1. John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology, Volume Three: Israel’s Life – You can learn a lot from this big book, but the approach to Scripture, not to mention its handling of gender issues and sexual ethics, make it impossible for me to recommend this to a general audience.
2. Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mindset That Changes Everything – A plea for focusing on disciplemaking instead of program maintaining. The book is provocative without being reckless. There are lots of good reminders about what really matters in ministry. I think I’ll take our staff through this one.
3. Max McLean and Warren Bird, Unleashing the Word: Rediscovering the Public Reading of Scripture – This is a terrific book. It challenged me to make the reading of Scripture more prominent and more practiced in our worship services. You don’t have to do everything McLean and Bird suggest or do everything just like they would to really benefit from this book.
4. Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters – A wise, insightful, and convicting (painfully so at times) look at the deceitfulness and destructiveness of sin. Keller’s writing is penetrating, yet easy to read. We need more Christian books like this one.
