Pastoral Confessions

The Healing Path to Faithful Ministry

by: Jamin Goggin

• Format

  Hardcover

  ISBN

  9781540905062

  Dimensions

  5.5 x 8.5

  Pub. Date

  Oct 2025

  SRP

  $24.99

  Carton Quantity

  36

  Number of pages

  208

  Buy

• Format

  E-Book

  ISBN

  9781493451159

  Pub. Date

  Oct 2025

  SRP

  $24.99

  Buy

About

In an age of pastoral abuse, scandal, and failure, many pastors feel pressured to appear sinless. They are tempted to conceal their sin rather than risk vulnerability or disqualification from ministry. But concealing sin is spiritually dangerous, for both the pastor and the church. Unconfessed sin leads to guilt, shame, exhaustion, and loneliness. Instead, God invites pastors to confess, repent, and be healed, just like every other Christian.

Using the seven deadly sins as a framework, Pastoral Confessions offers burdened and burned-out pastors a healthy way forward out of the quagmire of hidden sins. With great vulnerability and refreshing honesty, pastor Jamin Goggin writes of his own temptations and sins, especially those that uniquely appeal to the pastor's heart and plague the pastoral profession. He shows pastors how to integrate regular confession to God and others, leading to a more hopeful, fruitful, and virtuous life and ministry.

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Endorsements

"I read everything Jamin Goggin writes, and you should too. But this book is especially timely and profoundly needed in this critical moment. We stand at the edge of a great global spiritual revival that can speed up our finishing the task of the Great Commission in the next few years. The choice is ours. Augustine said, 'The confession of bad works is the beginning of good works.' It's also the beginning of every true revival and spiritual awakening. The question is, Will we do what Jesus tells us to do? Will we remember the time we were closest to God, will we humbly repent--confessing and forsaking our idols that have distracted us--and will we return to the habits that keep us close to the heart of God? My passionate prayer is that God will use this straightforward book to cause revival in our hearts, our families, our churches, and all nations so that we are empowered with new boldness to finish the task of the Great Commission. Jesus's last words must be our first priority. But Jesus also said not to do anything until you are empowered. Revival will energize our witness to the world."

Rick Warren, Great Commission ally and author of The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church

"I can't remember the last time I read a book so convicting, with such intimate understanding of various challenges in pastoral ministry. Jamin is the kind of pastor I would trust with my confession, as he would point me toward forgiveness and healing in Christ. Heeding Jamin's counsel isn't easy, but a fresh wave of grace would flow through our churches if we did."

Collin Hansen, vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, and host of the Gospelbound podcast

"Searching our souls is hard work, but it is the hard work of walking with Jesus. Everyone in ministry needs to search their souls and confess the truth, and Jamin shows us the way by first modeling it and then guiding us into the art of confession. It is here where the Lord will revive his church. This is more than just an excellent book; it's an important book."

Lee Strobel, New York Times bestselling author

"Jamin Goggin is a thoughtful, prayerful guide in the journey toward soul health, and these pages could bring genuine and deeply needed healing and wholeness to the body of Christ."

Ann Voskamp, New York Times bestselling author

"The church today is blessed with an abundance of books and resources aimed at helping us draw closer to God, reach others, plant churches, or know God's Word better. But there are far too few resources like this one. Jamin Goggin calls us to confession both to God and to one another. This book is not to be read lightly. Jamin shows us the way to prayerfully, gracefully deal with our sin as God intended. Our fractured churches need this book. More than that, pastors need this book. Read it slowly, prayerfully. Read it with other pastors. Confession is God's way to healing, and we need that today. Let these words rescue you and bring you to a new depth of intimacy with God and with others in his body."

Ed Stetzer, dean, Talbot School of Theology

"Pastoral Confessions by Jamin Goggin is a deeply honest and profoundly insightful exploration of the challenges pastors face in their personal and vocational lives. Through the lens of the seven deadly sins, Goggin masterfully weaves Scripture, theology, and lived experience to illuminate the hidden struggles of ministry while offering the healing grace of confession as a path to renewal. This book is both a courageous invitation and a practical guide for pastors to embrace vulnerability, humility, and the transformative power of God's love. It is an important read for anyone seeking a faithful and sustainable life in ministry."

Chuck DeGroat, professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality and executive director of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Western Theological Seminary in Michigan; clinical therapist; and author of five books, including <

"Jamin Goggin's Pastoral Confessions contributes significantly to a renewing interest in the tradition of the seven deadly sins. With a biblical scalpel, Goggin, a longtime pastor himself, examines the vices that tempt the shepherds of God's people. Going further still, he brings his own heart into the radiant light of God's holiness. Such fearless, costly vulnerability can only be possible when someone grasps the expansive and extravagant love of Christ. Goggin makes a way for many to come after him, serving the church in the honest, humble power of our Lord."

Jen Pollock Michel, author and speaker

"This is a very dangerous book. Do not read it unless you're open to being exposed so you 'come out' as a sinner and receive God's grace. Many pastors preach about this every week but feel like they're an exception. This isn't vague 'vulnerability' but a specific message to pastors that we all need to hear. Goggin's handling of this sensitive topic is so wise and experientially deep that I hope every pastor reads it. Please. You'll be stripped naked and clothed with Christ's righteousness. Even preachers can be saved."

Michael Horton, J. G. Machen Professor of Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary, California

"If you're looking for lurid tales of pastoral scandal in this book, you will be disappointed. Nor is this just another book by some 'bad boy' theologian seeking to impress you with his transparency. Rather, using the classic seven cardinal sins as a mirror, Jamin Goggin candidly reminds pastors--and all the faithful--that by denying our sin, we make God a liar. But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Read it and be blessed. You have nothing to lose except your guilt."

Harold L. Senkbeil, author of The Care of Souls

"One of the greatest temptations for pastors is to focus so much on shepherding others that they lose touch with their own hearts. As leaders, however, we need God's grace as much as anyone. In Pastoral Confessions, Jamin Goggin writes not just as a theologian but as a pastor who deeply understands the unique pressures and temptations of ministry. He shows that confession is not a burden but rather the pathway to spiritual renewal and joy. This book gently pried open my heart, revealing how much I need Jesus, and then guided me to God's tender mercy so that I can minister not out of performance but from a place of authenticity and renewal. Pastors need to read this book--not as another leadership manual but as an invitation to deeper humility, honesty, and dependence on Christ."

Jeremy Treat, PhD, Wheaton College; pastor for preaching and vision at Reality LA, California; ministry affiliate faculty professor of theology at Biola University; and author of The Crucified King, Seek First, The Atonement, a

"We often need someone to go before us, to show us the way into the frightening unknown. A life of confession--brutal, beautiful honesty about our sin and brokenness--is one of these frightening unknowns, especially for pastors and church leaders in the modern age. In Pastoral Confessions, my friend Jamin Goggin goes before us, disentangling us from sin's great lie, 'that the place of healing is the place of harm.' Full of deep wisdom and insight, this book can help free us from the temptation of image management and lead us to a life of freedom and joy as image-bearers."

Jay Y. Kim, pastor and author

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