Pastor Craig Groeschel has a new book, The Christian Atheist. It comes out next week, today we're giving away 10 copies on the blog

Craig defines a Christian Atheist as "believing in God, but living as if He doesn't exist." Craig confesses that he is a recovering Christian Atheist and is very authentic in pulling several examples from his own struggles with Christian atheism and how to overcome it.

Andy Stanley said "In The Christian Atheist, Craig leverages transparency to force the rest of us to take an honest look at the contrast between how we live and what we claim to believe. Craig's vulnerability, coupled with his fresh insights, will move you to begin realigning behavior with beliefs."

Here's a brief excerpt:

"As if on cue, when I was twenty-three, God opened a door for me to work at a historic downtown church. My dream-come-true slowly turned into a spiritual nightmare. What started out as a good thing quickly became an obsession. My service was never enough. And as my love for ministry burned hotter, my passion for Christ cooled.

My mission had become a job. Instead of studying God's Word out of personal devotion, I studied only to preach. Instead of preaching messages to bring glory to God, I preached to bring people to church. I promised hurting people I would pray for them, but I usually didn't follow through."

This is a great book! We're giving away 10 copies today!

Here's how to win:

1) Tweet this: Win Craig Groeschel's new book, The Christian Atheist. 10 copies. RT & comment here: http://bit.ly/cKbGgb

2) Comment below with your twitter name (to verify step 1) & what church you go to (just for fun!)

3) at 4pm EST, we'll choose 10 random winners from the comments below!

This is a guest blog post from @ScottWilliams, a campus pastor for LifeChurch.tv. Check-out more of his thoughts on leadership & the Church at BigIstheNewSmall.com

 
There are tons of Leadership Books, Quotes and Tips on how to be an effective leader.  In my opinion The Best Advice A Leader Can Receive is to truly believe in their people.  If someone has been afforded the opportunity to be on your team, as a leader you have the responsibility to believe in them.  If you are not going to believe in them, who is?

Believing in your people is more than a lip service of saying "I Believe In You!"  Actions truly speak louder than words.  You have to believe in your people enough to let them fail, encourage them to lead up, allow them to truly lead in their areas of gifting and even trust them to make decisions on your behalf.

For as long as I can remember, one of my potential leadership criticisms is the fact that I may believe in my people too much.  Too much, well that’s a matter of opinion.  Until I receive some sort of confirmation that my belief in people is a hindrance, I will continue to believe in my people "Too Much!"  So far, so good!

People will believe in the leader if the leader believes in the people!

What do you think?

Catalyst friend and author Kary Oberbrunner is having a rocking party TOMORROW, the 15th, to launch his new project YOUR SECRET NAME. This FREE online event features videos, a Secret Name test, and thousands of dollars worth of prizes. Here's a peek at his new book:

We all have one—a Secret Name that is. The Bible tells us so. Yet few of us know ours. Ignorantly, we’re stuck, caught up in the “Name Game,” searching for our true identity. Author Kary Oberbrunner takes you deep, past clichés to discover Your Secret Name and the vision God has for your life.

RSVP NOW in order to stay in the loop and possibly score a free Catalyst ticket.

There's an interesting blog post on How Facebook Killed the Church over at the Experimental Theology blog.

He makes an interesting argument. Basically he says that many people go to church for the friendships. But with the advent of Facebook, the millenials are so connected relationally, they don't need the church for that purpose, so they stop coming (!!!). Here's what he says:

"Sure, Millennials will report that the "reason" they are leaving the church is due to its perceived hypocrisy or shallowness. My argument is that while this might be the proximate cause the more distal cause is social computing. Already connected Millennials have the luxury to kick the church to the curb. This is the position of strength that other generations did not have. We fussed about the church but, at the end of the day, you went to stay connected. For us, church was Facebook!"

Very interesting insights here, go read the rest of the post: How Facebook Killed the Church.

What do you think? Is it good if people leave that were only coming for the relationships? Can some churches rely too much on being a social environment? Does the social environment need to be improved to compete with Facebook?