down walls of the "holier-than-thou" typical preacher talk. Craig gives concrete examples of how he has failed in his walk with Christ and what he has done to mend his failures.
Craig proves that neither he nor anyone else is perfect. Once that is belief is established you realize that no one is so screwed up that they can not fix their life.
The world has quite the cast of religous leaders. However, there are few who seem as approachable and as "real" as Craig Groeschel. I know that sounds like an odd comment about a man who is the lead pastor of a mega-chruch. However to me Craig Groeshcel seems like a guy who could not only be my buddy, but a friend who would help make me a better person and Christ follower. Craig Groeschel simply gets it... and I am very happy that he does.
PS -
If you have never gone to Lifechurch.tv - please go - All of Craig's sermons are available to watch (for free of course). Go before and after you read this book since his sermons makes a great companion to what he has written.
 Good book for those who are struggling with Christianity October 7, 2008
I picked up this book because because of the cover. If you look really hard, the bubble above the guy's head says "I can't stand a lot of Christians...." I bought the book that day. It wasn't written as well as I would have liked, but it's not a horrible read.
Groeschel divides his book into chapters titled with his confessions. Some of the more amusing: "I Can't Stand a Lot of Christians," "I Hate Prayer Meetings," and "I Stink at Handling Criticism." But he also discloses on more personal topics, such as staying sexually pure, doubting God, and feeling lonely.
If there is one criticism of this book, it's that Groeschel occasionally launches into five steps to this and four warnings about that. But he does so without sounding like a motivational speaker, so it doesn't ruin the book.
The purpose of this book is to show that pastors are not super Christians. They struggle with the same things that regular people do all the time. Groeschel tells about some of the disciplines that he has developed to combat his weaknesses, and one can learn from reading about them.
 good book April 13, 2008
The Author/Pastor gets real about life and ministry. It's a good book, I recommend it.
great book! September 10, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
great book....Craig is hilarious, if you are in ministry or thinking about it this should be the book for you. Craig is really real and open and helps you with a lot of your own ministry issues.
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