Fifty Books I've Loved and Learned From - Book ONE: Confessions of a Pastor

I've completely stolen this blog topic idea from my good friend Joel Bennett. Joel is a great ministry coach and mentor and I strongly encourage you to check out his site.

I'm a big reader... and I've been incredibly blessed/challenged/stretched/broken/encouraged over the years through some fantastic books. So, like Joel is doing on his Facebook page, I decided I would blog about the 50 books that have had a big impact on me. Now, before we start... let me just flat out say, the Bible is really NUMBER ONE! That's a given... these are the fifty books that come AFTER the Bible :)

BOOK ONE: Confessions of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel

I actually stumbled on this book during a pretty low point in my ministry. I hadn't been in ministry all that long... maybe a year and a half... and I was already feeling myself heading towards a burnout. I was losing my joy and passion for Jesus and for the church... and I couldn't explain why.

Then God gave me the answer. Like Pastor Craig describes in this book, I had become a full time Pastor and a part-time follower of Jesus. I had let all the work of the church replace the only thing that is truly important - God's amazing love and grace! This open and transparent account of Pastor Craig's journey was a HUGE blessing to me. It allowed me to drop the pose... of trying to live up to some unattainable position of being the perfect Pastor. This book taught me to me. It's OK for me to be weak. It's OK for me to not know all the answers. It's OK for me to be imperfect.

It was in reading this book that set the path for the type of Pastor that I wanted to be. Sure. I work hard... I try and give it my best. But ultimately it's all in God's hands and I will follow Him and trust Him more than in myself.

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