What Should A New Pastor’s First 100 Books Be?
April 6, 2010Suggestions?
1. The Bible…
2……………..
unashamed
… workman
10 Questions Interviews
Audio Archive
Unashamed Workmen
- Al Mohler
- Alexander Strauch
- Alistair Begg
- Bryan Chapell
- Charles Spurgeon
- Christopher Ash
- CJ Mahaney
- Conrad Mbewe
- Dale Ralph Davis
- David Jackman
- David Jeremiah
- David Luke
- Derek Thomas
- Dick Lucas
- Dominic Smart
- Don Carson
- Eric Alexander
- Geoff Thomas
- George Whitefield
- Hugh Palmer
- James Boyce
- Jeremy McQuoid
- Jerry Bridges
- Joel Beeke
- John Calvin
- John Chrysostom
- John Folmar
- John MacArthur
- John Piper
- John Stott
- Jonathan Edwards
- Jonathan Fletcher
- Josh Harris
- Liam Goligher
- Ligon Duncan
- Mark Dever
- Mark Johnson
- Martin Luther
- Martyn Lloyd Jones
- Mike Bullmore
- Mike Gilbart Smith
- Philip Ryken
- R Kent Hughes
- Ray Ortlund Jr
- Richard Coekin
- Rick Phillips
- Robin Sydserff
- Ronnie Stevens
- Samuel Lewis Johnson
- Simon Manchester
- Sinclair Ferguson
- Steve Cole
- Steve Lawson
- Steven Curry
- Stuart Olyott
- Thabiti Anyabwile
- Tim Keller
- Vaughan Roberts
- Voddie Baucham
- WA Criswell
- Warren Peel
- Warren Wiersbe
- William Phillip
- William Taylor
Archives
- October 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
Workman’s info
Blog at WordPress.com.
Theme: Neat!. Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
Famine in the Land: A Passionate Call for Expository Preaching
by Steven J. Lawson
–>Be well covered in systematic theology: Grudem, Reymond, Berkhoff, Calvin
–>Necessary language tools either in software or actual books
–>Tyndale OT Commentaries. They are brief, but amazingly helpful. And, you will have the OT covered.
selected NT commentaries including Schreiner and Moo on Romans.
Yeah, Grudem – the best one.
Pilgrim’s Progress – Bunyan
Explore the Book – J. Sidlow Baxter
Henriksen commentary set
Keil & Delitzsch commentary set
John Piper’s, Brothers We Are Not Professionals
Spiritual Disciplines for Christian Living – Don Whitney
Humility – C.J. Mahaney
Rediscovering Expository Preaching
~ John MacArthur
Christian Counselor’s Manual, The
~ Jay E. Adams
Preaching with Passion
~ Alex Montoya
The Ministry We Need
~ R. Baxter
Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry
~ John MacArthur
Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership
~ Alexander Strauch
Old dead guys.
Reformed Pastor – Richard Baxter
Desiring God – John Piper
Lectures to My Students ~ Charles Spurgeon
But from 20 years of experience the best thing is to know your congregation and not try to move to fast in the ministry or you will not last.
The best commentary on each book of the Bible.
How People Change – Tim Lane and Paul Tripp
Instruments in the Redeemers Hands – Paul Tripp
Doctrine of God – John Frame
Doctrine of the Knowledge of God – John Frame
Doctrine of the Christian Life – John Frame
Christ Centred Preaching – Bryan Chapell
Christ Centred Worship – Bryan Chapell
Trusting God – Jerry Bridges
The Discipline of Grace – Jerry Bridges
The rest on language helps and biblical interpretation around the hot potato issues in his local congregation.
I’m sure there are many that I have not read and am missing as a result, but without a whole lot of thought and in no particular order, here are my 100…
Berkhof: Systematic Theology
Reymond: A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith
Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion; Commentaries (22 volumes)
Hendriksen/Kistemaker: NT Commentaries (12 volumes)
Tyndale OT Commentaries (28 volumes)
Piper: Desiring God; Brothers We Are Not Professionals
Chapell: Christ-Centered Preaching; Christ-Centered Worship; Each for the Other
Carson: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor
Nouwen: In the Name of Jesus
DeYoung: Why We’re Not Emergent; Why We Love the Church (both with Ted Kluck); Just Do Something
Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress
Lewis: Mere Christianity; A Grief Observed; The Chronicles of Narnia; The Screwtape Letters
Barrs: Learning Evangelism from Jesus; The Heart of Evangelism
Keller: The Reason for God
Ferguson: The Holy Spirit; Children of the Living God
Clowney: The Church
Matheson: Given For You
Strawbridge: The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism
Stott: The Cross of Christ; Between Two Worlds
Marshall & Payne: The Trellis and the Vine
Wright: Jesus and the Victory of God; Evil and the Justice of God
Phillips: Holding Hands, Holding Hearts
Winter: RealSex
Williams: Far as the Curse is Found
Wittmer: Heaven is a Place on Earth; Don’t Stop Believing
Wolters: Creation Regained
Bridges: Transforming Grace
Gonzalez: The Story of Christianity
The collected works of Flannery O’Connor should be in there somewhere.
Many of the above, along with:
Carson: Cross & Christian Ministry; Call to Spiritual Reformation; Christ & Culture Revisited (and pretty much anything else he’s written!)
Packer: Knowing God, Quest for Godliness
Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad
Hughes: Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome
Biographies of M’Cheyne, Spurgeon, Carey, Luther, and Muller.
Lots of books by CCEL authors.
as a first-year-out-of-college pastor, I’m not sure I have the same qualifications to comment, but here are my thoughts (now that the throat clearing is done…)
- Some books we had to read at college, which makes it hard to make a definitive list. I am rereading the Institutes although it was required reading then. Others I think would be worth it if I hadn’t read: Carson: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, Call to Spiritual Reformation; Leading from the Second Chair (I forget the authors).
- Commentaries probably shouldn’t be on the reading list. They need to be on the shelves, of course. But chances are that I’m not going to be preaching/personally studying my way through the entire OT within my first 100 books of reading.
- What has really surprised me in the lists so far was the lack of 3 categories: biographies (up until John’s comment), biblical theology, and ethics. For biographies, you can’t go wrong a lot of the time, so pick some people you’re interested in – I’m currently reading Diarmaid Maccullough’s work on Cranmer. For biblical theology, you can’t go past Graeham Goldsworthy. For ethics, I’d suggest reading a few of the big players, such as Oliver O’Donovan and Stanley Hauerwas. They aren’t easy going, but they’re worth it.
- Others which no one has mentioned yet: Marshall and Payne: The Trellis and the Vine; anything which you are thinking of recommending to your congregation – anything apologetic/evangelistic by Keller, books which encourage bible reading/prayer (such as Ash’s new one on Psalm 119)
- Also, chuck in a couple of well written not-specifically-Christian books. Whether something like Wolf Hall, last year’s Booker prize winner about Thomas Cromwell, poetry by John Donne, or Tolstoy…these will both help preachers in developing the ability to craft listenable sentences, and also will give good insights into humanity from time to time. That and occasionally it is good to remind/force yourself to take and break and be refreshed.
Here endeth the rant
dmic,
I thought for sure I had seen Goldsworthy on there already or i would have mentioned that. Did forget about ethics, though–nice catches!
Him We Proclaim by Dennis Johnson
CJ Mahaney – Humility and Cross-Centered Life
The Cross He Bore by Frederick Leahy (actually buy all this man’s books!)
Packer – Knowing God and Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God
Will Metzger – Tell the Truth
Paul Miller – Praying Life (his Loved Walked Among Us is good, too)
Jack Miller – Outgrowing the Ingrown Church; Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless; and Heart of a Servant Leader
The Puritan Paperback series by Banner of Truth
Henry Scougal – The Life of God in the Soul of Man
John Flavel – Keeping the Heart
Letters of Samuel Rutherford and Letters of John Newton
Biography of George Whitefield by Dallimore
Biography of Jonathan Edwards by Marsden
Jonathan Edwards – Religious Affections; and Charity and Its Fruits
Agree with previous posters on D.A. Carson’s Cross and Christian Ministry and Call to Spiritual Reformation
John Stott – Cross of Christ
Graeme Goldsworthy – According to Plan
Grudem’s Systematic Theology
Hendriksen commentary series a good choice (though Stott’s Bible Speaks today is also a great resource for preaching)
New pastors will more than likely find themselves counseling way more than they expect and need to be able to apply the gospel to people’s lives. The good folks at CCEF have a great and growing library of resources, including:
David Powlison – Seeing with New Eyes and Speaking the Truth in Love
Paul David Tripp – Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands and How People Change (with Tim Lane)
Ed Welch – When People Are Big and God Is Small
Tedd Tripp – Shepherding a Child’s Heart
Download e-Sword and load it up with all the free stuff you can find. You can read Whitefield and Spurgeon sermons on-line.
“God in the Dock” -Lewis
“The Necessity of Prayer” -E.M. Bounds
“Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret” Dr. Howard Taylor
“The Divine Conspiracy” -Dallas Willard
“Pensees” -Pascal
John Wesley’s Journal
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” -Stowe
“The Hiding Place” Corrie 10 Boom
just some to add to the discussion
Lots of the above plus
William Still – the work of the pastor
Richard Baxter – The reformed pastor
The cross centered life – CJ Mahaney
Grudem’s systematic theology and John Walton’s “Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament.” That one is just amazing and really opens up the ancient world.
Commentaries should be in the first 100 books … once in the pastorate you will get all sorts of questions about specific part of the Bible. You need to be prepared to put in the donkey work to guide your flock.
my apologies Phil,
I read the question as – what are the first 100 books a pastor should read. I did indicate that commentaries should be on the shelf (which implies sourcing them from somewhere)…but I don’t think that reading an entire commentary set would be among the first 100 books to read cover to cover
I should think a new pastor would want to take some time to understand why people wouldn’t believe what he or she said, to consider arguments against Christianity/religion in general and be prepared to refute them. To that end, I’d suggest books like Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation and/or The End of Faith. The best pastors don’t spend all their time in an echo chamber, they try to understand and reach out to others, and think about how their message might come across to people not already groomed to accept unquestioningly their every word.
For those starting out in ministry, I’d recommend reading the entire Romans series by Dr.Lloyd-Jones (Banner of Truth) – the most helpful and edifying spiritual literature I have ever read. How essential it is for a preacher / pastor to have a clear grasp of the doctrine of justification – indeed, a clear grasp of the gospel.
http://www.paulwilliams.blogsome.com
Here is what I’m currently reading
http://wp.me/p1iF9w-A