Favourite reads: 2021
Here’s some of the good stuff which I enjoyed reading this year. Reading has been limited this year around the fullness of parish life, doctoral study, and other kingdom partnerships. Here are some of what has shaped me… more than just flicking through library books or recipe volumes: some of the sweet drink for my soul and hope in a time of great weariness. Here are some of my highlights, in no particular order. What did you enjoy this year?
A Burning in my Bones, by Winn Collier offers a brilliant, meandering weave of story, encounter, and diaried records: golden goodness! In Peterson’s words, the Spirit strengthened me to trust that there remained a remnant of a church and that on the margins of power, we remained in the centre of God’s love and plan. Collier portrays Eugene’s life in a winsome parable of vocation, humanity and grace. Stinging, radiant, and so potent, it rendered me speechless in worship.
A Church called Tov, by Laura Barringer & Scot McKnight is a robust critique and resource exploring church health and pastoral integrity. The thesis and culture of ‘Tov’ are powerfully communicated. This is a needful primer on wayward ecclesial culture and abusive systems that remarkably hinder the way of following Jesus. Motivation and servanthood shine through.
Reality, Grief and Hope, by Walter Brueggemann is a punchy tour through various Old Testament biblical moments inviting all to continually be attentive to God's prophetic voice and be open to hearing its reformation of our view reality. By grace through faith as a chosen people, we need not default to exceptionalism and pride, and it's an invitation to humility and dependence on God. Uncomfortable and essential in its provocation.
Subterranean, by Dan White Jr is a pacey and inspirational call to rediscover the local and the neighbourhood, to experience the ordinary rhythms of everyday life afresh. White’s use of subterranean is brilliantly original, with the tree being central. The work of growth is slow, hard to quantify, and in many cases unseen, but reflective of strength and all that is good. It’s a compelling vision in the realisation of the promise of its subtitle: ‘why the future of the church is rootedness.’
Tempered Resilience, by Tod Bolsinger is a weighty exploration into leading adaptively with a bias towards health. Deploying the metaphor of a blacksmith Bolsinger makes the case that resilient leadership involves six phases: the four detailed practices of learning, listening, looking, and lamenting. Bolsinger is persuasive that we are best formed to lead through resistance en route to transformation. Probably the most marked book of my year. Encouraging, challenging, and clarifying how we might better be His in these brittle times.
This Too Shall Last, by KJ Ramsey prodigiously communicates lingering hurt, with a majestic vision of gut-wrenching life in its visceral beauty. All are beckoned to “spend less energy treating weakness as a problem to fix and more time bearing witness to it with the expectation of seeing Christ.” Ramsey writes with insight and grace from the messy middle, where living with suffering lingers in the comprehension of God's presence that endures. Probably the most delicious sentences of writing I’ve read this year. Beautiful hope-filled realism.
And some other appreciated reads: Matter by Iain Banks: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke: The Body Keeps The Score, by Bessel van der Kolk: Digital Minimalism, Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, by Cal Newport: A Place for God, by Pete Nicholas: The Wisdom Pyramid, by Brett McCracken: A Promised Land by Barack Obama: Gentle and Lowly, The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund: Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness by Eugene Peterson: Reappearing Church by Mark Sayers: and, God of All Things, Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World, by Andrew Wilson.
Here’s to more and wider reading in 2022… or the words of my son Noah, “Keep reading and stay curious!”
#2021GoodList #Reading2021