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Anyone who has helped me move knows how many boxes of books pastors accumulate.  Yes, many volumes remain resource books and generally unread.  However, during my recent sabbatical break I was able to give some time to reading.  Here are five helpful books and the impact that they had on my life.

Christ For Real:  How to Grow into God’s Likeness by Charles Price (Kregel, 1995)     In the introduction, Alan Redpath describes the focus of the book this way:  “If we pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ we must first pray, ‘My kingdom go.’”  In his book, Charles Price presents a great metaphor to express the living Christ working in and through the believer.  Though a light bulb is designed to shine, it simply cannot do so unless there is electrical current flowing through it.  Similarly, the life of Jesus is absolutely essential to the Christian, if we are going to live and give light as He intends us to do.

Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church by Paul David Tripp (Crossway, 2020)     Paul Tripp cautions that there are temptations facing all Christian leaders.  “But we must not esteem doing over being.” (47)  He also writes, “every leader needs to have his heart, life, and ministry firmly planted in the right-now nutrients of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that he gets his identity, meaning and purpose, inner peace, and sense of calling from the gospel…every leader still has weeds in his life that need to pulled out.  That weeding work, for all of us, is a community project.” (55)  These twelve church leadership principles in this book are both practical and exacting.  You can listen to Paul Tripp share about each principle.

Between Pastors: Seizing the Opportunity by Cam Taylor and Alan Simpson (Outreach Canada, 2014)     This book was my “text book” for some TLN online workshops.  I especially appreciated the emphasis on how we need to be intentional and proactive when we offer leadership in a church.  As Mary Beard once expressed it, “Action without study is fatal.  Study without action is futile.”  Though this book is a blueprint for a church which is facing a pastoral vacancy, there are many great insights for nurturing a healthy mission and vision.

The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 & Catechism, various authors (Chapel Library, 2016)     Though we live 336 years after this statement was penned, we are still shaped by it.  Baptists emerged from the Church of England in the 1630-40’s so this confession reflects The Westminster Confession (1647) but highlights what it means to be Baptist.  Pastors who gathered for years to create this confession had “no itch to clog religion with new words” but were concerned that no one trust “a form of godliness without the power of it.” (4,5) 

The Gospel & the Modern World: A Theological Vision for the Church by D. A. Carson (Crossway, 2023)     Dr. Carson has made an incredible contribution to evangelical theology.  He grew up in and served in the Fellowship Baptist family.  As a seminary professor he has been a “scholar-pastor”.  This book collects his articles in Themelios (Gospel Coalition theological journal).  Carson addressed the fact that evangelicals are shaped by the views and philosophies of the world.  So, we must develop a robust, Biblical world view and apply the Gospel to all facets of life.  Carson writes, “The notion of impractical theology – theological study that is unconcerned with repentance, faith, obedience, conformity to Christ, and joy in the Lord – hovers somewhere between the ridiculous and the blasphemous…The aim of thoughtful Christians, after all, is not so much to become masters of Scripture, but to be mastered by it, both for God’s glory and his people’s good.” (43)

Let’s not forget the caution found in Ecclesiastes 12:12:  “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”  We can fall prey to endless education.  And if we are not careful, we can academicize our spiritual journey.  That is why I am so thankful for this sabbatical break and the meaningful spiritual reflection I could pursue.  In these books, and in many other ways, God encouraged and challenged me to greater growth and deeper relationship with Him.