Summer Reading

This is what I've been reading this summer (and back into the spring as well). I've read a couple novels, but I really don't read much fiction.

Let me recommend a few titles:

The Bait of Satan by John Bevere - This is an excellent teaching on how to not live in offense. We cannot do anything about the things people say and do to us, but we can choose how to respond.

The Journey of Desire by John Eldredge - Actually, anything by Eldredge is good. They're the kind of books that leave me feeling like I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

What's So Great About Christianity? by Dinesh D'Souza - D'Souza delivers a great apologetic for the Christian faith, especially in contrast to the arguments of modern atheism.

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren - This may be a virtually unknown book by a virtually unknown author, but it's a wonderful 40-day primer in a life devoted to God's purposes. Okay, I jest. Actually I think I was the last person in America to read it, but it came out while I was in school, and I didn't have much time for reading anything but textbooks for about five years.

They Smell Like Sheep by Lynn Anderson - Anderson teaches how the CEO model for church leadership falls short to the time-tested analogy of the pastor (and elders, too) as shepherd. He explains this model is birthed in relationship, living with the sheep to the point where we come away smelling like them. We all know the biblical account that says the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, and the sheep recognize and follow the voice of the shepherd.

Reflecting God by Wes Tracy et al - Tracy's work is a wonderful treatment of the Wesleyan understanding of holiness and sanctification. It is readable and inspiring, and carries the same cover art as the Reflecting God Study Bible geared to Wesleyans.

Building a Contagious Church by Mark Mittelberg - Mittelberg is Minister of Evangelism at Willow Creek with Bill Hybels, and does a wonderful job of teaching how every church can become an evangelistically contagious congregation. This is a wonderful companion volume to the earlier Becoming a Contagious Christian.

The Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee - I've actually read this twice this year, and this volume will become one of my foundational texts, that I will read and re-read over the years. The greatest lesson I've learned from this book is to let God work and not fight it. If we cooperate with God's efforts to break the outer person (the soul), the inner person (the spirit) will be free to engage fully with God.