Craig Gross - Open : what happens when you get real, get honest, and get accountable

PRAISE FOR OPEN

I like Craig Gross because he keeps it realno fake shallow stuff with him. He has a deep passion to see people experience freedom, and in Open, he will help you find the freedom youve been searching for.

Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor, Transformation

Church; author, Limitless Life

Open is one of the most relative and practical books on accountability Ive ever read. Craig takes many routes, through stories from pop culture and his personal journey to help lead you to a life thats open.

Josh McCown, NFL journeyman

Craig Gross occupies a very, very important space in the Christian community and the culture at large. He calls men and women to not just fight addictive problems but gives them the tools, encouragement and community they need to actually get free and live free. But living free requires being open with your life, and Craigs incredible book is both a clarion call to always live in the light and simple instruction guide for how to ensure you stay there.

Shaunti Feldhahn, social researcher; best-selling

author, For Women Only and For Men Only

Craig has been a friend and ministry partner for years. He has always been as helpful and hopeful as he is honest. This book comes to you in that spirit.

Ryan Meeks, founding pastor, EastLake Church

I dont say this often, but this book is a must-read. Every time I speak somewhere or get emails with people asking me how to find healing in particular areas, my response is always community. Craig does a beautiful job in articulating how the path to true joy is found in being real, honest, and accountable.

Jefferson Bethke, author, Jesus > Religion

This book will challenge you. And with good reason, because isnt that inherent to accountability? In a culture that grows increasingly autonomous, it is essential that we pursue one another with intentionality. From a man that has been blessed by the ministry of XXXChurch and the Gross family, I am thankful for Craighis heart for and devotion to life lived together. I pray that this book will serve as a practical guide for openness and intimacy that reflects the communal nature of our Creator.

Levi (the Poet) Macallister, spoken word and performance artist

In a time when many of us communicate through quick, abbreviated texts, and social media lends itself to the proclamation of truth through a series of monologues, Craig Gross reminds us that life is about authentic relationships; relationships that seek truth through true accountability!

Michael Guido, road pastor, PR Ministries

Open by Craig Gross gives us a simple yet fresh look at what it really takes to overcome the many things that can consume us and can keep us from experiencing sustainable freedom through Christ and community. This book is a true road map to living life openly, honestly and with genuine courage.

Judah Smith, pastor, City Church; New York

Times best-selling author, Jesus Is

2013 by Craig William Gross a/k/a Craig Gross

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gross, Craig, 1975

Open : what happens when you get real, get honest, and get accountable / Craig Gross, with Adam Palmer.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0530-1

1. IntegrityReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. ResponsibilityReligious aspectsChristianity. 3. Honesty. I. Title.

BV4647.I55G76 2013

241'.4dc23

Printed in the United States of America

13 14 15 16 17 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dad,
I know this past year has been tough on you and your health. I hope and pray you are the first one who is able to read the finished copy of this book. The last few years are ones I will never forget and always hold on to. A phone call you made to me over six years ago changed my life and will change our families future for years to come. Thank you for everything you have done and provided. I look forward to watching another Super Bowl with you!

CONTENTS

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

African proverb

I ts fitting that my friend Craig would write a book called Open.

My friendship with him began in the summer of 2006. I had simply reached out with some questions about starting a nonprofit, and he ended up offering me a surprising invitation to come live with his family in their basement in Michigan. Craig added that he would be traveling to speak at a bunch of churches and schools during that time, but that I should come with him on those trips as well.

His life was open. And I was invited in.

At the time, I had just quit my job in order to focus on starting an organization to help people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. The organization was born from the surprising response to a story I had written called To Write Love on Her Arms, about the pain and hope of my friend Renee. We started selling T-shirts as a way to pay for her drug treatment, and the story and the T-shirts began to make their way around the world. The issues I had written about seemed to be issues a lot of people were living with, but they also seemed to be things that very few people were talking about.

Craig seemed to be doing a similar work helping people who were caught up in pornography, breaking the silence and offering hope and recovery in a world mostly secret.

So I made my way from Orlando to Grand Rapids, knowing very little about basements, the season of Fall, or what it might look like to run a non-profit. During the four weeks that followed, I must have asked Craig a thousand questions. And he didnt just answer the easy ones. He talked about the hard stuff too, the stuff that was tough within his job and within his life. And Craig had questions for me as well, about what made me tick and where I hoped to go with TWLOHA.

Our time together led to TWLOHA launching under the umbrella of Fireproof Ministries, which Craig leads and which XXXChurch falls under as well. It gave us a big brother we could go to with questions, someone to offer guidance and support and to help keep us accountable.

Over the last six years, weve been on our own as a nonprofit, but Craig and I are still great friends. He is still someone I look up to and lean on with questions. We still swap stories and share struggles and celebrate each others victories. When TWLOHA won the $1,000,000 grant at the first-ever American Giving Awards in 2011, Craig was standing with me on stage. And while I am a huge fan of his work and how he goes about it, I am even more impressed by who he is as a husband, a father, and a friend.