St Leonard’s Church Family’s Top 10 Christian Books

This Top 10 Book List is compiled from responses from over 50 members of our Church Family, to my request to let me know their favourite Christian books other than the Bible. Thank you to all who responded. I have found this to be a very helpful exercise as manager of the Bookstall. This is because each and every response has provided valuable input, whether or not your favourite books have actually made it into the Top 10 listed below. Your replies have given me around 150 books to look into, and in time you will see a broader range of helpful books on the Bookstall as a result this.

I hope you find it interesting seeing the books your brothers and sisters in Christ treasure most. I also hope that you will feel inspired to read one of the books mentioned below. While there are constraints about what can actually be stocked on the Bookstall, you will find books mentioned in this article stocked there – unless that is, you have been beaten by someone else to buy them first!

In reverse order the Top 10 are:

10^{th -} Give me this Mountain by Dr. Helen Roseveare

This was the most popular of a number of books about the inspiring lives of missionaries. Helen Roseveare was both a missionary and a medic, and she endured extreme suffering working in the Congo. Roseveare’s passion for the Gospel and her humility shine through her story, – for example by recording this comment made to her “If you can only show us Doctor Helen, you might as well go home. The people need to see Jesus.”

9^{th -} A Call to Spiritual Reformation by Don Carson

Don Carson proved to be a popular author in this poll with three of his books being chosen. The most popular choice was Carson’s book on prayer, which challenges us to consider our own prayer life in the light of how Paul prays as recorded in his letters in the New Testament. As one person who chose the book wrote “This book has totally changed the way I pray, and I have used it as a check on this for many years.”

8^{th -} The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller

Keller takes one of Jesus’s most loved parables, the story of the Prodigal Son, to explore the wonders of God’s grace. One person who chose The Prodigal God wrote “This book has been helpful in two ways. Firstly, in helping me understand properly that grace is literally just a gift, and secondly by gently showing me how legalistic I am, even though I would have reacted with horror had anyone accused me like this! The book is an accessible length, beautifully written, and easy to read.”

7^{th -} Christian Beliefs/Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem

Wayne Grudem has spent a lifetime immersed in Christian theology. The fruit of his labours has been books that a number of our Church Family uses as their first port of call when they have a theological issue to explore. The heavyweight 1264 pages of Systematic Theology is an invaluable reference work. At a more popular level, the admirably concise160 page Christian Beliefs draws on Grudem’s longer work by focussing on 20 key doctrines of our faith, such as the Resurrection, the Trinity and the Second Coming. In each case Grudem clearly explains the Biblical perspective on each of these vital issues.  

6^{th -} Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Francine Rivers is a prolific writer of Christian fiction, and Redeeming Love, based around the Bible book of Hosea, was the most popular of her novels chosen by our Church Family. In the words of two of the people who voted for the book, “To sum up in one sentence, this is an incredibly powerful book, portraying God's unconditional love for us. Amazing!”, and, “It’s the only fiction book to make me cry without knowing if they were tears of joy or sadness or of seeing God's work in someone.”

5^{th -} The Shack by WM Paul Young

The Shack is a bestselling novel that has reached a non-Christian audience. The book explores the problem of suffering through the medium of an encounter of a man called Mack, with the Persons of the Trinity in a shack where the blood-stained dress of his murdered young daughter was found. The book defies convention, not least in its depiction of God as a middle-aged African lady, while sometimes its characters explain things to Mack in ways that are not entirely biblical. Nevertheless, Young encourages the reader to think deeply about issues at the heart of the Christian faith, and by its success with a general readership provides evangelistic opportunities for Christians to discuss it with others.

4^{th -} The Bible Speaks Today Commentaries

Edited by John Stott, the Bible Speaks Today Commentaries were by far the most popular commentaries chosen in this poll. The entire New Testament Series is now available on one space saving CD-ROM, or otherwise some of the commentaries follow particular books, themes or groups of Paul’s letters. One person responded choosing a commentary as their top choice “If I was allowed one book besides the Bible, I would choose a Bible Commentary. I find it an invaluable aid and use it at least once a week.”

3^{rd -} The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

Of a number of books recommended written to help people look into the grounds for the Christian faith, The Case for Christ was the clear favourite. Reviewed in last edition of Lens, this book has been by far and away the best-selling book on the Bookstall over the past few years - if you have not read it I encourage you to find out why so many people have bought it! A common reason why people chose this book was the fact that they have found it to be a great book to give away when sharing their faith with others.

2^{nd -} The Cross of Christ by John Stott

Of several books chosen written by John Stott, The Cross of Christ was easily the most popular. As one person who chose the book wrote, this is “A book that helped me deepen my understanding, wonder and appreciation of Jesus's death on the cross. Stott’s book is rich in profoundly helpful insights into why Jesus’s passion is the central event in history. For example, in the book Stott writes "....standing before the cross we see simultaneously our worth and our unworthiness, since we perceive both the greatness of His love in dying, and the greatness of our sin in causing Him to die."”

1^st St Leonard’s Church Family’s Favourite Christian Book

What's so Amazing about Grace? By Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey has written a number of books that were chosen in this poll, and as one person wrote who recommended this, the most popular of them, “Yancey’s books take a lot of beating for clear, easily understood but serious Christian thought and application.” Yancey seeks to enthuse us to feel and experience God’s Grace, rather than just to understand the concept of it in an academic sense. In doing this Yancey argues that God’s Amazing Grace is beyond definition so he “would rather convey grace than explain it.” We will only ever understand and experience God’s Grace through the work of the Holy Spirit, and Yancey’s book has certainly succeeded in making many of its readers desire just that – a fuller appreciation of God’s Amazing Grace to them.

From the other recommendations it would be unfair not to draw attention to John Piper, Vaughan Roberts and CS Lewis who received several votes each, but everyone chose a different one of their books. Indeed, CS Lewis proved to be one of the most popular authors and in choosing his book The Great Divorce, one person wrote “It's difficult to choose just one book by CS Lewis but this one combines the author's brilliant allegorical brain with his theological one. Its central thesis is that Heaven is far more real than anything we can experience on Earth and paints a picture of what would happen if mortal man (or woman) were to experience Heaven's reality before getting their resurrection body. Haunting and memorable in its imagery, this book shows the extent to which our view of eternity with Christ falls woefully short of what the reality will be like.”

It would also be remiss not to mention many biographies that were chosen narrating the lives of evangelists, missionaries and social reformers. Many said they had been inspired reading about the lives of Christians such as Thomas Cranmer, Billy Graham, William Wilberforce, John Newton and others. With this is mind, A Fistful of Heroes by John Pollock was recommended, which is a really helpful book, being in the words of the person who chose it “A collection of 28 biographical sketches of men and women whose example in godliness are an inspiration. It's divided into four sections: slavery abolitionists, social reformers, great evangelists, and noteworthy missionaries. The book is a brilliant series of mini-biographies. It's a bit like Foxe's Book of Martyrs through a wider lens of history and without as much bloodshed.”

In finishing this article it is worth passing on a few observations about reading Christian books that have become ever more apparent to me doing this exercise.

• If you only read one book read the Bible. Beyond that the best Christian books are those that help us understand the Bible better, and help us apply God’s word in our daily lives be they commentaries, biographies, novels or studies of particular issues.

• Some find reading books hard for various reasons. For those of us who are enthusiastic about books we should never make people feel that reading books is an essential part of being a Christian, or even worse to risk implying that those who do read are in any way better than Christians who do not read much. In his autobiography the former Bishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard, explained why he was careful not to overdo the role of reading in evangelism or encouraging people in their faith. Sheppard wrote “with those who had not had a good experience at school, emphasis on books could all too easily associate church with school and failure.”

• However, while conscious of David Sheppard’s point, if reading is your thing, then there is a vast reservoir of fantastic Christian books available; a fact illustrated by this poll! Certainly, the comments that have accompanied many of the St Leonard’s Church Family’s recommendations illustrate how important books can be in encouraging people in their walk with Christ and sharing their faith.

Richard Scott  - June 2011

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.

Published by Zondervan

ISBN: 10 0310209307

Easter is the most important Christian festival of the year, commemorating Jesus’s death and resurrection, events presented in the Bible as the most significant in world history. This bold claim challenges us all to look into what happened that first Easter almost 2000 years ago and make up our own mind.

One man who took the trouble to do just that was an American journalist called Lee Strobel ,who wrote a best-selling book , The Case for Christ, about his journey from atheism to Christian faith.Strobel was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, covering murder trials when his wife became a Christian. He was so intrigued about the difference this made to her life and demeanor that he set out to look into the validity of the Christian faith for himself. With his eye for establishing the truth “beyond reasonable doubt,” Strobel submitted the evidence for the Christian faith to a robust trial. He spoke to leading historical and medical experts in his quest to establish whether a rational person can really believe the claims in the Bible that Jesus was the Son of God, died on a Roman cross and three days later rose from death. In short readable chapters Strobel recounts how the accumulating evidence convinced him that the truth behind Easter really is as Christians such as your neighbours at St Leonard’s Church believe it to be.

Why not read the book yourself and consider the evidence behind the Easter story?

Naked God by Martin Ayers

Is there a God?

And perhaps, more to the point, if there is a God, what real difference will it make to my life?

These are the most basic and universal of questions, and yet we don't usually take much time to think about them. In Naked God, former lawyer Martin Ayers provides an opportunity for the reader to do just that: to ask the awkward questions, to sift through the evidence, and to get to the truth about God. He writes: 'In his famous book and TV series, The Naked Chef, it wasn't Jamie Oliver who was naked; it was the food. Jamie Oliver succeeded in stripping down the food to its bare but glorious essentials. And that's what we need to do with God. We need to look at the evidence and find out what it uncovers. We need to strip away any false ideas we've developed from our culture or back-ground, and reveal the truth. This is the truth about God, exposed. This is Naked God.

Purchase direct from: www.thegoodbook.co.uk