Many Christians say that they trust God but live like they don't believe he exists. That is the premise of Groeschel's book. A memoire of sorts, Groeschel tells of how he had a successful ministry for over a decade but his actions proved that he relied on himself rather than God.
The Christian Atheist
by Craig Groeschel
Zondervan
March 2010
Groeschel gives examples to define the term "Christian Atheist" and they tend to hit closer to the mark than I expected. The call to believe what we say we believe is one that is relevant and powerful - if we actually take the advice instead, as I suspect most of will do, say that we agree with it then live like we don't.
The inherent hypocrisy of mankind is that we always act less nobly than we say we want to or should. This hits Christians hard because we say we have the answer and that others should agree with and adopt our answer - all the while we fail to follow our own creed. This book isn't a Christian-bashing book at all. Just a frank introspective look at what Groeschel went through and how he came out of it and a call to do likewise.
I listened to the audio book, which is unabridged, and lasts about 6 hours. The reader, Tom Shiff, did an adequate job, but the lack of passion in his tone and pace tended to let my mind wander. I prefer to hear the author read their own works and I can only imagine that Groeschel, the pastor of LifeChurch.tv would have done a far superior job of it. As such, I would recommend the paperback over the audio book.
A good book with a message that most of us should read and take action on.
