Craig Groeschel - Dare to Drop the Pose

D ARE TO D ROP THE P OSE
P UBLISHED BY M ULTNOMAH B OOKS
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked ( NLT ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living
Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( NKJV ) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

eISBN: 978-0-307-81500-2

Copyright 2006, 2010 by Craig Groeschel

Previously published under the title Confessions of a Pastor, copyright 2006 by Craig Groeschel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Groeschel, Craig.
Confessions of a pastor / by Craig Groeschel.
p. cm.
1. Groeschel, Craig. 2. ClergyUnited StatesBiography. 3. Christian life. I. Title.
BR1725.G92A3 2006
277.3083092dc22

[B] 2006019252

v3.1

O ne Sunday, I stood before my church, filled with fear. Fear that they would think I had failed them as their pastor, that I had let them down. But I was finally ready to tell the truthI was sure it was what God wanted me to do.

I hadnt had an affair or stolen from the church funds. In fact, my sins were small, everyday things; they were all just hidden from view. From the pews, it looked as if I had become everything and done everything a pastor shouldand I worked very hard to keep it that way. I had played the part to perfection.

And that was the problem.

Im going to share the story of an impostor exposed. Its more than the story of one Sunday morning, though. Its 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 thingthe person God so lovingly created in the first place.

You may not like me after reading this book. But on the chance God might use my story to help you put down the masks and reclaim the real you, its a risk Im willing to take.

From my earliest childhood memories, I remember playing the game. Maybe you played it, too. Id try to say the right things at the right times to the right people. When the people or circumstances changed, so did I.

As a young child, I tried my best to please my parents. In school I made sure my teachers got my grandest act. Theres nothing terribly wrong with that, but looking back, I see that those were just practice runs for what would come later.

As a teenager I did almost anything for acceptance from my buddies. I partied, swore, lied, cheated, and stole. I thought these things would help my popularity. Whether that lifestyle gained me friends is debatable. What it could have cost me in the long run is not. By the time I started college, I was playing so many different roles that I began to lose track of the real me. Honestly, I began to wonder if there was a real me.

At nineteen I became a follower of Christ. And the parts of my life He changed, He changed miraculously. He cleaned house. But in a darkened corner here, a locked closet there, I continued to believe I was better off putting up a front. Except now it was a new front, a spiritual one. It was still the same old game, just played out on a different stage.

Within a few years, I became a pastor. Youd think that becoming a man of the cloth (whatever that means) would have shaken the deceit right out of me. But as a young pastor, I simply turned pro. My church members observed my finest performances. And I fooled many of them, but I didnt fool myself

And I didnt fool God.

I entered seminary after I had been a pastor for a while. One of my professors taught me many invaluable ministry principles. In fact, I still practice most of what I learned from him, and Im eternally grateful for his friendship and leadership. However, one of the things he shared with me I now believe was not only wrong, but incredibly dangerous. He called it the pastors mystique. And he told us ministry trainees that we had to guard it at all cost.