Tired of trying to fit into today's culture? The good news is you don't have to! In Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working, Craig Groeschel outlines what the world considers normal--a life filled with stress, strained relationships, and money woes, and shows how life in Christ frees you from these "normal" behaviors. Rather than live an ordinary life, you can be extraordinary by embracing the wisdom and grace of the gospel. Maybe that is weird, but with God's help it can be wonderful.

Normal people are stressed, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Many of their relationships are, at best, strained and, in most cases, just surviving. Even though we live in one of the most prosperous places on earth, normal is still living paycheck to paycheck and never getting ahead. In our oversexed world, lust, premarital sex, guilt, and shame are far more common than purity, virginity, and a healthy married sex life. And when it comes to God, the majority believe in him, but the teachings of scripture rarely make it into their everyday lives. Simply put, normal isn't working. Groeschel's WEIRD views will help you break free from the norm to lead a radically abnormal (and endlessly more fulfilling) life.

Craig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, a pace-setting multicampus church and creators of the popular and free YouVersion Bible App. He is the author of several books including Soul Detox, Weird, The Christian Atheist and It. Craig, his wife, Amy, and their six children live in Edmond, Oklahoma. SPANISH BIO: Craig Groeschel es pastor fundador y pastor principal de LifeChurch.tv. LifeChurch.tv es una de las principales iglesias del pais ubicada en varias localidades con mas de ocho cultos de adoracion semanales congregados en doce localidades, incluyendo un campus en linea. LifeChurch.tv reunio a mas de 2.000 iglesias para participar por espacio de un mes en una serie denominada Una Oracion.

Henry Ford is reputed to have said "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right." The auto maker was stressing the point that one's attitude often determines one's outcome. If one desires a different outcome, one will have to change something. That is a problem when change is seen as a departure from societal norms. Suddenly, you may be doing the right thing, but because you have not taken the "normal" route, you are not seen as successful - only "weird."

Welcome to the weird world of Pastor Craig Groeschel! In Weird: Because Normal Isn't Working, Pastor Craig closely examines the societal norms and finds them sorely lacking in their ability to provide a fulfilling life. Because normal isn’t working, he advocates adopting a weird lifestyle. This is not to say he is advocating a "tune in and drop out" mentality or modern-day hippie movement. He is advocating – quite strenuously – for a return to life that closely follows the design laid out by God for a successful and fulfilling life. He challenges his readers to reset their definition of weird and normal.

Groeschel divides his book into 5 sections, looking at topics of time, money, relationships, sex, and values. His pattern of discussion is helpful: first, consideration is given to what is considered normal by society for the given topic, and the resulting frustrations and deficits examined; secondly, biblical teaching is brought to bear on the topic so that the reader may gain an understanding of what God considers normal, though it may be seen to be weird by the world; finally, real and practical applications are made to guide the reader into this new weird pattern of living.

If one were to read Weird with a highlighter in hand, as I did – soon, the highlighter is abandoned because too much is standing out. This is not a book to read once and shelve. It is a work to repeatedly visit and use as a periodic self-diagnosis tool. The changes proposed by Groeschel are large. Those looking for easy correctives will be disappointed. However, as Pastor Craig points out in his introduction, "If small changes would’ve made the difference, you’d have made those changes a long time ago."

I commend Weird to you for personal edification and profit. – Charles Eldred, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

In 1989, theologians Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon shook the American church with a provocative book, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, in which they argued that Christians ought to be different from the prevailing culture. Twenty-two years later, Groeschel, senior pastor of Oklahoma's LifeChurch.tv, has reduced the argument of that previous work into a breezy advice tract for people searching for an alternative to today's social pressures. In chapters devoted to time, money, relationships, sex, and values, he offers the evangelical antithesis to what he perceives as the social order. It's unclear that people would want to become Christians because their lives are too stressed or they've taken on too much debt, yet Groeschel offers faith as the answer to all these conditions. Of course, becoming weird, according to Groeschel, "isn't the bad-weird, freak-show, annoying, carnival-barking, somewhat uncomfortable, weird-for-no-reason weird." In his typology, weird is cool; weird is a state Jesus might emulate. Fans of Groeschel may appreciate this volume for its no-nonsense approach to practical issues. Others may find his approach simplistic. (May) Copyright 2011 Reed Business Information.

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