As 2019 comes to a close, we offer our list of favorite reads for the year. As we have always done, this is not a list of books published in 2019, but books readin 2019, whatever the publishing year. If a book is on this list, I recommend you give it a read in 2020. 

In 2019 we once again read a number of good books, a few great books, some why-the-big-deal books, and a couple of why-was-this-ever-published books (partially). 2019 was another great reading year with many happy hours invested in the “Big Three”: good music, good coffee and a good book.

ADMISSION:  I am not a fad reader: fad reading breeds fat minds.  Many fad books remind me of the great Ambrose Bierce quote: “The covers of this book are too far apart.”When people cry out, “You have to read this latest-and-greatest book” I generally run – the other way.  I am just not a follower of fads when it comes to books and authors. With limited time and resources at my disposal, I wait for the dust to settle before putting my money down on a book that may be a great investment of my time and money or a waste of both.  

Rather than follow the latest-and-greatest, I follow the sage counsel of C.S. Lewis, who said, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” It’s advice I follow with joy as rereads of previously read books are like visits with the oldest and best of friends. 

We offer this year’s reading in three lists:  

1.  The complete list of books read;

2.  The old friends read again; 

3.  The most important reads of 2019.

THE COMPLETE LIST OF BOOKS READ IN 2019

Amusing Ourselves to Death – Neil Postman (2005, 208 pages)

The Art of Pastoring – David Hansen (2012, 221 pages)

Caring For Your Pastor – Lorna Dobson (2001, 173 pages)

Christ Among the Dragons – James Emery White (2010, 190 pages)

Christ In the Passover – Ceil and Moishe Rosen (2006, 176 pages)

Christian Coaching – Gary Collins (2009, 416 pages)

The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis (7 Volumes) (1970, 784 pages)

Cleveland: The Forgotten Conservative – John M. Pafford (2013, 240 pages)

The Conviction to Lead – Albert Mohler (2014, 224 pages)

The Funeral Encyclopedia – Charles Wallis (1953, 325 pages)

The Funeral:  A Source Book for Ministers – A.W. Blackwood (1942, 250 pages)

Good Day: The Paul Harvey Story – Paul J. Batura (2009, 291 pages)

How the Irish Saved Western Civilization – Thomas Cahill (1996, 246 pages)

Humility – C.J. Mahaney (2005, 176 pages)

Impossible People – Os Guinness (2016, 239 pages)

In My Place Condemned He Stood – J.I. Packer and Mark Dever (2008, 192 pages)

Inside Mayberry – Dan Harrison and Bill Habeeb (1994, 282 pages)

The Jesus Way – Eugene Peterson (2007, 304 pages)

The King’s Singers: Gold – Various (2018, 82 pages)

Le Petit Larousse de l’Histoire de France – Various (2011, 1013 pages) 

The Leadership Lessons of Jesus – Bob Briner and Jay Pritchard (2008, 176 pages)

Life Together – Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1954, 122 pages)

The Longest Winter – Alex Kershaw (2005, 344 pages)

The Poems of St. John of the Cross – Ken Krabbenhoft, translator (1999, 81 pages)

Martin Luther – Eric Metaxas (2018, 496 pages)

Mentoring – Bobb Biehl (1996, 192 pages)

Preventing Ministry Failure – Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffman (2007, 265 pages)

The Quest for Cosmic Justice – Thomas Sowell (1999, 214 pages)

Reaching Out – Henri Nouwen (1986, 165 pages)

Renaissance – Os Guiness (2014, 192 pages)

Restoring Your Spiritual Passion – Gordon MacDonald (1986, 223 pages)

The Road to Assisi: The Essential Biography of St. Francis – Paul Sabatier (2003, 187 pages)

Seven-Mile Ohio: The Early Years – Marilyn Jacoby Edwards (2004, 319 pages)

The Shepherd’s Covenant – H.B. London Jr. and Neil Wiseman (2005, 217 pages)

The Soul of the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe – Gene Edward Veith (2005, 226 pages)

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership – Ruth Haley Barton (2018, 240 pages)

Survive or Thrive – Jimmy Dodd (2015, 320 pages)

Ten Things Every Minister Needs to Know – Ronnie Floyd (2006, 144 pages)

The Theme is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition – M. Stanton Evans (1994, 396 pages)

The Vision of the Anointed – Thomas Sowell (1995, 320 pages) 

Total Truth – Nancy Pearcey (2005, 511 pages)

OLD FRIENDS READ AGAIN

This year I reread these old friends, friends that would make my “Best Reads of the Year” list in any year:  

Caring For Your Pastor – Lorna Dobson

Christ Among the Dragons – James Emery White

Christian Coaching – Gary Collins 

Humility – C.J. Mahaney

In My Place Condemned He Stood – J.I. Packer and Mark Dever

Le Petit Larousse de l’Histoire de France – Various Authors 

Life Together – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Mystery of the Cross – Judith Couchman

Reaching Out – Henri Nouwen

Restoring Your Spiritual Passion – Gordon MacDonald

Survive or Thrive – Jimmy Dodd 

The Jesus Way – Eugene Peterson

The Poems of St. John of the Cross – Ken Krabbenhoft, translator

The Quest for Cosmic Justice – Thomas Sowell

The Road to Assisi: The Essential Biography of St. Francis – Paul Sabatier

The Theme is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition – M. Stanton Evans 

The Vision of the Anointed – Thomas Sowell

Note:  Three of the above books are essential reads for the times in which we live. These three give a philosophical background for understanding the changes taking place in American culture today. Along with these three, the books by Guinness and Pearcey are also essential reads on the church and American culture today. 

The Quest for Cosmic Justice – Thomas Sowell

The Theme is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition – M. Stanton Evans 

The Vision of the Anointed – Thomas Sowell

THE BEST READS OF 2019

And so, drum roll please, Journey presents in alphabetical order, A “Baker’s Dozen” of favorite reads for 2019 (doing a top ten was just too difficult). Each title is followed by the author’s name and a brief description of the “what” and the “why” that lead to the book making our list. Enjoy.

You can always find our list of recommended books online in the Journey Library. Check out our shelves at journeypastoralcoaching.com/the-jpc-library/

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business – Neil Postman

From the Publisher: Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.

The Art of Pastoring: Ministry Without All the Answers – David Hansen

From the Publisher:  Hundreds of books, tapes, workshops and seminars promise to answer these impossible questions. Some offer a set of practical guidelines; others suggest a system or pattern to follow. Some stress various ministry functions; others feature case studies as models of success or failure. Some are helpful. Others are not. 

But in The Art of Pastoring, David Hansen turns pastoral self-help programs on their heads. He tackles the perennial questions from within his own experience. From the Inside Out Hansen’s fresh, bold narrative grows from nearly a decade of ministry. He draws you into his life and into the lives of Florence-Victor Parish in the mountains of Montana, including unforgettable encounters with unforgettable people–a stubborn pioneer woman who still chops her own firewood though she’s blind and 90 years old, a championship rodeo cowboy who was baptized in his boots, and many more. Hansen’s goal is to help you discover “that pastoral ministry is a life, not a technology . . . [that] life as a pastor is far more than the sum of the tasks I carry out. It is a call from God that involves my whole life.” 

From Calling to Living Parable, every pastor has encountered those who struggle to hear God’s voice in a hospital room, who reach for Jesus in the sacraments. No systematic answers can meet their deep, eternal needs. What can touch them, Hansen contends, is a life itself, a life lived as a parable of Jesus. “As a parable of Jesus Christ,” Hansen writes, “I deliver something to the parishioner that I am not, and in the process I deliver the parishioner into the hands of God.” It is this knack for getting to the heart of things that makes The Art of Pastoring valuable for pastors in any setting–rural, suburban or urban. 

Parachurch workers, missionaries, church leaders and ministry volunteers will also find inspiration here. In this significantly revised new edition, Hansen includes new insights into his view of pastorate as parable and adds a new postlude in which he comes clean on his “constant attempts to leave the ministry.”

Christ In the Passover – Ceil and Moishe Rosen      

From the Publisher:  Enter the celebration of Passover, rich with history and significance for both Jew and Gentile. God wasn’t finished working in the lives of His people after the waters of the Red Sea parted. Both past and future deliverance are celebrated in this solemn and joyful feast.

Through Christ in the Passover, you’ll trace God’s involvement through the history of this holy day—from the first Passover all the way to the modern Seder. And in the revised edition of this inviting book, Ciel and Moishe Rosen show you how the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah are forever interwoven with the Passover and its symbolism.

The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters – Albert Mohler      

From the Publisher: Leadership Principles from a Renowned Agent of Change

Cultures and organizations do not change without strong leadership. While many leadership books focus on management or administration, the central focus of The Conviction to Lead is on changing minds.

Dr. Mohler was the driving force behind the transformation of Southern Seminary from a liberal institution of waning influence to a thriving evangelical seminary at the heart of the Southern Baptist Convention. Since then he has been one of the most prominent voices in evangelicalism, fighting for Christian principles and challenging secular culture.

Using his own experiences and examples from history, Dr. Mohler demonstrates that real leadership is a transferring of conviction to others, affecting their actions, motivations, intuition, and commitment. This practical guide walks the reader through what a leader needs to know, do, and be in order to affect change.

How the Irish Saved Western Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe – Thomas Cahill

From the Publisher:  Millions of Americans . . . may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become “the isle of saints and scholars” — and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians. 

In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization — copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost — they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. 

As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.

How The Irish Saved Civilization reconstructs an era that few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. But it conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.

Impossible People: Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization – Os Guinness

From the Publisher: The church in the West is at a critical moment. While the gospel is exploding throughout the global south, Western civilization faces militant assaults from aggressive secularism and radical Islam. Will the church resist the seductive shaping power of advanced modernity? 

More than ever, Christians must resist the negative cultural forces of our day with fortitude and winsomeness. What is needed is followers of Christ who are willing to face reality without flinching and respond with a faithfulness that is unwavering. Os Guinness describes these Christians as “impossible people,” those who have “hearts that can melt with compassion, but with faces like flint and backbones of steel who are unmanipulable, unbribable, undeterrable and unclubbable, without ever losing the gentleness, the mercy, the grace and the compassion of our Lord.”

Few accounts of the challenge of today are more realistic, and few calls to Christian courage are more timely, resolute―and hopeful. Guinness argues that we must engage secularism and atheism in new ways, confronting competing ideas with discernment and fresh articulation of the faith. Christians are called to be impossible people, full of courage and mercy in challenging times.

The Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today’s Leaders – Bob Briner and Jay Pritchard

From the Publisher: This newly redesigned edition of The Leadership Lessons of Jesus is expanding to include more than seventy unique easy-length readings that explore and adapt the individual techniques that made Christ’s leadership so powerful.  Going through the gospel of Mark, the authors highlight succinct examples of guidance methods that can influence your work, church, or family and change your life.

Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World – Eric Metaxas

From the Publisher: On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. Five hundred years after Luther’s now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas, acclaimed biographer of the bestselling Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. Written in riveting prose and impeccably researched, Martin Luther tells the searing tale of a humble man who, by bringing ugly truths to the highest seats of power, caused the explosion whose sound is still ringing in our ears. Luther’s monumental faith and courage gave birth to the ideals of liberty, equality, and individualism that today lie at the heart of all modern life.

Preventing Ministry Failure – Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffman

From the Publisher:  Great ministers don’t just happen. Great falls from ministry don’t just happen either. A complex mix of factors both internal and external test the limits of your ability to minister wholeheartedly over the long haul. Senior pastor Brad Hoffmann and licensed professional counselor Michael Todd Wilson work with pastors removed from their place of service. The common experiences of these pastors revealed patterns that consistently contributed to burnout, ineffectiveness and moral failure. If such patterns can be predicted, the authors reasoned, can they be prevented? 

Preventing Ministry Failure is a personal guidebook for pastors and other caregivers to prepare them to withstand common pressures and to flourish in the ministry God has called them to. Work through the exercises and reflections individually or in conversation with your peers, and you’ll find yourself better equipped for the challenges of vocational ministry, and more conscious of the presence of God leading you on and restoring your soul.

Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times – Os Guinness

From the Publisher:  We live in dark times. Christians wonder: Are the best days of the Christian faith behind us? Has modernity made Christian thought irrelevant and impotent? Is society beyond all hope of redemption and renewal? 

In Renaissance, Os Guinness declares no. Throughout history, the Christian faith has transformed entire cultures and civilizations, building cathedrals and universities, proclaiming God’s goodness, beauty and truth through art and literature, science and medicine. The Christian faith may similarly change the world again today. The church can be revived to become a renewing power in our society―if we answer the call to a new Christian renaissance that challenges darkness with the hope of Christian faith. 

In this hopeful appeal for cultural transformation, Guinness shares opportunities for Christians, on both local and global levels, to win back the West and to contribute constructively to the human future. Hearkening back to similar pivotal points in history, Guinness encourages Christians in the quest for societal change. Each chapter closes with thought-provoking discussion questions and a brief, heart-felt prayer that challenges and motivates us to take action in our lives today.

The Shepherd’s Covenant – H.B. London Jr. and Neil Wiseman      

From the Publisher: This book is about grace. Its theme is grace; its heartbeat is grace. As a pastor, you’ve probably preached on grace from time to time, but have you ever considered the role of grace in your life and ministry? Your calling depends upon it-both humbly accepting grace from God and giving it away to others. Without grace, there is emptiness and the potential for that hole to be filled by the dangers lurking around you-often the lure of popularity, prestige and power.

Like having a serious conversation with a mentor or coach in the ministry, The Shepherd’s Covenant for Pastors offers the equipping you need to maintain your commitment to live your life and ministry with authenticity and integrity. Pledge with God and over 50,000 other pastors who have signed the Shepherd’s Covenant to maintain a life of holiness and righteousness by committing to five basic principles built on the acrostic G.R.A.C.E. Learn how to maintain balance in your call that adequately reflects your contribution and God’s grace at the same time. Build on a foundation that will stand strong when the call to serve man and God collides, when the responsibilities of the church take precedence over family, or when a change in direction is needed when the work of the church becomes more alluring than intimacy with the Lord. By God’s grace and with the help of The Shepherd’s Covenant for Pastors, you can commit today to a lifestyle more pleasing to the Lord, your congregation, your family and yourself.

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry  – Ruth Haley Barton

From the Publisher: Ruth Haley Barton invites us to an honest exploration of what happens when spiritual leaders lose track of their souls. Weaving together contemporary illustrations with penetrating insight from the life of Moses, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership explores topics such as

responding to the dynamics of calling

facing the loneliness of leadership

leading from your authentic self

cultivating spiritual community

reenvisioning the promised land

discerning God’s will together

Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead.

Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity  – Nancy Pearcey

From the Publisher: Does God belong in the public arena of politics, business, law, and education? Or is religion a private matter only-personally comforting but publicly irrelevant?

In today’s cultural etiquette, it is not considered polite to mix public and private, or sacred and secular. This division is the single most potent force keeping Christianity contained in the private sphere-stripping it of its power to challenge and redeem the whole of culture.

In Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey offers a razor-sharp analysis of the public/private split, explaining how it hamstrings our efforts at both personal and cultural renewal. Ultimately it reflects a division in the concept of truth itself, which functions as a gatekeeper, ruling Christian principles out of bounds in the public arena.

How can we unify our fragmented lives and recover spiritual power? With examples from the lives of real people, past and present, Pearcey teaches readers how to liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity. She walks readers through practical, hands-on steps for crafting a full-orbed Christian worldview.

Finally, she makes a passionate case that Christianity is not just religious truth but truth about total reality. It is total truth.

This new study guide edition is filled with fresh stories, examples, and illustrations. Based on questions and comments raised by readers of the book, it is ideal for individual or group study.

FINAL THOUGHT

As is always the case, the listing of a book above is not an endorsement of all of the ideas contained in its pages. This should not be surprising: the wise minister of the Gospel makes it a point to read outside of his echo chamber. There is much to be learned from our brothers and sisters in other streams of the faith once delivered for all (Jude 3). 

For example, while I am not a Calvinist, I found Packer and Dever’s book, “In My Place, Condemned He Stood,” to be a very worthwhile read. Two reasons. First, for their strong defense of substitutionary atonement. Second, for their explanation of core Calvinism. Their defense of substitutionary atonement strengthened my understanding and belief in this critical doctrine of the Old and New Testaments. Their defense of core Calvinism strengthened my understanding of Calvinism and my belief in Armenianism. Al Mohler, a Calvinist, writes one of the very best, if not the best, books on leadership I have read. A minister who is afraid to read outside of his own predilections remains childish in his insistence that his world be preserved, while a minister who is willing to choose carefully and read critically, even outside of his personal tastes, remains a child in his passionate pursuit of God’s truth and its application.  

In his encouraging and challenging book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, Eugene Peterson describes the result of this mindset. In his case, it was the people he pastored. How much sadder, and dangerous, it is when it describes those charged with handling the Word of God and watching over the souls of God’s people (Hebrews 13.17)

The people who gathered to worship God under my leadership were rootless and cultureless. They were marginally Christian. They didn’t read books. They didn’t discuss ideas. All spirit seem to have leaked out of their lives and have been replaced by a garage sale clutter of clichés and the stereotypes, securities and fashions. . . . It was a marshmallow culture, spongy and without substance. 

And so, to encourage – and challenge – you to quality reading in 2020, seven quotes from seven authors whose writings have stood the test of time, immeasurably helping God’s saints – and especially God’s vocational ministry saints – grow in the knowledge of God’s Word, the knowing of God, and the wisdom of living God’s Word and Ways in this world:

“Reading the great classics of Christian literature is a must for spiritual growth. Down through the centuries there have been men and women who have recorded their insights and the exercises for us to read. . . They contain an enormous amount spiritual food.” Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World

“The fight to find time to read is a fight for one’s life.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

“You will not see anyone who is truly striving after his spiritual advancement who is not given to spiritual reading.” Athanasius of Alexandria

“The things you read will fashion you by slowly conditioning your mind.”  A.W. Tozer

“Those of us who have been true readers all our life fully realize the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors.”  C.S. Lewis

“In my library I have profitably dwelt among the shining lights, with which the learned, wise, and holy men of all ages have illuminated the world.”  Richard Baxter

“The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency – the belief that the here and now is all there is.”  Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind

And this P.S.:

“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”  Erasmus

Here’s to more great reading in 2020, should the Lord delay His coming. 

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Special Note: We invite you to purchase our recently released book, “When the Call Comes,” written to help ministers as they walk with those who mourn. Unexpected, or after an extended illness, there is no pastoral responsibility, or privilege, that compares with shepherding people as they say their final goodbyes and mourn their loss. “When the Call Comes” helps pastors serve those who mourn, from the initial call to the end of the funeral.  We address issues like:

“What is the purpose of a funeral and how do I conduct one?”

“What is my role as a pastor, walking families through grief?”

“What should I say when I meet with the family?”

“What do I do in the case of a difficult death: suicide, violence, or infant death?”

“Why do we conduct funeral and graveside services?”

“What do I do when ‘the call’ comes?”

You can read the preface to the book by clicking on this link or you can purchase your copy by clicking here.

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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching exists to provide pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.

Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.

So we offer it to them at NO COST: Our members do not PAY for coaching; they EARN it by investing in each other.

We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry. If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers in 20 US states and 5 nations build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to contact us by email or to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.

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“In the early years when I was becoming a pastor, I needed a pastor.” 

 Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir