I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
PRAY & GO: Your Invitation to Become a Great Commission Christian – by Thom S. Rainer.
Thom Rainer has written a great book that is used for Church Answer’s Hope Initiative, a 30-day journey that can be done as a group or individually. When you sign up for the Hope Initiative you also get other supporting resources and video encouragement in you 30-day journey. The intent of the book is to help you become more active in sharing your faith as you pursue the fulfillment of the Great Commission of introducing others to Jesus. A great book to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
A TREASURY OF A. W. TOZER – by A. W. Tozer
If you have never read A. W. Tozer, this might be the book to get. It is a collection of Tozer’s writings from a few different books he has published. Tozer is an older author who speaks with a directness to his audience and a reverence for our Holy God. Much of his writing focuses on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the pursuit of holy living. The short chapters make it a great devotional read.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
HOLY CONVERSATIONS – by Gil Rendle and Alice Mann
Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations, is a practical workbook for anyone who is looking to lead a congregation to a unified vision and purpose. This book would be especially appealing to those who have little or no experience in leading a church through vision setting and strategic planning. They offer a number of examples, resources, and tools in the appendix that you could use as is or adapt to your local setting. If you are looking to lead a congregation to become more purposeful and with a unified mission, consider this book as a resource.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
ON BEING A PASTOR – by Derek Prime & Alistair Begg
This is a great book for any pastor, especially for one who is just starting out. It covers many aspects of the pastor’s role and how to do it well. It is a bit dated, yet most of the content still speaks to the pastoral role today. The first chapter is a great discussion on the call to be a pastor, pointing out that the role can be difficult, but very rewarding if this is what God wants you to do. The authors, both pastors with years of experience themselves, then talk about the character of the pastor, his home life, and how to lead a serve a congregation well. The authors both share examples of how they have applied the teaching in many sections of the book. It is good to see the way two different pastors do the work of ministry. A great book for anyone in ministry!
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
INTEGRATIVE PREACHING – by Kenton C. Anderson
Integrative Preaching: A Comprehensive Model for Transformational Proclamation – by Kenton C. Anderson
Integrative Preaching is one of the best books on preaching I have read lately. Kenton Anderson diagrams a model that intends for sermon to reach both the mind and the heart. He describes this method in a number of ways. I especially like how he names each of the four steps of the sermon in ways that connect to the heart of a person: Engage, Instruct, Convict, and Inspire. I personally was most challenged to do a better job of Inspiring my listeners when I preach, not being satisfied with information alone, but driving home how the information should affect us and be lived out. An excellent book on how to build and deliver sermons that change lives.
He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong.
Titus 1: 9 (NLT)
I love to teach. I love preparing a lesson and then teaching it to a group of people, small or large. I love to see learners understanding a new idea or learning how to apply a truth they have just understood. To be a leader is to instill new ideas and ways of doing things in others who are coming after you. A church leader must be able to teach. This is one of the main ways to instill new ideas and practices in those whom you are leading. My automatic reaction to this verse is to think of teaching thoughts and ideas, of preaching and teaching scripture and discipling others through teaching in a class or sermon. But we all know that teaching is also about hands-on and practical learning.
Apprentices are always learning, but only part of their training is in the classroom. Much of the teaching they receive is active hands-on learning. Leaders in the church may be good classroom teachers, or they may not, but if they are teaching others in practical ways, then they are still teaching.
I find it interesting that in Titus we are told that the leader must have been taught first and must believe what he was taught. A teacher cannot teach what they do not know.
The key teaching in the church is the “trustworthy message” of the gospel. We have heard and now teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to others. As leaders we continue to encourage others to get to know the Jesus of the gospel, and to receive His life-giving forgiveness of sins as we put our faith in Him.
Church leaders are responsible to teach many things in the church, but it always needs to come back to the gospel message. Whether we are teaching others how to be an usher or how to do run the sound board, all of that is to help others continue to hear the gospel message.
Part of a leader’s responsibility is to “show those who oppose it where they are wrong.” (Titus 1:9) It is not unusual to come across people that have not understood something correctly. Misunderstanding may be as serious as not understanding the forgiveness that Jesus offers to all who believe in Him, or something as simple as not following through on a certain responsibility they accepted. In either case, the leader’s job is to correct when correcting is necessary, and this is done by teaching and showing what the correct understanding is.
It is pretty much impossible to be a leader and not be able to teach. To lead is to be ahead of people in information or practices that somehow need to be passed on to those following. In the process of doing that, you are teaching. Yes, some are more gifted in teaching than others, but a leader will always be able to teach to some level.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
EXPERIENCING THE RESURRECTION – By Henry & Melvin Blackaby
Henry and Melvin Blackaby do a great job walking through the importance and value of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in every believer’s life. While they take time to discuss God’s purpose in the resurrection as well as Jesus’ experience of the resurrection, the value of the book is found in the third part of the book where they apply the resurrection to the believer’s experience. They write, “And as a result of what the Father has done, the resurrection is something believers can experience in daily life…as well as something they will experience for all of eternity.” To experience the resurrection in ourselves is to die to self, and to live in the power of the Spirit, dead to sin and alive to Christ living in and through us.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
THE PASSIONATE CHURCH – by Mike Slaughter
Mike Slaughter draws on his United Methodist heritage and denominational connections to describe what a passionate church looks like. He addresses Four Areas of Focus as highlighted by the United Methodist Church: Developing Principled Christian Leaders, Engaging in Ministry for the Poor, Creating New and Renewed Congregations, and Improving Health. He does a great job of giving good examples for how each of these areas can become a real part of how a church does ministry. He uses examples from his own church in Ginghamsburg as well as from many others. What I love most about this book is the practicality of it. Passionate Church is a few years old now (2008), but the same questions can still be asked of our church and how we are living out our calling in our own communities.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
EMBODIED: Transgender Identities, the Church and what the Bible has to say – by Preston Sprinkle
Sprinkle asks the question: If someone experiences incongruence between their biological self and their internal sense of self, which one determines who they are – and why?
He then walks through a thoughtful and biblical journey of defining the transgender issue, understanding what the real issues are, and looking at how the bible speaks to this struggle many people face. He finishes by addressing some of the realities of how to love transgender people in a way that is kind and reflects Jesus. A great book for one of today’s tough struggles.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
SO BEAUTIFUL: Divine Design for Life and the Church – by Leonard Sweet
Leonard Sweet writes about what the church may be like if she was living up to their divine design. He suggests that there are three key aspects to consider. He calls it the MRI of the church: Missional, Relational, and Incarnational. He contrasts this with what he calls the APC church: Attractional, Propositional, and Colonial. I especially appreciated his discussion of the incarnational church where he highlighted the importance of a church understanding it’s local context and being truly the church for that context. Don’t copy other churches, be the church your own community needs to best hear the gospel of Jesus.
Elevate with Andy 