Top 5 ministry books read this year...

1. Working the Angles by Eugene Peterson

I would recommend this book to anyone who is a pastor or who is thinking of being a pastor. It is a good reminder or a good foundation to what this calling of pastor is all about. Peterson explains how it is the things that we do that go unseen that make us a pastor. This also might be a wake-up call to all those who ever thought this book had something to do with working the angels! Let me assure you it has nothing to do with angels whatsoever!


2. Under the Unpredictable Plant by Eugene Peterson

Finishing a close second in the running is another book in this series. Using the story of Jonah Peterson talks about what vocational holiness means. I found this book extremely relevant. He speaks much of pastors who stick around for a few years at a church and then run off looking for greener pastures (the perfect church) never to find what they are looking for. And also those who are seduced by power and prestige which gets in the way of fulfilling God's mission.


3. Organic Church by Neil Cole

Neil Cole has been talking about Simple/House/Organic churches for years and practicing what he preaches. I think people have been waiting for him to write this book forever. If you have had a workshop with Neil Cole this information is probably not all this new to you but this is a good representation of what a simple church movement is all about.



4. Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre

I've already said a lot about this book already so I'll spare you. Basically the idea is that the Jesus of North American consumer Christianity is far removed from the true Jesus of Nazareth. It's a good contrast and helpful in thinking through how we worship and teach Jesus in the cultural setting we've been placed.



5. The Great Giveaway by David Fitch

I don't really know how to describe this book. I found the chapters on worship and preaching the most helpful and also challenging. If nothing else, you should read the chapter on preaching. He decries preachers who spend all their time giving their congregation more to-do lists and applications when the point of the sermon should be to get people to respond to God, not to have another 3 things to do during the week, every week.

Here's a quote I will leave you with:
"The applications of the sermons accumulate like an ever-growing stack of self-help books and tapes we can never hope to get to. After many months of this, because we cannot possibly put into practice all of the applications, preaching becomes nothing more than a scroll we wear on our foreheads that comforts us in the knowledge that we are the ones who are serious about studying Scripture."

"With narrative preaching, however, the preacher’s first job will not be to hand out more “to do” lists. Rather it is to unfurl the reality of who God is past, present, and future so that all men and women who would submit to live in that world would then be able to understand themselves, who they are, where they are going, and what they are to do in terms of Jesus Christ and his story."