Books for the New Year

Just this week, a good pastor friend asked me if I had any books on my reading horizon for the coming year. At the time, I did not have anything in mind.

But a quick trip (my family might say not so quick trip) to the somewhat local Christian bookstore can fix that rather easily. It is unlikely I will match my kids in their reading this coming year, but here goes.

The books that found themselves in my cart today centered on two areas of ministry that is on my heart this year.

First, I am thinking about discipleship. This has been an area of my library that is actually quite thin so I look forward to some time thinking about this critical aspect of ministry.

I hope to be reading The Disciplemaking Pastor by Bill Hull and Authentic Spiritual Mentoring by Larry Kreider. I love the subtitle of the second book, "nurturing younger believers toward spiritual maturity". Sign me up!

Second, I am hoping to lead our church to have a greater spiritual impact on our community. As one of the stronger evangelical churches in our small town, I really want to see our church take some leadership in this area.

I am looking to the following books to sharpen my thoughts in this area. The Church of Irrestistible Influence by Robert Lewis (with Rob Wilkins), a small book by Group entitled Field Guide to Neighborhood Outreach and what appears to be a fairly new release The Most Loving Place in Town (A Modern Day Parable for the Church) by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges.

I picked up one other book, The Living Church by John Stott. Again it was the subtitle that got me, "convictions of a lifelong pastor". When that lifelong pastor is the leading evangelical mind of the second half of the twentieth century (sorry about that Mohlerites) I am interested.

Now, if I could only get on the same kind of schedule my kids have, I might get these all read in a reasonable time. (I can tell you from reading his first chapter, Stott still has it.)

So, what is on your reading horizon?