1. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxes – Scot McKnight made me aware of this new biography. Bonhoeffer is a very interesting historic figure and I really don’t that much about his life, his ministry or his murder.
2. The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling by John Stott – I had seen that Stott was working on a new book, but then Scot Mcknight noted on his blog that this will by Dr. Stott’s last book. I’ve found many of his books very helpful and  some of our leaders read the Cross of Christ two years ago for Easter.
3. Christian Apologetics Past and Present by William Edgar and K. Scott Oliphint – I really enjoy the topic of Apologetics and I think more and more Christians should become familiar with the historic ways that Christians defending their beliefs.
4. The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture’s Fascination with Diversity Has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christian by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Michael J. Kruger – I really enjoyed Köstenberger’s Salvation to the Ends of the Earth and I’m always interested to hear discussion about how Ancient Christian faith impacts present Christian.
5. God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom by Graham A. Cole –  I’ve become a fan of the New Studies in Biblical Theology series (NSBT), and I try to pick up their new volumes as their are released.

6. To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davidson Hunter – I first heard of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture in Jim Belchers’s Deep Church, and it sounds like an interesting read.
7. You Can Change: God’s Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions by Tim Chester –  I hope this book is a good as Total Church.
8. Church Planting Is for Wimps:How God Uses Messed-up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things by Mike McKinley – As a new church planter I figured this good might be a good read, but I have to say it’s toward the bottom of my list.
9. The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne – Last month, in Philadelphia, Stephen Smallman recommended this book, and I’m interested in checking it out because a few years back some of the leaders in the church began using this imagery to distinguish between starting programs and building the church.
10. Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision by N.T. Wright – There has been a lot of debate over Wright and my understanding is that this book is his response to other people’s interpretations of his work.  It’s always better to let a person explain their own views rather than have someone else do it for them.

#3 Write more each week.

#4 Walk and ride my bike more and drive less.

#5 Spend more time in prayer.

Im sure there are other things I want to do this year.

I have heard a few people state that they are uninterested in my recent wishlist posts, probably because these folks don’t want to buy me any of the things on my list.

Here is the deal with these lists, I have like a dozen people asking me what I want for Christmas, so I thought I would make it easy for everyone.

Here is the problem, some of my readers don’t care, and the people who do care about my list, can’t find out who bought what.

So here is the solution that will please everyone= boxedup.com. This is a program that allows you to create a wishlist that you can put up on your site, and people can access you wishlist page, on boxedup.com, and reserve a product from the list, so people don’t get duplicates.

for those of you who don’t care about my Christmas list, you will still want to check out this site, its a really cool idea.

Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America
by Darrell L. Guder

Here is my Winter (Birthday & Christmas) Wishlist:

Here is my thinking behind these books, In Acts 6 we see that “prayer and to the ministry of the word” are central to shepherding God’s flock. We see other duties of a pastor in the rest of the NT(1 Peter 4, 1 Timothy, etc.), and what we develop is the idea that a pastor, is an under shepherd, to use Peter’s language. Therefore the books on this list are not necessarily about being an irresistible revolutionary, or how to find literary structures in the Old testament, but rather books that shape what we understood about God, our duty, and His flock.

If you can think of any books that should be on this list, drop me a comment.

1. A Faith Worth Sharing

   Our generation has guys like Keller and Piper to look up to. Their generation had men like Schaeffer and the lesser know Jack Miller. Dr Miller’s book a faith worth sharing is not a hard read but one that reveals hows a mature man of God can look back on his life, and evaluate what he did in his ministry. The book is an account of his personal walk with God from months after his conversion, to years later when he was teaching at Westminster and Planting New Life Presbyterian Church in Philly. If you appreciated the autobiographical way that Driscoll wrote Confessions of a Reformission Rev you will be strengthened by this book.

2. Biblical Preaching

   If preaching, and teaching is one of the key aspects of preparing to be a pastor, then this book is a must. This one was required in school and I am very grateful that it was.

3. Manual of Christian Doctrine
   

   I know that if you are planning on being a pastor you will own at least one type of systematic theology book. As long as you are evangelical you will appreciate Louis Berkof’s Manual of Christian Doctrine. I know the title sounds like the book is going to be 3000 pages worth of nap time, but this book is actually a trimmed down version of his Systematic Theology, which some call the other big blue sleeping pill.

4. Missionary Methods: Paul’s or Ours

   Roland Allen was a missionary in the lineage of men like Hudson Taylor. He was a missionary to China, with the Anglican Church, and while there he started asking tougher questions about the way a church in a non Christian society worked. He came down saying local churches needed to be “self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing”. In this work he traces the Paul’s missionary efforts, and asks the question: Are we following Paul’s pattern or are we making it up as we go along.

5. 2000 Years of Christ Power
   

   This three volume history text, makes reading about church history interesting and enjoyable. Needham’s writing style makes you think that maybe there could be some reason to read about the men that stood before us(again tongue-inc-cheek).

6. Biblical Hermeneutics

   So this is not the most exciting of reads but if you want to be a pastor than you need to care about the Bible.

7. Blue Like Jazz

   Now I know that some of you are scratching your heads on this one but guess what like it or hate it Blue Like Jazz has sold over 550,000 copies world wide.Which means that we are going to run into a lot off people who really really like this book. I can think of one guy in the church where I work, who said that he would give this book to struggling friend. If Paul could read greek poets we can read don Miller(do I have to say tongue-in-cheek).

8. Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless
   

   Yup a second Jack Miller book. I’m actually reading this book not and and very upset at the fact that it was not required reading at seminary. So many men could really benefit from what Dr. Miller has to say on this topic. If you think your evangelism can improve then get this book.

9. Eternal Word and Changing Worlds

   I feel confident in saying that many people under the age of 60 will say that this is a classic. It actually took me a couple of times before I could really start to understand and appreciate this book. As one WTS professor has suggested, you could probably start at section three and find the book more understandable and easier to read, and then go back to the other sections.

10. Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

    I was hesitant to put this on the list because its one of those books thats hip-to-own. I decided to put it on here because I am guessing that most seminary guys dont read this book, maybe Im wrong and its required for Emerging Missiology 101. I’ve read this book three times now, and I still enjoy the way that Driscoll, seeks to be biblical and yet is very honest and sometimes cutting about certain practices (ie. “As I studied the Bible, I found more warrant for a church led by unicorns than by majority vote” p.103). Driscoll examines why we do what we do.

]]> http://www.thedesocios.com/faith/2007/07/10-books-every-wanna-be-pastor-needs-to-read/feed/ 0 http://www.thedesocios.com/faith/2007/07/another-great-quote-jack-miller/ http://www.thedesocios.com/faith/2007/07/another-great-quote-jack-miller/#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:33:46 +0000 Sam http://thedesocios.com/2007/07/20/another-great-quote-jack-miller/ “I fear that many pastors today have fallen into the error of preaching the doctrines of grace theoretically instead of preaching them practically and using the truths of Scripture to draw men to Christ. Instead of using the Bible as our instrument to draw men into fellowship with God, biblical doctrine has become our grounds to exclude those–even other believers–who disagree with us. Instead of using the Scripture as the sword of the Spirit to conquer men for Christ, we spend our energies defending it, as if it were fragile and easily broken.”

-Jack Miller, Powerful Evangelism For the Powerless

]]> http://www.thedesocios.com/faith/2007/07/another-great-quote-jack-miller/feed/ 0 http://www.thedesocios.com/life/2007/07/one-heck-of-week/ http://www.thedesocios.com/life/2007/07/one-heck-of-week/#comments Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:46:04 +0000 Sam http://thedesocios.com/2007/07/16/one-heck-of-week/ Man last week was crazy.
Wednesday I had Jury duty, and for those of you who have never been, it kind of feels like wait in an airport for a standby flight, but you dont want to get a seat on the plane, and at the end of the day you take the bus home.

Thursday and Friday were really busy at City Reformed, we did a prayer and praise service on Friday, and Matt realized on Thursday that he didn’t have time to do plan the service so I should. It was actually really cool, we got like 20+ people to come out. (30+ if you count the band)
Then I went with my best friend, and Chris W to see Harry Potter.

Saturday was presbytery and I finally after 8 months of trying to become a candidate again, I became one and started my internship, officially.

Then Sunday was like every Sunday for some one who works for the church, crazy busy, exciting and refreshing. Man is Jesus a cool God. We also had the faith’s over for lunch and they hung out for a few hours and played with our ice dispenser.
Now Im sitting here listening to Devotchka(they did the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack), and browsing the Westminster Bookstore and drooling. If any one wants to buy me anything here is a short list of things I want to get asap:

A Hebrew-english Lexicon
NICNT Commentary of Acts
A Biblical Theology of Missions

Biblical Theology

Iain Duguid’s Commentary on Ruth

A Journey Worth Taking

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