Best books I read in 2022

I’m still rushing to finish a couple more books before the end of the year, while also eying my growing pile of books to see what will be first off the pile in 2023. But most of what I will read this year has been finished. Maybe you are curious about what others read, or […]

Books we recommended last year

Every month, our church promotes a book of the month — a resource we believe will help our church body grow in Christ. Here is the list of books we recommended in 2020 (this morning we recommended Ken Sande’s book, Peacemaking for Families): December 2021 – Heart and Habits, by Greg Gifford October – November […]

Best books of 2021, so far

For all the hard things that happened in 2020, one of the best (for me) was that I was able to read more books last year than I read in many years. My pace is slower this year, but I’ve still read about 55 books, so far. Here are some of the ones I have […]

Books to encourage your sanctification

Romans 12-13 is about some everyday practices in the believer’s life that need sanctification. Both the first verses (12:1-2) and the last verse (13:14) of that section emphasize the basic steps of sanctification: Aggressively put off sin Joyfully put on Christ and righteous replacements of sin Intentionally cultivate a renewed way of thinking To help […]

Best books of 2020

I know. This is late. I had good intentions. But I just didn’t get it done. (I might have been reading another book instead.) So a few weeks into the new year, here are some of the best books I read last year. As I did last year, I will categorize them around some general […]

Best books of 2020, so far

I love books. And I not only collect books, but I actually read them (well, not all of them, but I give it a good try). I’m not a particularly fast reader, but I am a persistent reader, so I am able to read a pretty significant number of books every year. My reading pace […]

The best books I read in 2017

I’ve always liked to read, and I supposed that’s a benefit for me since so much of what I do as a pastor is bound up in study and reading. I read a lot. I read a significant amount in preparation for my sermons each week — typically somewhere between 15-20 commentaries on the passage […]

Best books I’ve read in 2016 (so far)

I read quite a bit: commentaries and theologies for sermon preparation, too many blogs, journals and magazines, and many books each month. After six months of 2016, I am slightly ahead of pace to meet my goal for book reading this year, having read almost 50 books so far. Of all the books I’ve read, […]

The best books I read in 2015

The year 2015 was a good year of reading for me. A couple of years ago I found that I was having more difficulty paying attention when reading. I was breezing through many blogs and short works like magazine articles, but didn’t have as much patience for reading longer works. When revising my goals for […]

Best books of the year (so far)

This has been a good book reading year for me; so far I am significantly ahead of my goal for the number of books I would read this year (and I’ve already read more than I did all last year), so I thought that at the mid-year point, it might be good to reflect on […]

Ten (or eleven…) favorite books/authors

A while ago, someone gave me a challenge: “could you put together a list of top 10 ‘classic’ books you think every Christian should read? And then maybe another list for when we finish that list?” Well first things first — so how about one list for now? And the more I read, the more […]

Books on the cross

C. J. Mahaney, who himself has written a book or two about the cross (The Cross-Centered Life and Living the Cross Centered Life) today posted his list of favored books on the cross. I concur with his choice of Stott’s book, and am looking forward to beginning to read this weekend Pierced for Our Transgressions […]

Reformation Books

Are you curious about the reformation, but don’t know much about it? Here are three books that I’ve found helpful (this is not intended to be an extensive listing, but just enough to give you an introduction and taste of the lives of some of the key men of the Reformation). They all offer brief […]