About Ashamed No More, A Pastor's Journey Through Sex Addiction

Now Featured in the Patheos Book Club
Ashamed No More: A Pastor's Journey Through Sex Addiction
By T. C. Ryan

"...of wonderful value to any Christian anywhere, since the addict's experience becomes a metaphor that illuminates significant elements of everyone's spiritual life."—Walter Wangerin Jr.

There are some things we just don't talk about.

Things like sex, particularly when our sexuality is a matter of personal struggle.

Things like the vulnerabilities of our pastors, who must maintain a façade not merely of respectability but of moral and psychological superiority.

We don't talk about things that make us feel insecure, that make us feel unsettled. But the nature of spiritual growth, even the story of Christian faith, is a matter of being unsettled from the comfortable compromises we've made and set on a course together toward wholeness and mutually supportive community.

Pastor T. C. Ryan takes us on an unsettling journey through his lifelong struggle with sexual addiction, one that predated and pervaded his pastoral ministry--one which for far too long he faced in secrecy and isolation, separated from the brothers and sisters in Christ who were called to bear one another's burdens. 

Ashamed No More doesn't cast blame or argue for looser moral standards. It does, however, call us to the unsettling ministry that a God who is love calls us to—the unsettling grace that is the audacious gospel of Christ.

About the Author

For nearly 20 years, T. C. Ryan was founding and senior pastor of a large church. He resigned in order to concentrate more fully on his ongoing recovery from a lifelong sexual addiction. Dr. Ryan now has a ministry of spiritual direction with individuals and groups, preaches, writes and leads seminars on achieving spiritual wholeness in a sexually broken world.

Endorsements for the Book 

 "Tom Ryan has written a remarkable confessional that declares this reality: liberation is possible through Jesus Christ, and hope is a present reality for people who want a different story than enslavement to addiction. This book is a gift to the church and to the many men and women who long for a path to freedom and companionship along the way."
—Tim Keel, pastor of Jacob's Well (Kansas City, Missouri) and author of Intuitive Leadership 

Table of Contents
Foreward by Walter Wangerin Jr.

Preface

1. Living a Divided Life
2. Sexuality and Spirituality
3. Coming to Know the Enemy Within
4. Shame and "Morality"
5. Excavating Origins
6. Genuine Spiritual Transformation and the Recovery Movement
7. Transformation, Struggle and What I Learned
8. In the Darkness, He Is There
9. God, Brokenness and Life in the Mindful Calm
10. Brokenness and Healthy Spiritual Community
11. Biblical Ethics and Sexual Behavior
12. Broken Leaders and Spiritual Rehab

Appendix

Acknowledgments 

Notes 

Bibliography