Books Read 2007

Here are some of my reading choices from 2007, in no particular order. These are books that, in retrospect, I thought were worthy, at least in some way, of the time it took to read them. (Do I even need to say that this is not a blanket endorsement of these books, their authors or where their authors speak, or what kind of music they have in their churches, or who their deacons are, etc?)

When Darkness Will Not Lift (John Piper) - This little book is a great book on living in spiritual darkness. I found it very encouraging and have recommended it to others at various times.

The Cross of Christ (John Stott) - This is a fairly stout work on the work of Christ on the cross, teasing out many implications. I read this as a part of my Saturday night, pre-preaching routine, to help remind me what I am ultimately doing on Sunday morning—leading people to Christ crucified. It was a very good read.

Evangelism for the Faint-Hearted (Floyd Schneider) - I blogged about this book elsewhere, but it remains high on my list of books that were worth reading, primarily due to it's conversational approach to evangelism, finding out where people are and what objections they hold against the Bible and its message.

Courageous Leadership (Bill Hybels) - I have read all or part of this book several times in the last four or five years, and each time I have found it to be helpful in some basic ideas of leadership in the church. It is not a deeply theological book, as you might suspect from seeing the author, but I think it is deeply practical one, a place to get started for people who struggle with "What do I do now?"

Truth and the New Kind of Christian (R. Scott Smith) - This is an excellent book on the emerging church and the philosophies underlying it. I have read Carson's, which I thought was good. Personally, I think Smith's is better. I would recommend them both as currently the two leading books about emergents by non-emergents.

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Paul David Tripp) - This is simply one of the many excellent books from the CCEF. It is about people ministering to people. This is perhaps the best book I read all year, in many ways. For training and deploying people into personal ministry and discipleship, this book will be an invaluable resource. In an intentional ministry of training lay ministers, this book should be at the top of the required reading list. In fact, it may be good to read this one twice before reading another.

Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches (John Hammett) - This is an excellent primer on Baptist distinctives, and their biblical foundation.

The Peacemaker (Ken Sande) - This is an excellent book on conflict resolution. It was a major source for a series that I thought on conflict resolution in our lives.

Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church (Donald Whitney) - A follow up to his previous book on spiritual disciplines, this book focuses (as you might imagine) on life in the body. I found it very encouraging, and this served as a resource for a series I taught on Seeing the Church Through New Eyes.

I read a number of other books, some of great value, others not so much.