Louie Giglio has spent more than two decades listening to stories of struggle as the pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, Ga., which draws more than 8,000 people each week. The author of Goliath Must Fall and The Comeback, he has also launched a movement to empower and guide college-age young adults via the annual Passion Conferences, which he founded with his wife, Shelley, in 1997. These experiences have led 60-year-old Giglio to identify an "unmistakable connection" among many of the people he's ministered and the problems they face: broken relationships with their fathers.

"That's not to say that all our troubles are traced back to our dads," Giglio says, "but rather that, for better or worse, our fathers leave an undeniable mark on our lives that stays with us and shapes our confidence, our identities, and our picture of what life is supposed to be like." His newest book, Not Forsaken, is the culmination of years of biblical study and teaching others how to view God as a flawless father—a source of love, acceptance, and guidance.

"We all have different experiences with our dads, but the craving for our father's approval is the same," he writes in Not Forsaken. "No matter the story [one has] with their earthly father, they are loved sons and daughters of a perfect heavenly father."

Adjusting one's perception of God is central to Giglio's message. He envisions neither a "frail, old grandpa type" nor an angry, wrath-filled deity; rather, he advocates for an image of God that reflects what is written in the Bible. "There are lots of other views out there," Giglio says, "but the problem with them all is that a flawed view of God leads to a flawed life."

He draws on his complicated but loving relationship with his own late father to explore the lingering effect fathers can have on their children. "It's amazing to see how our interactions with our dads resurface later in our lives," he says. For example, Giglio describes the disapproval and rejection he felt after revealing to his father his intention to become a pastor. The interaction resulted in years of pain from which Giglio is still in the process of healing. "I'm working through my relationship with my dad, too," he says, "making the pilgrimage to discover and relate to God as the perfect version of my earthly dad."

The book also addresses deeply negative and even abusive relationships between children and their fathers, as well as the growing number of children who grow up without a father. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in every four children lives in a fatherless household—a statistic that helped spur Giglio to write Not Forsaken. Even with challenging or harmful histories related to one's father, he believes freedom and healing are possible.

"The most significant privilege of being a pastor is being invited into people's pain," Giglio says. "Our wounds are deep and our pain is real, and it's not enough that we offer spiritual platitudes to one another." Instead, he says, "we are chosen, loved, prized, wanted, and believed in by a father who is perfect in every way."

In addition to founding Passion City and the Passion Conferences, Giglio and his wife own sixstepsrecords, which produces worship music used during church services, Christian events, and at conferences such as Passion and the Passion Global Institute, which offers Christian leadership and biblical studies classes that can be applied to any degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. The next Passion Conference for young adults ages 18–25 is taking place from December 31 to January 2 at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium and is expected to be the biggest yet. "Contrary to much of the press we see about the indifferent and declining spiritual climate of this generation," Giglio says, "we'll see tens of thousands of young people choosing to ring in the New Year in worship and prayer."