What I'm Reading Now

I love reading. I read a lot. Actually, let me rephrase that. I USED to read a lot. Seems I've lost my reading groove since moving to the Ottawa area. Between getting settled at the new church, doing basement renovations, and living out of boxes my reading has really dropped. This month I'm making reading a priority again. I usually have a few books on the go at the same time, so here's what I'm reading now.

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley. I have a number of friends who work for grace based ministries... so over the years I've been given multiple copies of books on the topic of grace. This one blows them all away!! I've actually restarted this book and will be going through it more slowly (I may even blog about what I'm learning). I love Stanley's understanding of God's grace in the Old Testament. I've seen very little (if any) references to the Old Testament in the other grace books I've read. Grace isn't just a New Testament theology but at the core of who God is. This is a great book that everyone should read.

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears. I picked this book up during the summer and only read the first few pages. I strongly believe in importance of sound doctrine so I'm looking forward to getting back into this one.

The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper. I read this one in my Intro to Preaching class in seminary. As a Teaching Pastor I want to improve in my preaching as much as possible. Looking to be refreshed and encouraged again by rereading this one.

The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel. No one speaks into my life as much as Pastor Craig Groeschel does. His sermons and his books just pierce me and have a huge impact in my walk with Christ and in my service to God. I so appreciate his honesty and openness. He encourages me to do the same in my life and in my preaching. Our church will be studying this book in January and I can't wait to see what God will do in those six weeks.

How about you? What are you reading these days? Any books you'd recommend?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Practical Atheist

Image
Over the past few weeks our church has been doing a preaching series called Practical Atheist. This is based on the book The Christian Atheist by Pastor Craig Groeschel. I've been blown away by how God has worked in the hearts of so many people over the past few weeks. Mind you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pastor Craig's ministry has had such a huge influence on my personal walk with Jesus so just is just a continuation of that blessing. This week we're probably going to hit the hardest topic for me to preach on, I Believe in God but I Pursue Happiness at All Costs. I'm going to be using Jesus' parable of the sower and look at how our pursuit of happiness causes us to miss out on truly how God wants from our lives. This topic hits me right between the eyes as I'm being open and honest with God about what allow to be entertainment or how I go about trying to be happy. Do I allow myself to be entertained by sin? Do I pursue the world's view
Read more

Revitalized Pastors and Leaders

Image
On March 15, 2023, the Barna Research Group released the "The Resilient Pastor Initiative". Its goal was to explore and share the state of pastors in America in the post-COVID climate we find ourselves in. According to the data, the state of pastors may not be as good as it appears from behind the pulpit. From 2015 to 2022 Barna notes the following where pastors responded "Excellent" in a number of categories: Spiritual well-being dropped from 37% to 14% Physical well-being fell from 24% to 9% Mental and emotional health plummeted from 39% to 11% The overall quality of life dipped from 42% to 18% The level of respect they felt from the community tanked from 22% to 10% Level of ‘true friends’ dropped by 50% from 34% to 17% The data also showed that this drop in wellness was more prevalent in younger pastors! Older pastors are riding it out to retirement. Now, before anyone from my church begins to panic, I'm OK. As shared in a blog post from January 2023 entitled
Read more

Captain America Rocks!!

Image
I gotta admit... sometimes I'm pretty clueless as to what is going on around me. I never buy the newest technology, and I never catch the cool TV show as it premieres. Sometimes it takes a big news flash to open my eyes to some cool stuff right in front of me... and this is definitely the case with the Captain America comic series! It took killing Cap to get to pick up an issue. And boy am I ever glad I did! I've never read anything with Captain America before. It wasn't until reading Civil War that Cap even came on my radar. I guess it's just the Canadian in me that just assumed that the character wouldn't be relatable if I wasn't American, or if I wasn't a war story nut. Civil War changed my perspective of the character. Sure, he's all American. But he's all that is great about the US. His morals, his values, his respect for others. His love of liberty and equality for all. His role in Marvel's Civil War was great and really gave me an
Read more