The Pastor’s Bookshelf, Why Reading Matters for Ministry
I have a passion for reading and when I discovered that this book had received Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of Merit award in the pastoral leadership category, I was immediately drawn to it. Austin Carty shares my love for reading, and reading The Pastor’s Bookshelf, as I was reading heavier works at the same time, […]
The Pastor as Public Theologian, Reclaiming a Lost Vision by Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan
The Pastor as Public Theologian follows the same lines as Gerald Heistand’s and Todd Wilson’s The Pastor Theologian and D. A. Carson’s and John Piper’s The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry. Vanhoozer and Strachan contend that pastors must be theologians, that every theologian is in some sense […]
Concerning the True Care of Souls
Martin Bucer was a contemporary of Martin Luther and a leader of the Reformation. The True Care of Souls was first published in 1538 but not translated into English until this edition by Peter Beal. The original work was not well received in its time because Bucer strongly challenged the Roman Catholic Church, godless rulers, […]
Diary of a Pastor’s Soul by M. Craig Barnes
M. Craig Barns offers this fictionalized depiction of a pastor nearing retirement looking back over his years of ministry. Barnes, is currently the president of Princeton Theological Seminary and a professor of pastoral ministry. Coupling his 37 years of pastoral experience with stories from an untold number of pastors he has ministered with and taught, […]
Scatter, Go Therefore and Take Your Job With You
Andrew Scott, President, and CEO of OM USA, unpacks a radical idea in Scatter. He is “convinced that if we are to see significant change in our world through the light of the gospel going out, we need to set a generation free to be all God has created them to be, using what He […]
Hearers and Doers, a Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer
In the opening words of the Preface, professor Kevin Vanhoozer lays out the intention of the book: “Hearers and Doers is intended to help pastors fulfill their Great Commission to make disciples, with emphasis on the importance of teaching disciples to read the Scriptures.” Later he elaborates his thesis: To make disciples is to teach […]
Expositional Preaching, How We Speak God’s Word Today by David Helm
Expositional Preaching is part of the 9Marks Building Healthy Churches series, which is comprised of 10 books detailing what Mark Dever and company consider to be the marks of a healthy church. David Helm, who is lead pastor at Holy Trinity Church in Chicago and is the chairman of the Charles Simeon Trust which promotes […]
Good News for a Change, How to Talk to Anyone About Jesus by Matt Mikalatos
Matt Mikalatos is an energetic and enthusiastic evangelist who has served with Cru for over 20 years and has experimented with numerous methods of proclaiming the gospel to the lost. In Good News for a Change he shares some of his passion and methods as he encourages his readers to intentionally share the good news […]
How to Stay Christian in Seminary by David Mathis & Jonathan Parnell
It is common knowledge that seminary can be a spiritual graveyard (pp. 18, 34). Intellectual accessibility exceeds spiritual capacity in a hurry (p. 16). The purpose of this small book is “not to steer Christians away from seminaries, but to help those studying at seminary, or preparing to do so, in their expectations and approach […]
Christ-Centered Preaching, Redeeming the Expository Sermon by Bryan Chapell
When Bryan Chapell wrote Christ-Centered Preaching he was president and professor of practical theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. He now pastors Grace Presbyterian church in Peoria, Illinois. Apart from the last two chapters, this volume is a relatively standard, and excellent, manual on homiletics. It resembles the classic Biblical Preaching written by […]