A few months ago, I emailed a bunch of
older guys I know involved in Christian ministry. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a
book hoarder - I own a bunch of books I haven’t read yet. But I really wanted
some focused book recommendations for young preachers and church leaders.
I asked 3 questions.
1/ Apart from God's Word, what books
would you recommend first to a young preacher?
2/ What are your all-time favourite
books?
3/ What books are 'essential' to your
library?
Thankfully, some good guys got back to
me. Here are the (selected) results...
For Systematic Theology, I love the four
Frame books in the Lordship series. I've got Bavinck and Grudem as well.
For Biblical Theology, my two go-to
books are Leithart, A House for my Name,
and Jordan, Through New Eyes. Not
necessarily for the church bookstall and you won't agree with everything but
hugely stimulating.
My favourite book on the Old Testament
is Dumbrell, the faith of Israel,
which has a useful intro to every Old Testament book.
Robin Weekes –
Proclamation Trust
1/ The
Priority of Preaching, Christopher Ash - this gets you clear on why
preaching is God's timeless means of addressing God's people.
Preaching
Christ in All the Scriptures, EP Clowney - we
proclaim Him and this book is a great example of how to that from the Old
Testament as well as the New Testament.
The
Preacher's Portrait, John Stott - a classic
Preaching
& Preachers, D Martyn Lloyd-Jones -
another classic recently republished
2/ Knowing
God, JI Packer - especially the chapter on adoption
Keeping
the Heart, John Flavel
Christian
Leaders of the 18th C, JC Ryle
Holiness,
JC Ryle
The
Great Game, Peter Hopkirk
3/ Good commentaries
Some good systematic theology books
Puritan works - especially anything by John Flavel
Biographies
Rev Dr. Alan Mundan – Assistant Minister, Jesmond
Parish Church, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Author
New Bible Dictionary
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church
Calvin's
Institutes of the Christian Religion
All of Calvin's commentaries (OT and NT)
J C
Ryle - Expository Thoughts on the
Gospels (seven volumes) - plus all of his
published works
J
Eaton, Psalms, T and T Clark, 2003 [brilliant!]
For
Anglicans…
W H G
Thomas, The Principles of Theology, 1930 (plus later reprints) [On the 39 Articles of Religion]
G J
Cuming, A History of Anglican Liturgy, 1969
T
Dudley-Smith, John Stott, 2 vols, IVP, 1999,
2001
J
Stott, I believe in preaching, 1982
Matt
Graham – former UCCF Staff Worker and Oak Hill student
I’m just getting into Bavinck, and really enjoying volume 2 on
the doctrine of God. Frame on the Doctrine
of God is very helpful (although he takes a different line on some things).
Grudem is always a good starting
place too.
Goldsworthy on biblical theology is good. He has one called Gospel-Centred Hermeneutics.
The
Symphony of Scripture, Mark Strom.
Brothers
We Are Not Professionals, John Piper, is
challenging (in a good way!).
Calvin's
Institutes are always heart warming.
In terms of other old stuff, I have also
loved reading some Richard Sibbes.
The various IVP dictionaries are pretty useful in prep for sermons.
Any commentaries by Carson, Moo, Fee, O'Brien
are all very helpful.
Luther
on Romans, Mounce
on the Pastorals, Motyer on Isaiah, Doug Stuart on Exodus.
I have a really useful book on an Introduction to OT prophetic books by Bullock.
Haddon
Robinson on expository preaching is very useful.
Tim Lewis – Curate,
St John’s Yeovil
One book I've recently found extremely
useful is David Cook's 'Teaching Acts'
which has a load of stuff near the beginning which is about handling the bible
and preaching in general.
Others which I've found useful for
preaching (aside from your standard commentaries [BST, Tyndale, PNTC, Focus on
the Bible etc.]) have been Warren
Wiersbe's series (he's done the whole bible, though I've used Philippians, Nehemiah and Genesis in
particular).
At a recent PT conference I went on John Dickson was telling us all we ought
to have a decent resource for the history of the first-second century on hand
for our preaching.
My all time favourites would include (in
no particular order): A Meal with Jesus
(Chester); Knowing God (Packer); The Radical Reformission (Driscoll); Surprised
by Hope (Wright); Generous Justice (Keller); J. Hudson Taylor (Steer);
Embracing the Trinity (Sanders); Romans (Stott).
I find myself going to various books by Driscoll (and some of his buddies) when
it comes to the cross/repentance/forgiveness because I think he grasps it very
clearly and then is really helpful at applying it to life now.
Carson,
Morris and Moo 'An Introduction to the NT' is
extremely useful if you're wanting an introduction to the academic issues and
background issues - I often read that first.
James Dudley-Smith – Rector, St John’s Yeovil
It’s
good to be intentional rather than haphazard, because books are expensive, and
take up space, so you don’t want to just buy the things that come to hand.
Top commentaries:
Carson on Matthew and on John
Kidner on Psalms and Genesis, Ecclesiastes,
Ezra and Nehemiah, Proverbs
Davis on OT histories
All BSTs
by Stott
Fee on 1 Corinthians
For preparation for preaching, I also find
myself using quite regularly:
The NIV exhaustive concordance
Grudem’s Systematic Theology
The NRSV – NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek
and English (an
interlinear)
A good
study bible for cross-references
New Bible Dictionary
The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (two big volumes)
I have
(and occasionally use) the Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament in 10 vols, edited by Kittel. This tells you about each Greek word in some detail. The
set was given to me by Ian Barclay when he was downsizing!
Nick Howard – Evangelist, New York City
The Christ of the Covenants by
O. Palmer Robertson [on how the Bible fits together / biblical theology / God's
salvation plan. I'm more grateful to God for this book than any other Christian
book]
ESV Study Bible [the Study
Bible is a tremendously helpful resource]
A Call to Spiritual Reformation
by D. A. Carson [best book I've read on prayer]
The Bondage of the Will by
Martin Luther [on the practical outworking of God's sovereignty. The
Westminster Press edition (Rupp and Watson eds), which also includes the work
by Erasmus that Luther is responding to, is the one to get.]
Calvin's Institutes [get the 2
vol Westminster Press edition (John McNeill ed.)]
Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth
Century by J. C. Ryle [they're not to be imitated in every respect e.g.
treatment of wives but are hugely inspiring all the same. Should be read with
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon by Faith Cook - absolutely superb. Ryle mentions
the Countess in almost every chapter.]
The Priority of Preaching by
Christopher Ash
Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller
[helped me understand myself and the human race a whole lot better]
Pilgrim's Progress by John
Bunyan [the images keep coming back to mind]
Knowing God by J. I. Packer
[the chapter on guidance changed my life!]
Evangelicalism Divided by Iain
Murray [it is so important to think critically about the (possible)
misshapenness of the church of our day (without becoming cynical or bitter).
This book - like the Bible - shows how great men can have serious flaws, but it
does so with a thoughtful tone and avoids being a point-scoring exercise.]
- Joshua - 2 Kings by Dale Ralph
Davis [these commentaries model how to engage with liberal biblical criticism,
rather than pretending it's not there]
The Prophecy of Isaiah by
Alec Motyer
- The King of God's Kingdom by
David Seccombe