In the May/June Newsletter for Old Powhatan Baptist Church, I encouraged you to join me in reading some books this summer. I will be reading many more than those three and wanted to give you a few more ideas for some good reading by the pool, at the beach, on vacation, or in your favorite chair. Here is my Summer Reading List for 2014.

 

A Higher Call (Adam Makos)… I just finished this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. With an undercurrent of honor and faith, this story needs to be told. (Warning: Wartime violence is written about as well as mild language during stressful situations) Here is a video overview of the story:

 

 

The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables     (Jared Wilson): Discarding the notion that Christ’s parables are nothing more than moralistic fables, this book highlights how each one is designed to drive us to Jesus in awe, need, faith, and worship.

 

 

 

United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity (Trillia Newbell)           On the Last Day every tongue and tribe will be represented in the glorious chorus praising God with one voice. Yet today our churches remain segregated. Can we reflect the beauty of the last day this day?

 

 

Not By Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith          (Jon Bloom) Trusting Jesus is hard. It requires following the unseen into an unknown, and believing Jesus’s words over and against the threats we see or the fears we feel. Through the imaginative retelling of 35 Bible stories, Not by Sight gives us glimpses of what it means to walk by faith, counsel for how to trust God’s promises more than our perceptions, and the way to find rest in the faithfulness of God.

 

 

A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is Drawing Muslims Around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ (David Garrison): Explores the stories of more than 1,000 Muslim-background followers of Jesus Christ from each of the nine rooms in the House of Islam. Join Dr. Garrison in this amazing journey of discovery, tracing the work of the Holy Spirit as it blows through the House of Islam. Below is a video interview with the author.

 

Get Real: Sharing Your Everyday Faith Every Day (John S. Leonard): Evangelism Gets More Real, Less Awkward Instead of an awkward experience, sharing your faith can be a simple, everyday part of life. As you grow in your love for Jesus, sharing him with others will overflow into every conversation. Casual interactions will turn into significant moments that bring the gospel into all your relationships.

 

 

Memoir & Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Andrew Bonar) This will be a reread for me… in fact I read it every couple of years. M’Cheyne is one of my spiritual heroes, his life marked by true holiness and passion for lost souls.

 

 

 

That Distant Land (Collected Stories: Port William) (Wendell Berry): That Distant Land includes twenty-three stories from Wendell Berry’s Port William membership. Arranged in their fictional chronology, the book shines forth as a single sustained work, not simply an anthology. It reveals Wendell Berry as a literary master capable of managing an imaginative integrity over decades of writing with a multitude of characters followed over several generations.

 

Jayber Crow (Wendell Berry): Another reread… Eventually, after the flood of 1937, Jayber becomes the barber of the small community of Port William, Kentucky. From behind that barber chair he lives out the questions that drove him from seminary and begins to accept the gifts of community that enclose his answers. The chair gives him a perfect perch from which to listen, to talk, and to see, as life spends itself all around. In this novel full of remarkable characters, he tells his story that becomes the story of his town and its transcendent membership.

 

 

Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence & Can Begin Rebuilding It (Greg Forster): Can the church regain its cultural influence? The church in America is losing ground. Unfortunately, our efforts to reverse this trend often seem to do more harm than good. This book teaches us that the key to cultural transformation is something that we might not expect: explosive, Spirit-produced joy in God and his gospel.

 

 

Picture Perfect: When Life Doesn’t Line Up (Amy Baker): Frankly, Your Perfectionism Isn t Enough. Perfectionism is a crushing burden that can leave us angry, anxious, and paralyzed. But the quest for perfection will never transform a heart. Amy Baker examines the root and purpose of the longing for perfection to show how God s grace transforms the aching not enough of perfectionism into the overflowing abundance of faith.

 

 

Death By Living: Life Is Meant to be Spent (ND Wilson) A poetic portrait of faith, futility, and the joy of this mortal life. Wilson is one of my favorite guys to read… This is one I will probably read twice this summer. Before reading this one… I would suggest your read Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl, one of my favorite books from the last 5 years.

 

 

Grab a book and read along with me this summer… Is there anything you will be reading that I should read? Pass it along.