20 January 2009 | 8 comments |
1513 words |
Highlights of 2008
What are the top three reference or ‘standard work’ books you would recommend for the basic Christian library? That is, what would you want a new and thoughtful Christian who is committed to growing to have on their shelf?
- New Bible Dictionary (recommended by Lionel, Paul and Tony)
- New Bible Commentary (recommended by Tony)
- Bruce Milne, Know the Truth: A handbook of Christian belief (recommended by Lionel and Nicole)
- Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom in The Goldsworthy Trilogy (recommended by Lionel, Paul and Jean. I agree with this one, but some people find it hard to get into. For those who struggle with such reading, I recommend Vaughan Robert's God's Big Picture)
- JI Packer, Knowing God (recommended by Nicole and Jean)
- John Stott, The Cross of Christ (recommended by Nicole, Jean and myself)
- Walter Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (recommended by Paul and Tony).
I think I would add Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. Even though he's pre-millennial, believer's baptistic, congregational and charismatic, and I'm amillennial, paedo-baptistic, presbyterian (even though I'm Anglican) and non-charismatic, we're both reformed and complementarian, and I like that he idenitifies his convictions openly upfront, and that he normally does a pretty good job representing alternative views in and outside of Evangelicalism. I find myself photocopying sections of this book to give to keen Christians asking about particular doctrines (e.g. virgin birth, Trinity, deity of Christ, atonement, sovereignty, etc.) much more than any other.
What are the top three books you'd recommend on Christian living and ministry?
- Lionel:
- The Old Testament. Read large slabs of it often because Paul says that “All Scripture [by which he meant the Old Testament] is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).
- Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne, Guidance and the Voice of God
- Colin Marshall, Passing the Baton: A handbook for ministry apprenticeship.
- Nicole:
- John Piper, When I Don't Desire God: How to fight for joy
- Barbara Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Woman
- Christopher Ash, Married for God.
- Paul:
- Don Carson, How Long, O Lord?
- Don Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (yes, there is a theme here!)
- Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne, Guidance and the Voice of God
- Don Carson, How Long, O Lord?
- John Piper, When I Don't Desire God: How to fight for joy
- JI Packer, Rediscovering Holiness or Laid-Back Religion
- JC Ryle, Holiness
- Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne, Prayer and the Voice of God (being immodest but trying to be honest!)
- Bill Hybels, Just Walk Across the Room (ignore most of what he teaches in this book, but simply drink in the basic point and his love for lost people).
What are the top three recent ‘stretching’ reads that you'd recommend for the educated lay person and the busy pastor to keep us all thinking hard about the things of God?
- Lionel
- Nicole
- Brian Rosner, Greed as Idolatry
- David Wells, The Courage to be Protestant
- Justin Taylor and John Piper (eds), Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
- Paul
- David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow'rs (not much else here sorry!)
- Jean
- John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress
- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its causes and cure
- Ed Welch, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave
- Tony
- Peter Jensen, The Revelation of God
- David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow'rs
- James Denney, The Death of Christ
What are your top three fiction books you've enjoyed this year?
- Lionel
- Various Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters.
- Nicole
- Atonement (Ian McEwen)
- The 44 Scotland St series (Alexander McCall Smith)
- The Memory Keeper's Daughter (Kim Edwards)
- Paul
- The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
- Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)
- Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
- Jean
- The Miracle at Speedy Motors (Alexander McCall Smith)
- Atonement (Ian McEwan)
- The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
- Tony
- Saturday (Ian McEwan)
- A thousand splendid suns (Khaled Hosseini)
- Independence Day (Richard Ford)
What are your top three non-fiction books you've enjoyed recently?
- Nicole
- My Seventh Monsoon (Naomi Reed)
- Hidden Art (Edith Schaeffer)
- Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards (Elisabeth Dodds)
- Paul
- Thomas Moore of Liverpool (Peter Bolt): It's some of the history of the man who made the bequest that allowed the creation of Moore Theological College)
- Extraordinary Relationships (Roberta Gilbert)
- Adrenalin and Stress (Arch Hart)
- Jean
- Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks)
- A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)
- Ancient World: Egypt, Rome, Greece in Spectacular Cross-section (Steve Biesty): There had to be a kid's book in there somewhere!
- Tony: I'm assuming non-Christian.
- The Closing of the American Mind (Allan Bloom)
- Joe Cinque's Consolation (Helen Garner)
- The Short Game Bible (Dave Pelz)
What is your favourite release from Matthias Media this year?
- Lionel: Living with the Underworld (Peter Bolt), although I've yet to finish it all!
- Nicole: You (Michael Jensen)
- Paul: Six Steps to Reading Your Bible (Tony Payne and Simon Roberts)
- Jean: Different by Design (Claire Smith)—the best MP3 talk series I heard this year, which is saying a lot. Thank you, Claire, for your faithful, thoughtful, courageous and wise teaching on the roles of men and women!
- Tony: That's a toughie! Dead heat between the new edition of The Future of Jesus (Peter Jensen) and Living with the Underworld (Peter Bolt) (well, it was November last year, but it's close to this year!).
What are the best couple of websites you've discovered this year? (I.e. not one you've been visiting for ages like Challies).
- Lionel
- Nicole
- EQUIP book club (well, maybe not ‘discovered’, but it's new this year!)
- The Best Book Co-op
- SubText
- Paul
- Jean
- I only started reading blogs just over a year ago, and my favourites quickly became Desiring God and 168 Hours. But if you want something definitely this year, then two new blogs I love are EQUIP Book Club and The Best Book Co-op.
- Tony
- I've been trying to cut down my surfing this year. I think everything on my Google Reader I discovered before this year.
What are the best three audio downloads you've listened to this year (individual talks or series with the url if possible)?
- Lionel
- John Piper's biographical messages on great Christian leaders
- New College Lecture Series 2007, Prof Oliver O'Donovan, ‘Morally Awake? Admiration and resolution in the light of Christian faith’.
- Nicole
- John Piper, ‘The Ultimate Goal of True Womanhood’
- Tim Chester, ‘Making Disciples for the Missional Church’ Part 1 and Part 2
- Tim Keller, ‘It takes a city to raise a child’.
- Paul
- I don't listen to many, sorry.
- Jean
- Series:
- Carolyn Mahaney, ‘To Teach What is Good (Titus 2)’
- John Piper, ‘Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God’
- Individual talks:
- Don Carson, ‘The Christian in Complete Armour’
- Neil Chambers, ‘Lamentation: God's Gift to the Church’
- CJ Mahaney, ‘A Biblical Understanding of Sleep’
- John Piper, ‘The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood’.
- Series:
- Tony
- Sorry, I don't listen to audio downloads!
Can you give us some favourite new Christian music—especially songs for singing at church?
- Nicole: Jane Saunders: we bought her CD In His Hands this year, and the whole family loves it).
- Paul: Bring on the Day (Garage Hymnal): not quite congregational, but I really like this album).
- Jean: Valley of Vision (Sovereign Grace Ministries): Is that new? I'm also dying to hear their new Psalms album.
- Tony: Lift Up Your Heads (Michael Morrow)
Lastly, what is your book of the year and why?
- Lionel: The Selected Works of Donald Robinson Volume 1 and Volume 2. Donald Robinson has had a massive influence on evangelical biblical studies through his lecturing at Moore College in the 60s and 70s, but he has not been widely published until now. He could be regarded as the patriarch of the evangelical biblical theology movement. His commitment to the gospel-based unity of the Scriptures forms the basis of much of Graeme Goldsworthy's work on biblical theology. But he is never simplistic or clichéd in his approach. He was an extraordinarily agile thinker whose startling insights were often way ahead of his time (e.g. he was espousing the view that the relationship between Jew and Gentile forms an exegetical key to the New Testament decades before the phrase ‘New Perspective’ had ever been coined). This collection is a highly stimulating read that really makes you think hard about your assumptions about the Bible.
- Nicole: When I Don't Desire God: How to fight for joy.
- Paul: I don't think I've got one!
- Jean: Sorry, but it's another draw. When I Don't Desire God: How to fight for joy (John Piper) because it has such helpful, practical advice on spiritual disciplines, especially the excellent chapter on how to use the world to glorify and enjoy God, and because of the last chapter on depression. John Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress: I'm exhausted after writing 17 posts on it for the EQUIP book club, but I'm also encouraged and challenged by the wisdom of this godly man. These two were the reading highlights of my year. (Lucky for you, I read Martyn Lloyd-Jones's Spiritual Depression last year or it would have been three! That book shaped my thinking about discouragement and anxiety profoundly.)
- Tony: Living with the Underworld (Peter Bolt) for offering a model of popular theology that is learned, biblical, insightful, gospel-focused, and a delight to read all at the same time.
Ditto, ditto, ditto on Wayne Grudem’s “Systematic Theology”, Tony! I would have put it in myself except for reservations like your own.
Jean, just for clarity, that was my comment, as the compiler of the post, not Tony’s. Sorry I was not clearer. And when I recommend Grudem or pass on a copy of some material, I always mention what I said about the book’s approach.
Why ignore most of “Just Walk Across the Room”?
General question - what do you think is the best book on personal evangelism?
When I started leading bible study groups I was given this list of books to read (I understand it was originally from Archie Poulos but was given to me by Al Stewart) and I was told to read them in this order:-
1. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God - J Packer.
2.The Cross of Christ - John Stott.
3. How Long O Lord. - Don Carson
4. Everlasting God - DB Knox
5. Sent by Jesus - DB Knox
6. According to Plan - Graeme Goldsworthy
7. Gospel & Kingdom - Graeme Goldsworthy
It was really helpful, and the order was helpful to.
Oops ... sorry Sandy ... you did a great job compiling and commenting BTW.
Tony,
JC Ryle ‘Holiness’!! One of my all time favourites. I am reading his ‘Practical Religion’ at the moment. A very yellow and falling apart copy - it was one of the first, if not the first, christian book I ever bought and read as a teenager.
Plan to read the equally aged ‘Holiness’ next.
What a bishop!
Di
PS ‘Prayer and the Voice of God’ and ‘Guidance and the Voice of God’ - so helpful - real stand outs for me.
This is a great post! Thank you!
The only thing is, I’ve just finished putting together my reading list for the year. Or so I thought - looks like I might just have to add several titles to that!
Hmmm, more books to read. It’s a hard life.
Hi Craig
‘Ignore most’. That does sound a bit off-handed, doesn’t it?
What I meant was that, like many books of this type emanating from the US, the biblical content of the book is quite weak. Whenever Hybels tries to anchor or justify what he’s saying in the text of Scripture, you end up wishing he’d just told another anecdote. And some of his theological weaknesses (to do with God talking to him and telling him what to do next, for example) keep coming out as well.
But the big point he makes is very well made: that we need to get out of our Christian comfort zone, walk across the room, and just TALK to people (which leads to talking to them about Jesus).
And the stories he tells of himself and others doing just this are a great encouragement.
It’s a book to stir your heart for the lost, and get you walking across the room to talk to people. That’s its strength.
In terms of what personal evangelism is, why and how we do it, I still think there is no substitute for Chappo’s classic “Know and Tell the Gospel”. It supplies all that the Hybels book is lacking.
Put the two together and you have a powerful cocktail.
TP
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