Growing Up Pentecostal [Paperback]

J. Stephen Conn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2006

The compelling, disarmingly honest, and sometimes uproariously funny true story of a "preacher boy," who was the 3rd of 12 children in a Pentecostal preacher's home.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J. Stephen Conn is an ordained Protestant minister who has spent 45 years in Christian service. He became a born-again Christian at the age of 7, and started preaching at age 16.

Stephen's unique journey includes planting twelve new churches and serving as a pastor in three different Evangelical church bodies: Church of God, Assemblies of God and Southern Baptist. He has also been a guest speaker in 500 local churches, representing more than a dozen different denominations.

He is the author of five books and has also published more than 300 articles, which have appeared in a large variety of both secular and Christian periodicals. For 15 years he was a syndicated editorial page columnist, appearing in 60 newspapers throughout the United States.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Xulon Press (March 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600340849
• ISBN-13: 978-1600340840
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,821,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great read for any kid who grew up Church of God, July 22, 2006

By 

Robert Daugherty (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Growing Up Pentecostal (Paperback)

Philip Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" has a memorable admonition that as Christians, you must learn to separate the Gospel from the sub-culture in which you learned it. If you grew up Pentecostal in the 50s/60s/70s, you definitely experienced a sub-culture like no other. This book details the many facets of that sub-culture. Having grown up in the Church of God, like the author, but with many fewer siblings, I enjoyed reading the tales that Conn presents about the time. The laugh out loud moments were too many to count. I still wonder what the lady in the airplane seat next to me thought about what I was reading. Along with the humorous stories, the book presents many figures that have laid a rich heritage in the Pentecostal tradition. The stories about the late Charles Beach were inspiring to read. This was a man who spent time every day praying for everyone with whom he'd ever personally shared Christ. That number had to be in the hundreds, if not thousands. James Slay, Eva Mae Lefevre, Earl Paul Sr., and Ray H. Hughes are just a few of the Church of God personalities mentioned in this book. If you grew up Pentecostal or want to hear about the way it was, this book is worth the time.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Each time I put this book down in order to do chores, it unrelentingly lured me back and they wouldn't get done!, December 12, 2007

By 

Carrie Lynn Jones "Jesus is more than a story!" (Indiana) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Growing Up Pentecostal (Paperback)

Very rarely are words absent from my fingertips, hindering my ability to write a review on an excellent book. Today, however, I am having such a dilemma because this book has almost left me speechless. In fact, I had just gotten the kids off to school and settled in to finish its last two chapters, when an alarm set on "snooze" in the next room began obnoxiously sounding off. That alarm yelled out its insufferable collage of squeaks and horns for 42 entire minutes, and I didn't even care. I was NOT going to put that book down NOW!

In his true story,Growing Up Pentecostal, J. Stephen Conn effortlessly carries his readers down the captivating, hilarious, and tenderly emotional road that is/was his life.

Mr. Conn bravely and honestly lays his whole heart wide open for the world to see. He lets his readers watch as he candidly examines the deepest crevices of his thought life while growing up as a preacher's kid, and lets us know what he's learned along the way. It leaves the reader with a fresh and renewed awareness that every single one of us, even preachers and their kids, are all still very human. We simply share a bond that includes desperately needing Jesus for every breath, every heartbeat, every second of every day, and in every circumstance of life that comes along.

Having not grown up in church one single day in my childhood, this book gave me a delightful look at the people I always perceived to be the "lucky" ones. I was so very lonely in my love for Jesus when I was a child.

Mr. Conn, your book is a wonderful gift to any pair of hands that hold it. Through your story, you prove that anything can be accomplished when one surrenders the reigns to Jesus and lets Him do the steering. You taught me to take risks- to jump right out there, unafraid- and let the will of God be done in my life. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for writing your life's story.


Carrie Lynn Jones
Author of It All Began... When Jesus Gave Me Sneakers

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Eye-Opening Look at the Pentecostal Religion, April 18, 2006

By 

Dee Johnson "Book Lover" (Libertyville, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Growing Up Pentecostal (Hardcover)

For the first 17 chapters, I just could not put down Stephen Conn's new book, "Growing Up Pentecostal"! My emotions were "reeling" between laughter, shock, sorrow, and disbelief. Stephen Conn's style is a combination of history, humor, biography, and religious documentation. I was completely "in the dark" about the Pentecostal religion; thus, as the story unfolded, I became completely lost in this superb book.

I often found myself laughing out loud, especially concerning the various childhood "clubs" that Conn describes. I found myself in awe of this incredible family and their ability to find "wealth" of spirit, regardless of financial burdens.

The last few chapters were not as satisfactory for me because I felt such sorrow for this young man who seemed so desperate to find meaning in his religion and to believe that his religion was the one true religion. I seemed to read between the lines that this was an extremely strict and confining experience. But, I was glad to vicariously experience these fanatical extremes via a book rather than via my own religious upbringing.

I think that "Growing Up Pentecostal" is an extremely valuable book to document fundamentalism, to document another time in America, and to document a way of life for a Pentecostal minister and his children, especially Stephen.

Accolades are deserved by Stephen Conn for his fine writing abilities, his humorous tales, his painfully truthful presentation, and his sense of self. I highly recommend "Growing Up Pentecostal".