I buy far more books than I read, but I have a great desire to read and learn more about God and about people, especially young people. You can view my book collection here
Over on the Youth Ministry blog Slant 33 they have a post on just what a Youth Pastor should be reading. It's worth checking out.
It got me thinking what books I think are a must read. Definitely the Bible and this goes without saying. But what else is worth reading? I thought I'd try and make a list of just some of the books I've found helpful over the years. This is by no means comprehensive, nor am I saying that I've read all the definitive books. Rather it is a list of things I've found useful so far.
Youth Ministry:
Fruit that Will Last by Tim Hawkins
First Two Years in Youth Ministry by Doug Fields
Contemplative Youth Ministry by Mark Yaconelli
Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries
Starting Right edited by Dean, Clark & Rahn
Secular:
Tribes by Seth Godin
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Christian Living:
Battling Unbelief by John Piper
Searching for God Knows What by Don Miller
Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas
Biographies:
No Compromise by Melody Green (about Keith Green)
A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden
Theology/Bible:
There are heaps here. Most of which I haven't read fully well enough to recommend. However The Resurgence have some great posts on building your theological library which I would highly suggest looking at for ideas!
Whatever you do, you should most definitely buy all your books from The Book Depository. They are always the cheapest!
So, what do you think of the Slant 33 suggestions? What about my list? What books do you think a Youth Pastor must read?
Getting Fired For the Glory of God should be on every youth pastor's shelf.
ReplyDeleteA Little Exercise for Young Theologians by Helmut Thielicke is a good one to add.
I was not really impressed with the Resurgence post. There are definitely good resources on it but there are a world of better resources to start from and any theological library should be a bit more theologically diverse. For instance, Theology For the Community of God by Grenz should be a standard in every library and it didn't make the list.
Some other theology texts I'd recommend:
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
A Hauerwas Reader
How To Read the Bible for All It's Worth
On The Incarnation by Athanasius
A few Eugene Peterson books should be thrown in there.
Ok now I see why you didn't list books in this section: there are too many!
Last one. Every person in ministry should own In The Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen