Pastors’ Book List
One way we grow as believers is by being students of the Word of God. Our pastors regularly pull together a list of recommended reading that will help you in your understanding and study of God’s Word as it applies to our daily lives. You can purchase them at your local bookstore or order them online through Amazon.com. To see all of the books, use the “Filter & Sort” function and select “Purchased and Unpurchased.” You can also view the books from previous lists on Amazon.
September-November 2024 Recommendations
The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place
By: Andy Crouch
Making conscientious choices about technology in our families is more than just using internet filters and determining screen time limits for our children. It’s about developing wisdom, character and courage in the way we use digital media rather than accepting technology’s promises of ease, instant gratification and the world’s knowledge at our fingertips. And it’s definitely not just about the kids.
The Digital Fast: 40 Days to Detox Your Mind and Reclaim What Matters Most
By: Darren Whitehead
Embark on a transformative journey and reclaim your life from the digital chaos with The Digital Fast. You’ll disconnect from screens, social media and notifications for 40 days and rediscover the sacred art of listening to the voice of God. This book offers practical strategies, inspiring stories and a path to spiritual renewal in our digital world.
My Tech-Wise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices
By: Amy Crouch and Andy Crouch
We can barely imagine our lives without technology. Tech gives us tools to connect, listen music, document our lives and keep up with what’s going on in the world. Yet, it also tempts us to procrastinate, avoid honest conversations, compare ourselves with others and filter our reality. Sometimes, it feels like our devices have more control over us than we have over them. It doesn’t have to be that way. We deserve so much more than what technology offers us. When we’re wise about how we use our devices, we can get more joy, more connection and more out of life. Let’s get tech-wise.
The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World
By: Andy Crouch
Our greatest need is to be recognized—to be seen, loved and embedded in rich relationships. For the last century, we’ve displaced that need with the ease of technology. We’ve dreamed of mastery without relationship and abundance without dependence. Yet we feel threatened, lonely, anxious and bored amid endless options, oddly disconnected amid infinite connections. Crouch shows how we have been seduced by a false vision of human flourishing—and how each of us can fight back. See how we can restore true community and put people first in a world dominated by money, power and devices.
How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age
By: Jonathan Leeman
As Christians, we’ve felt pushed to the outskirts of national public life, yet even within our congregations we are divided about how to respond. What do we do when brothers and sisters in Christ sit next to each other in the pews but feel divided and angry? Leeman challenges Christians to hit the restart button by shifting our focus from redeeming the nation to living as a nation already redeemed, rejecting the false allure of building heaven on earth while living faithfully as citizens of a heavenly kingdom and letting Jesus’ teaching shape our public engagement as we love our neighbors and seek justice.
Generosity Devotional: How God’s Radical Grace Changes Our Perspective on Money and Possessions Devotional
By: Tim Keller
Money is a sensitive issue in our culture. And yet it is central to our commitment to Jesus Christ and a yardstick to measure our understanding of grace. In this 20-day devotional, you will explore the wide range of biblical teaching about our heart’s attachment to the treasures of this world. Experience why Christian giving is such an adventure. Most of all, renew your heart and change your life, by soaking in the gospel hope which motivates us to live for his glory and to care for others.
The Treasure Principle
By: Randy Alcorn
Be introduced to a revolution in material freedom and radical generosity. Readers are moved from the realms of thoughtful Bible exposition into the highly personal arena of everyday life. When Jesus told His followers to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” He intended that they discover an astounding secret: how joyful giving brings God maximum glory and His children maximum pleasure. Discover a joy more precious than gold!
The Generosity Factor: Discover the Joy of Giving Your Time, Talent, and Treasure
By: Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy
It’s the story of a meeting between the Broker–a young man on his way up the corporate ladder who has the illusion of success, yet feels insignificant–and the Executive–the CEO of a very large and successful company who claims the greatest joy in his life is his ability to give to others. Thinking he might get a competitive edge by meeting with the Executive, the Broker’s worldview is turned upside down as he talks to the Executive and hears the principles that form his life. He calls it The Generosity Factor–a way to give time, talent, treasure, and touch to those in need.
A Short Guide to Gospel Generosity: Giving as an Act of Grace
By: Nathan W. Harris
The normal American has far more than they need, yet still feel insecure, needing to grasp it all tightly and continue to gain more. This isn’t just true with our acquisition of things, but also in the way we approach all our God-given resources: our time, talents, families and our lives. What’s the solution? The answer to our obsession with possessions is turning to the Gospel. Readers will be called to consider all of their resources and gifts from God are to be held loosely, ready to be used for God’s purposes. Everything is His anyway.
