Toughest People to Love: How to Understand, Lead, and Love the Difficult People in Your Life -- Including Yourself
John Ortberg--author ofWho Is This Man?andThe Me I Want to Be"Chuck DeGroat combines thoughtful reflection with psychological learning and spiritual vision. This book will give wise guidance to anybody who is called to lead."Steve Brown-- author ofThree Free Sins: God Isn't Mad at You"Sometimes one discovers a book so helpful and profound that it never collects dust on one's bookshelf.Toughest People to Loveis that kind of book, and I will refer to it often. Here you will find accurate, insightful diagnosis and practical, biblical remedy. As a difficult person who deals often with difficult people, I find this to be a wonderful and life-changing book. Read it and be glad!"Justin S. Holcomb--Episcopal priest, seminary professor, author"Toughest People to Loveis overflowing with wisdom and compassion. This is a book that I need personally, that I will assign in my seminary courses, and that will be an important resource as I develop leaders for the diocese in which I serve. . . . It is part self-awareness guide, part handbook on soul care, part leadership treatise, and part consultation on dealing with difficult people in the church."Dan B. Allender--author ofThe Wounded HeartandLeading with a Limp"This brilliant book is a road map through the morass of convoluted relationships we all face in our families, neighborhoods, work, and ministries. . . . I wish I'd had this indispensable resource -- a life-giving well -- much earlier in my life. I will return often to it."Fred Harrell--senior pastor of City Church San Francisco"Toughest People to Lovewill make you a better leader, pastor, parent, and friend. But more than anything else, this book will guide you down a path of personal renewal and give you a new trajectory in your own journey to wholeness and integration. This is a book to read again and again as we seek to love the beautiful and broken people in our lives, including the person we see when we look in the mirror."Eric Johnson--director of the Society for Christian Psychology"This wise and winsome book on leadership takes us on a journey into the challenges and complexities of difficult relationships - with others and with ourselves. Reflecting the Christian wisdom that suffering can lead to human flourishing, DeGroat points us to the rest beyond bodily rest found paradoxically in the solitude and the deepening community with others that together center us in God."Tyler Johnson--lead pastor of Redemption Gateway Church, Mesa, Arizona"Chuck DeGroat clearly understands the realities of pastoral ministry. This book is both theologically robust and practical and therefore takes a well-rounded approach to human formation. It will substantially help those who want to understand what Christian leadership, counseling, and friendship really mean."