If you feel stuck intellectually, read something—anything—interesting to you. Do not pick a book to impress someone else – instead, select something that piques your curiosity. It can be quirky, light, dense, or humorous. Just read.
Once your brain starts firing off again, you are on your way to creativity, fresh ideas, and perspectives that will benefit your entire person.
Dan Scott’s new book Faith in the Age of AI is an essential and stunning work! Dan is a brilliant scholar with a pastor’s heart; his information and interpretation in this book will position us for humanity’s new era. I want everyone I care for to digest this work as an anchor to discern the times with a Christian worldview.
If you pre-order this book at pastordanscott.com, it will contribute to Christian scholarship and the support of a unique Christian thinker.
I greatly admire my friend and mentor, Dr. Dan Scott.
I am late to the game on this, but I finally read the Alexander Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow. While I detected some bias, it was still an enjoyable read, and I learned much about my country and myself. One of the lines I identify with is when Chernow wrote:
“He (Alexander Hamilton) always had to fight the residual sadness of the driven man.“
Through Christ, this sadness does not remain. However, it does creep in on the ambitious.
My long-time friend, Dr. Chris Foster, is releasing today an extremely helpful book, The Post-Covid Church. Chris leads a church in Memphis, so this is not theory – he is in the middle of the work! This writing will help many church leaders, so get your copy!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFJQQMMS/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_JH2PF82N48TFEBE6A6DT
I just eagerly ordered the book Deep Peace, the newest release by Todd Hunter. Todd has been at the forefront of several Christian movements in American for the last 40 years, so his insights into our faith today are proven and needed. Todd desires this book to “make a real difference in the conflict and anxiety that permeate Church and society.”
Since Todd has moved to the Nashville area from California, he has been gracious to me. I am enthusiastic about his ministry and what this book can mean to people.
I am so excited about Mike Burnette’s new book, Parable Church.
Mike is an incredible leader, pastor, and scholar. Mike is one of my best friends, and I can assure you he lives what he teaches. The concepts from this book will help you love Jesus and the church better. Experience a fresh perspective through Parable Church.
I have circled the Divine Conspiracy book for twenty years, hearing it mentioned, quoted, and praised by other Christian leaders I admired. In 2019, I finally read it cover to cover.
This book’s author is the late Christain philosopher Dallas Willard, professor at the University of Southern California.
The writing was dense. It was long. It was hard to finish. It was transformational!
I will be referring back to this book often in my devotions, and I am sure it will continue to pop up in my preaching this year. It is helping me learn to be an apprentice of Jesus!
Eugene Peterson died last month (October 22, 2018) after a long life of service to the kingdom of God. He was an author, scholar, and pastor. I never met him, but his writings marked my ministry greatly.
His 2011 memoirs titled The Pastor, came into my life at just the right time. One of my pastors – Ronnie Meek – asked me to read Peterson’s book. It was a time of internal struggle with my call, and disillusionment with the modern definition of a pastor that I was watching destroy several of my colleagues while eating away at me.
In December 2011, Beth and I were exploring Chicago (see picture). As I followed Beth around Michigan avenue, I carried Peterson’s wisdom with a 1stedition Kindle Reader. Page after page, chapter after chapter, Peterson’s enjoyable stories and thought-provoking phrases chipped away at my hidden obsession to be to be a super-star religious leader.
In Peterson’s stories, I noticed my story in a new way. As he wrote, “I was a pastor long before I knew I was a pastor; I just never had a name for it.” God used this book to bring me back home to God’s call. Since that time, I have referred back to passages in The Pastormany times to re-center my call to this exhilarating, boring, spectacular, ordinary, complicated, privileged call to pastor God’s people.
…the pervasive element in our two-thousand-year pastoral tradition is not someone who “gets things done” but rather the person placed in the community to pay attention and call attention to “what is going on right now” between men and women, with one another and with God—this kingdom of God that is primarily local, relentlessly personal, and prayerful “without ceasing.” – Eugene Peterson
In the book The Road to Character, David Brooks writes about, “a serene inner character, a quiet but solid sense of right and wrong—not only to do good, but to be good.”
David Brooks is a New York Time columnist, and a commentator on “PBS NewsHour,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” From a secular perspective, he promotes a return to character development as a necessary human value. Pastor Dan Scott has referred to this writing as “perhaps the book of the decade.”
Written from a secular perspective, we need Brook’s clarion call to work on our character instead just accepting our weaknesses. Towards the end of the book, Brooks who is Jewish, briefly shares about his faith in Jesus Christ in a disarming, but authentic manner. An important book for our current challenges in cultural leadership.
Aaron's Angle 