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Book Review: Confessions of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel

In Confessions of a Pastor author Craig Groeschel (bio) discusses ten issues in his personal life and ministry that he has dealt with. He brings honesty to the table and offers solutions and suggested helps for those issues discussed. Straightforward candidness is his intention for penning such a wide open, introspective look at himself and his relationship with God. In describing his desire to expose his real self to his church and all people he writes “It’s about how, over a lifetime, a reasonably well-intentioned follower of Jesus can succeed at building an impressive exterior but fail miserably at being the real thing – the person God so lovingly created in the first place.”
Groeschel walks through issues such as how he feels about other Christians as well as the issues of sexual purity, loneliness, prayer, worry, doubt, inadequacy, criticism, and failure. He gives his personal experience with each of these issues and explains them by means of telling several humorous and meaningful personal stories of how he has interacted with each situation. His honesty never subdues and he tells it as it is. It is quite obvious that his intentions are not simply to tell his story, wipe the guilt away, and move on selfishly fulfilled. The apparent intention of Groeschel is to be REAL with God and with people. He does not leave the reader hanging without helpful insight. Each chapter gives suggestions on how he has handled situations and been successful; he also is willing to explain how he has failed at some attempts also.

A Matter of Opinion

This text is an uplifting insight into one man’s battle with reality. Gleaned from it are “how-to’s” for real Christ-following. It is satisfying to know that a Godly and successful pastor admits to similar frustrations and fears as a lay Christian. He ends the book with a powerful challenge: Real Christ Follower or Sunday Morning Faker?

Details
Title: Confessions of a Pastor
Edition: 1st
Author: Craig Groeschel
Introduction by: Craig Groeschel
Publisher: Multnomah Publishers
Publication City: Sisters, OR
Date: 2006
Number of Chapters: 10
Number of Pages (Actual Text): 189

posted by Bryan Laramore @ 10:45 PM