Summer reading for Pastors – Part 1 (Matthew Barrett)

Summer is here! If you are anything like me, then summer is a great opportunity to read all those books you’ve been putting off. Since I wear many hats (professor and pastor), I will be recommending books for the pastor, systematic theologian, historian, biblical scholar, and philosopher in the weeks to come. So let’s start with you pastors out there. What books should you read this summer?

Josh Moody and Robin Weekes. Burning Hearts: Preaching to the Affections. Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 2014.

These two pastors/ministers team up to emphasize the importance of, you guessed it, preaching to the affections, to the heart. I would especially recommend this book to any seminary students fresh out of school entering into their first pastorate. The temptation is to be so focused on content and knowledge that one fails to apply such biblical truth to the heart of one’s people. Here is an excerpt that gets to the point:

Good biblical preaching then will always probe the workings of the heart. In doing so, it will expose deep-rooted idols and exalt the Lord Jesus. In aiming for the heart, we must remember that the strategy of preaching is not just to move the emotions or the will of the listener, but to illuminate and fire the imagination with the truth of the gospel. We must remember that words, including sermons, do things to us—and not just on an emotional level. They educate, warn and encourage—not just make me feel happy or sad (56-57).

Tim Keller. Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism. New York: Viking, 2015.

I doubt I need to say much about Tim Keller, one of the most skilled communicators in our own day. I really benefited from this recent address he gave called “Preaching to the Heart,” which actually builds off of many of the same points made in the Moody/Weekes book above (Keller highly recommended that book too). This book on preaching is different than many other books because its focus is on reaching skeptics, something Keller has much experience at in his New York context. Here is Keller’s introduction to the book (By the way, right now Keller’s book is on sale at Westminster Bookstore):
 

Iain H. Murray. The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1899-1981. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2013.

Elizabeth Catherwood and Christopher Catherwood, eds. The Christ-Centered Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Classic Sermons for the Church Today. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.

Speaking of preaching…what greater preacher could one look to in the twentieth century than Martyn Lloyd-Jones? The biography by Murray is must reading for any pastor. No one is more qualified to tell us about the life and ministry of Lloyd-Jones than Murray and in this biography you will learn, as F. F. Bruce put it, from a “humble man,” a “man of prayer,” a “powerful evangelist,” an “expository preacher of rare quality,” and from a “servant of the Word of God.”

Also be sure to get your hands on the Catherwoods’ new volume (Elizabeth and Christopher are the daughter and grandson of Lloyd-Jones), which takes excerpts from Lloyd-Jones in order to focus on the theme of Christ-Centered sermons. There is a treasure of sermons here, everything from The Gospel in Genesis to Spiritual Depression. Well worth your time and money.

Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman. Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age. Nashville: B&H, 2015.

I love the subtitle of this book! We live in a day when many Christians within the church are absolutely suspicious of authority within the church. Trying to explain the importance of church government and its function in the church can be extremely difficult and one might even encounter opposition. Nevertheless, polity is very important in the life of a church. I say this in regards to “theology,” but it can be said of “polity” too: everyone has and operates with a polity, it’s just a matter of whether it is grounded in God’s Word or not. In this edited volume Dever and Leeman bring together a bunch of outstanding scholars in order to make a case for Baptist polity, which is made up of congregationalism, elder leadership, diaconal service, regenerate church membership, church discipline, and a Baptist approach to the ordinances. Note, Credo Magazine contributor Thomas Schreiner has two chapters on Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in the Bible, as does Michael Haykin on the historical roots of congregationalism. Also see outstanding chapters by Shawn Wright and Stephen Wellum.

Come back tomorrow for more book recommendations for pastors.

Matthew Barrett (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at California Baptist University, as well as the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. Barrett is also Senior Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church. He is the author and editor of several books, including Salvation by Grace: The Case for Effectual Calling and Regeneration. Two forthcoming books include, Owen on the Christian Life and God’s Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture. You can read about Barrett’s other publications at matthewmbarrett.com.