Pastors' Wives by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

Pastors' Wives by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen was an interesting book that caused me to think about it for several weeks after reading it before I could write about it.
This is not a Christian book, though it's written about Christian women.
Pastor's Wives, to be exact.
This book is crude at times, sprinkled with obscenities, and even ridicules a real-life mega-church pastor by name.
The three main characters are pastors wives, one veteran, one with a past, one a new PW (that's what we call ourselves).
Yes, I am a PW. And I have to tell you that I am nothing like the women in this book. Though this is a fictional account, I don't even know any women who would act like these three.
There are some things that the author got right.
Having to share your husband with hundreds of people is hard.
Life in the ministry can be lonely.

There was a lot more that she got wrong though. She seemed to miss the entire aspect of our personal relationships with God. The characters were built up to be these strong women, the main character more concerned about protecting the church and its reputation as a whole than about the people in it. She makes fun of them, doesn't seem to care about them, pushes her own agenda, and seems to put herself in charge of everything. There is no submission to her husband, she goes above his head often and conducts church business on her own without consulting anyone. 

Maybe that's what bothered me, the fact that the book treated the church as a business instead of what it truly is: a ministry.

The author, on a self-confessed journey towards a faith of her own, can't understand that it is a ministry because she hasn't gotten to the point of having her own relationship with the One who will transform her thinking. I can't hold that against her, she doesn't know any different.

I wouldn't recommend this book if you're looking for something that will show you what it's like to live "in the fishbowl". It paints a picture that is not at all what I've experienced in over two decades of living the life of a pastor's wife.

There was one part that was all too true though, the evil board member. Been there, done that. There is truth that some of the most evil people are in our churches. I've met them, but there are more lovely people that outnumber the nasty ones.

There is an iPad Mini giveaway from the author, plus a Facebook party. You can enter to win it here.

This book was provided for review by LitFuse.