In case you’re interested, below is a list of my Top 10 books of 2023. Enjoy!
One quick reminder about the reading of books: Reading books is meant to make us think, to challenge assumptions, to deepen our faith, to grapple with issues we would normally not wrestle with. And ultimately, reading books is meant—not simply to ‘check off my list’—but to think through, pray through, and apply so that we are more like Jesus after reading them. Reading books isn’t a race—read slowly, drink deeply, process thoughtfully, markup and highlight, and let your heart be enriched.
#10
Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness
by Gavin Ortlund
Simply put, this is a short 90-page book(let) on the link between our joy and humility. Ortlund does a beautiful job of showing how true humility leads to greater joy in life. And who doesn’t want (and need) more joy? You can read it in an hour.
#9
What’s So Amazing About Grace? (25th Anniversary Edition)
by Philip Yancey
(Re-Read) I first read this when it came out in 1997, and it continues to inspire and encourage me to be a more gracious person in all areas of life. Christians aren’t always known as being gracious toward others—particularly those with whom we may disagree. This book will help answer the question: How well are we dispensing grace to a world that knows far more of strife and unforgiveness than mercy?
#8
Christianity and Liberalism (100th Anniversary Edition)
by J. Gresham Machen
(Re-Read) I first read this classic book in the 1980s, and it continues to be even more relevant today in the 2020s.
This book was first written in the 1920s during the height of Liberalism’s push to normalize a “non-supernatural, Bible-can’t-be-trusted, Jesus-didn’t-really-physically-rise-from-the-dead” era.
Ray Ortlund writes, “Is our Christianity today the Christianity of the New Testament? Let’s not assume that it is. Let’s examine whether it is. J. Gresham Machen’s profound classic, Christianity & Liberalism, can help us face this urgent question with courage and clarity. And may God grant us wonderful rediscoveries of his grace in Christ, ushering in a new era of reformation and revival.”
#7
The Steward Leader: Transforming People, Organizations and Communities
by R. Scott Rodin
The subject of my Ph.D. dissertation is Steward Leadership, so I am acutely interested in this book. I’ve always believed that the best leadership is an Acts 20:24 model, where the Apostle Paul states, “But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.”
In other words, my life does not belong to me—it belongs to God. All of life is about stewardship. Your life, job, business, assets, gifts, and talents belong to God. We are simply stewards of all God has entrusted to us.
To give you a snippet of what a ‘steward leader’ is, Rodin says this in his introduction:
“As steward leaders we have no need to seek to increase in our positions of power. We have no desire to build our own kingdoms and advance our own reputations. Our lives are ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3)… Steward leaders empower their people, give away authority, value and involve others, seek the best in and from their people, and constantly lift others up, push others into the limelight and reward those they lead—all so that God’s will may be done in a more powerful way. They seek no glory for themselves but find great joy in seeing others prosper. They take no account of their reputation, but desire that Jesus’ face be seen in all they do.”
#6
Surprised by Doubt: How Disillusionment Can Invite Us into a Deeper Faith
by Joshua D. Chatraw and Jack Carson
Josh Chatraw is a fellow with The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics (which is part of The Gospel Coalition). This book is written for this generation of those struggling with doubt and questions about their faith. It’s an apologetics book written especially for the 2020s.
Chatraw and Carson write from a gracious perspective as they seek to answer the real existential questions that even believers in Christ struggle with occasionally. They write in the same spirit of Jude 1:22, “Be merciful to those who doubt.” This book certainly won’t answer all the questions you may wrestle with, but I believe it will deepen your faith in Christ and His Word.
Though this book doesn’t quote Rachael Denhollander, I couldn’t help but think about one of her statements in recent years.
After all that happened to Rachael and her fellow gymnasts (from Dr. Larry Nassar), she said:
“And while I still have huge unanswered questions, I realize I have more real answers through my faith than without it.”
In case you are wondering who Rachael is, here is a brief bio to give some context to the above quote:
Rachael Joy Denhollander (née Moxon; born December 8, 1984) is an American lawyer and former gymnast. She was the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, of sexual assault. Denhollander is 2018 Glamour Woman of the Year and was included in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2018. She is the recipient of the 2021 Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life.
Denhollander has been bestowed with many honors for bringing Nassar to justice, including Time magazine naming her to its 2018 list of the world’s 100 Most Influential People. On May 16, 2018, it was announced that the survivors of the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal would be awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. On December 12, 2018, Denhollander was announced as the winner of Sports Illustrated‘s Inspiration of the Year Award.
Rachael’s husband (Jacob) is currently working on his Ph.D. at Southern Seminary.
#5
Agents of Grace: How to Bridge Divides and Love as Jesus Loved
by Daniel Darling
What’s worth fighting for? How do we navigate disagreement? And how do we live as agents of Jesus’ love? Darling explores practical ways to follow the Bible’s command to ‘strive for peace’ even in a painfully divided church, country, and world.
This book will help people climb out of cynicism about how the people of God treat each other, especially when we are trying to heal from such pain in our own lives, and issues a clarion call to live as bridge builders in a divided country, healers in a hurting church, and countercultural Jesus-followers in a world that needs to know God’s love.
Bethany Jenkins, Vice President of Media for the Veritas Forum, says, “This book will inspire you to work toward the beautiful vision of unity that Jesus desires for his messy but glorious bride.”
This is a much-needed book, especially as we enter 2024. 😊
#4
Born to Wonder: Exploring Our Deepest Questions – Why Are We Here and Why Does It Matter?
by Alister McGrath
In the spirit of C.S. Lewis, McGrath writes compellingly about the macro issues of life, specifically the meaning of life. It seeks to wrestle with and answer questions such as: What is the point of life? Why does it matter? What does it mean to be a human being?
This is a great book for a seeker to wrestle with. McGrath writes especially for those who have no particular faith—atheist or agnostic—but I believe it will benefit all who read it.
McGrath writes in his introduction, “Life is a gift. We never asked to be born. Yet here we are, living in this strange world of space and time, trying to work out what it’s all about.
So what is life about? As far as we know, we’re the only species on earth that asks this question and dares to hope that we might find an answer. It seems that we are born to wonder, not merely to exist.
To wonder is to reflect, to turn over in our minds what is known, to expand our imaginative capacity, and to ask what greater truth and beauty might lie behind our world or beyond our settled horizons of vision. We want to know why things take their present forms and whether they point to something deeper… Human beings seem to yearn for a ‘big picture’ which helps us feel that we are part of something greater than ourselves.”
#3
Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West
by Andrew Wilson
Even if you don’t love history, you will love reading this book. And if you love history (like I do), you’ll especially enjoy it! Wilson can flat-out write in an engaging, colorful manner that makes history come alive.
Don’t let the book’s title mislead you—this is not about the founding of America (although it intersects with the pivotal year of 1776). It is a book about how we got to the current “post-Christian West” in which we live today—and how we can best be salt and light in a culture where Christianity is diminishing rather than flourishing (as it is in the global South). Believe it or not, the roots of our current post-Christian West go back to key events in 1776. Wilson states, “The big idea of this book is that 1776, more than any other year in the last millennium, is the year that made us who we are. We cannot understand ourselves without it.”
The inside of the book jacket sums it well: “A single year in the late eighteenth century saw several monumental transformations—indeed, revolutions—that changed the trajectory of the Western world. Some are more familiar than others, but most of us know only a fraction of what occurred during that pivotal year or how those events still shape the post-Christian West today.”
In Remaking the World, Andrew Wilson investigates seven major developments arising from events in 1776:
- Globalization
- the Enlightenment
- the Industrial Revolution
- the Great Enrichment
- the American Revolution
- the Rise of post-Christianity
- the dawn of Romanticism
Drawing on key documents and historical figures, he demonstrates how these political, philosophical, economic, and industrial changes shaped the modern West into a “WEIRDER” society: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic.
In case you have not heard of Andrew Wilson (Ph.D., Kings College London), he is the teaching pastor at King’s Church London and a columnist for Christianity Today. He has degrees in history and theology from Cambridge and King’s College London and is the author of several books.
#2
Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation
by Collin Hansen
This book was one of the most enjoyable biographies I’ve ever read (some of that certainly has to do with my great respect for the late Tim Keller). What were the key ideas, people, and events that shaped Tim Keller’s life? John Thune, US senator from South Dakota, said this about the book, “Collin Hansen brilliantly examines the story behind one of the greatest thinkers, teachers, and writers of our time. If you’ve been as blessed as I have by Tim Keller’s work and ministry, you must read this book.”
Reading this book was pure joy for me!
#1
Being Elisabeth Elliot: Elisabeth’s Later Years (Volume 2 of The Two-Volume Authorized Biography)
by Ellen Vaughn
This book took me by surprise. I knew I would enjoy it—because I enjoy biography and have read most of Elliot’s books over the years—but I had no idea how much I would enjoy it and how many “surprising” things I would learn about Elisabeth’s life. I told someone recently, “After reading this book, I could write an article entitled, ’10 Surprising Things I Never Knew about Elisabeth Elliot.’” Some of these things were (for me) ‘drop-your-jaw-you-have-to-be-kidding-me’ kind of things. Not scandalous. Just “Wow! I never would have imagined that when thinking about Elisabeth Elliot.”
I read Through Gates of Splendor when I was in college and knew most of the backstory of Elisabeth and Jim’s lives before 1960. But Volume 2 starts in the early 1960s after Elliot moved back to the U.S. from Ecuador.
This book is filled with primary source material from Elliot’s journals over the years. Personal reflections, deep and honest questions, struggles, surprising joys, and deepest heartaches. It filled in many of the missing pieces I never knew about the second half of her life.
Elisabeth Elliot has impacted hundreds of thousands of people through her writing and speaking (myself being one). This book will give you a much greater appreciation for the woman behind her many books.
Read this and deepen your understanding of Elisabeth Elliot, and maybe you’ll figure out what my “10 Surprising Things…” are. 😊