Thursday, December 30, 2010

2010 Top Ten Lists: Books

Here are the best books I read this year:

1. You Can Change, by Tim Chester - I won't repeat my praise of this book since I've written 16 posts about it this year. Definitely the most shaping book of the year for me.

2. The TK Primer, by Hugh Halter & Matt Smay - Our community groups went through this in the spring, and I think it was helpful and encouraging to all of us. It's my recommendation for any new church core group.

3. The Gospel of the Kingdom, by George Eldon Ladd - I read this one as preparation of a series of talks I gave on the Kingdom of God. It was written in the late 1950's, and I quickly discovered that it was formative to a lot of the other authors I've read on the Kingdom.

4. And, by Hugh Halter & Matt Smay - Not as good as their first book, but still very helpful. Lots of great stories, and written to a wider audience than the first one.

5. Radical, by David Platt - This will give you an idea of the impact this book has made on my life. It was while listening to an interview with David Platt that I felt compelled to challenge our church to build a well this year.

6. Love and War, by John and Stasi Eldredge - This one was very different from the other marriage books I've read. Mandy read a friend's copy in one weekend, and then told me we needed a copy so I could read it as well. We're now going through the devotional together.

7. Rework, by Jason Fried - Easy read that challenges the way we lead and do business. I liked that the chapters were so short.

8. How I Changed My Mind about Women in Ministry, edited by Alan Johnson - This book is a compilation of chapters by men and women who have moved from a complementarian position to an egalitarian one. The authors include Bill & Lynn Hybels, John & Nancy Ortberg, I. Howard Marshall, Cornelius Plantinga, and Ron Sider.

9. The Letter to the Ephesians, by Peter O'Brien, and The Message of Ephesians, by John Stott - These are the two commentaries I most turned to during our series on Ephesians.

10. Finally, a little fiction:

One last thought, of the fifteen books mentioned in this post, eight of them were Kindle books. Wonder if that number will go up this year.

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