Recommended Books & Media

These are the best books, films and audio recordings that I’ve personally been in contact with through the years. The list below moves from more felt needs to theology & pastoral recommendations.

Devotional
The Holy Bible. Unbelievable! The best book I’ve ever read. Read the whole thing before you read anything else. I prefer the English Standard Version.

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri Nouwen. Nouwen skillfully integrates Rembrant’s painting while presenting an expositional teaching on the story of the prodigal sons (plural) and the grace-filled father from Luke 15. This book has had a profound impact on me – probably because it’s filled with scripture, art and authenticity.

The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing by C.J. Mahaney. This should take no more than an hour or two to read.

If you only have 15-20 min., read “True Spirituality: The Transforming Power of the Gospel” by Steven L. Childers. Click here to read it.

Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World by Richard J. Foster. If you just want your life to be a lot simpler, this is great.

Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas. Discusses how different people draw close to God in different ways. There’s an accompanying online test that goes with it that North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA did. Click here for that.

Gospel Christianity courses from Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Click here to check them out. These are the basis for our Wednesday night groups right now. Best discussed in a small group. Absolutely fantastic!

Grace
The Reign of Grace: The Delights and Demands of God’s Love by Scottie Smith. My former pastor (of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN) does a great job of applying God’s redemptive grace to all kinds of real life issues today.

Babette’s Feast. This is a film that I commentated on in an earlier post.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Check out the video with Liam Neeson on this one – it’s well done. I think that it is best when grace is first caught before it is taught. Movies like these two help.

Pain
Shadowlands (the one with Anthony Hopkins & Debra Winger). A film about C.S. Lewis and his dying wife. Great storyline & profound insights.

A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser – highly recommended by Lindsay. Helped her tremendously in our grieving of Anna Grace.

Mission in a Christianized Culture
The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within by Erwin Raphael McManus. Good especially for men.

Marriage
Men & Women: Enjoying the Difference by Larry Crabb. Helped me work though a lot of issues early in our marriage.

The Mystery of Marriage: Meditations on the Miracle by Mike Mason. Lindsay especially loves this one.

Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. Again, recommended by Lindsay.

Premarital
Getting Ready for a Lifetime of Love: Six Steps to Prepare for a Great Marriage by Michael Smith. This is the premarital workbook from one of our old pastors (again from Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN) that Lindsay & I use with engaged couples. We find it is biblical & brings up the right issues for the couple to discuss.

Parenting
Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel. This really strikes at the heart of us as parents and helps us to parent out of a pure heart and a redemptive mindset.

History for Adventure-Types
Biggest Brother: The Life Of Major Dick Winters, The Man Who Led The Band of Brothers by Larry Alexander. This is a biography on Dick Winters who was the commander of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. You might be familiar with him since he was a star in Stephen Ambrose’s book Band of Brothers & the HBO miniseries by the same name.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (Lewis & Clark Expedition) by Stephen E. Ambrose. I fell in love with history through this book.

Illustrated Story of World War II by Readers Digest. You’ll have to buy this used since it’s out of print.

Church History
The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History by A. Kenneth Curtis, J. Stephen Lang & Randy Petersen. If you’re not familiar with church history, this is a great book to start with. Its short chapters make it great to read at night or put on the back of the toilet. ☺

A History of Christianity in the United States & Canada by Mark A. Noll. I’ve read several church history textbooks, but this one is the best.

Fundamentalism & American Culture by George M. Marsden. Great for understanding East Tennessee culture.

George Whitefield’s Journals by… well… George Whitefield. All of us are familiar with Billy Graham. Some of us with Billy Sunday & D.L. Moody. But are you familiar with America’s most influential preacher? George is my hero!

Church Planting
Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer. Of all the books out there that I’ve read, this continues to be the best. His site (www.newchurches.com) is also helpful.

Church Planting Manual by Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Click here to go there.

Most any audio recordings from the Acts 29 Network. Click here to go there.

Church Practices
Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal by Richard Lovelace. Excellent study of the major American awakenings & the lessons that we can learn from them today.

The Church of Irresistible Influence by Robert Lewis with Rob Wilkins. I wrote some accompanying core group training study material for the launch of the first church that I helped to plant (Grace Fellowship Church in Kingsport). Email me if you would like them.

The Externally Focused Church by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson.

The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church by Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch. Influential read for Jim Fickley & I as we were drafting some of the foundational documents for Redeemer.

7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Lane Jones & Reggie Joiner.

Theology
Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning & Living by Cornelius Plantinga. This is a book that a commentated on in an earlier post. It is excellent!

“Gospel Centered Theology” audio recording by Daniel Montgomery. I talked about how much this message has meant to me in a post. Click here to listen to it.

The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. Discusses the attributes of God.

The Cross & Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation by Bruce Demarest.

Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. This has become a classic in Reformed circles today. I know of no better single volume text on the major issues in theology.

Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Walter Elwell. If it’s not covered in Grudem, it’s probably in here.

Preaching
Preaching to the Heart by Tim Keller. Tim covers various topics on this seminar at at Gordon-Conwell in Mass: (1) Preaching to the Heart without being Legalistic; (2) Preaching to the Heart without being Piestic; (3) Unintentional Preaching Models; (4) Reading, Preparation, Conversation, and Preaching (5) Preaching to “Emerging” Culture; (6) Preaching to the Heart without being Individualistic. Great stuff. Really great!

Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell. For time sake, listen to the audios (entitled “Redemptive preaching”) from his seminary here. I’ve listened to these several times over.

Pastoral Issues & Leadership
“The Place of Prayer in the Life of the Pastor.” Audio recording of Charles Stanley on prayer at Dallas Theological Seminary in the late 90s. These have absolutely been profound in my life. Includes prayer for you personally, prayer in your leadership, prayer in your preaching & prayer in handling conflict (the best of the four). You’re going to have to contact the DTS Book Center directly for those.

The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. A puritan paperback classic. It will be a slow read & that’s ok: every word is good.

Elders & Leaders by Gene Getz. Best if you get the accompanying workbook here & discuss it with a group (esp. your Board).

Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels. Hybel’s chapter on the different types of leaders has always been helpful for me.

Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times by Donald T. Phillips. Good leadership principles from one of America’s best presidents.

Best Commentaries that I’ve Found… Thus Far
Creation & Blessing: A guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis by Alan Ross. Excellent! Includes an exegetical outline on each passage.

Luke (The NIV Application Commentary) by Darrell Bock. I liked this one better than his more bulky commentary on Luke.

The Gospel According to John: An Introduction and Commentary (Pillar New Testament Commentary) by D.A. Carson.

The Hard Sayings of Jesus by F.F. Bruce. I’ve used this one for years. In fact, I’ve used it as devotional study material.

The Epistle to the Romans (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) by Douglas Moo.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) by Gordon Fee.

The Letter to the Ephesians (The Pillar new Testament Commentary) by Peter O’Brien. I found that this was better than Harold Hoehner’s commentary.

John Piper’s Sermons at DesiringGod.com. I continually find good stuff here. Click here to go there.

SonicLight.com study notes from Tom Constable’s Dallas Theological Seminary classes. You can download any book of the Bible that make up a total of over 9000 pages. Click here to go there.

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