Confessions of a Pastor
Just read Confessions of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel.
He said some things that convicted me and challenged me.
A must-read for pastors.
Right up front, Craig says, "I had become a full-time minister and a part-time follower of Christ." Not sure if anybody else can relate with that, but I sure can! Here is what I love about the book: Craig says stuff that most pastors think but wouldn't dare say!
Some of the chapter themes are so good:
I Can't Stand a Lot of Christians
I Have to Work Hard to Stay Sexually Pure
I Hate Prayer Meetings
Sometimes I doubt God
One of the things that touched a spiritual nerve ending was this:
My heart had "NO TRESSPASSING" signs posted all over it.
I think a lot of pastors really wrestle with this one. We feel like we need to protect our pastoral persona. I think pastoring is one of the loneliest professions on the planet. And it's self-inflicted. We've bought into the lie that we can't be ourselves; we can't reveal our sin struggles; and we can't be friends with the people we pastor.
Isn't it about time we confront that ministry myth?
Craig shares some hilarious stories in the book as well. One of my favorites was a funeral where he forgot the closing line so he pulled a poetic ad lib that is hilarious to read ex-post facto, but didn't get a laugh at the time:
Ashes to Ashes
Dust to dust
I hope this coffin doesn't turn to rust
Check it out on amazon.com.
He said some things that convicted me and challenged me.
A must-read for pastors.
Right up front, Craig says, "I had become a full-time minister and a part-time follower of Christ." Not sure if anybody else can relate with that, but I sure can! Here is what I love about the book: Craig says stuff that most pastors think but wouldn't dare say!
Some of the chapter themes are so good:
I Can't Stand a Lot of Christians
I Have to Work Hard to Stay Sexually Pure
I Hate Prayer Meetings
Sometimes I doubt God
One of the things that touched a spiritual nerve ending was this:
My heart had "NO TRESSPASSING" signs posted all over it.
I think a lot of pastors really wrestle with this one. We feel like we need to protect our pastoral persona. I think pastoring is one of the loneliest professions on the planet. And it's self-inflicted. We've bought into the lie that we can't be ourselves; we can't reveal our sin struggles; and we can't be friends with the people we pastor.
Isn't it about time we confront that ministry myth?
Craig shares some hilarious stories in the book as well. One of my favorites was a funeral where he forgot the closing line so he pulled a poetic ad lib that is hilarious to read ex-post facto, but didn't get a laugh at the time:
Ashes to Ashes
Dust to dust
I hope this coffin doesn't turn to rust
Check it out on amazon.com.
4 Comments:
Thanks for the review. I'll have to buy it now!
Thanks for a thought provoking post. I'm no big shot pastor. I'm trying to learn how to be a better leader. I fail in many ways, and I often struggle with this whole idea of being the perfect leader.
Leaders/Pastors are real people. Just cus they have a title to their name, doesn't erase their struggles with sin, doesn't make their marriages shiny and squeaky clean...I know from experience.
Manual trackback:
http://aaron_is_now.wordpress.com/2006/10/13/leaders-are-people/
Great book, I just finished it too. The funeral story had me sitting alone at home laughing out loud. The part about the song was funny enough, and then there was the fly, and then the ad lib...
Definitely a recommended read!
Nice thought.
Being a Pastor's son, I know the feeling of being isolated because you cannot share your sin's/problems with anyone else because people look up to you and you are expected to be spotless and lead an exemplary life while all the while you are trying to combat the same problems that other people face.
Enjoyed the funeral joke. Just wanted to share another joke that I read about a Pastor who prepares his Sunday sermon by just randomly opening the Bible and putting his finger on whatever verse he sees first. So one day he did the same, and he came across the verse "Judas went forth and hanged himself". Not satisfied with the verse, he closed the Bible and opened to read another verse which said "So will you do".
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